Motherships and Satellites (and Probes) part 1
While I was attending Berklee for grad school, I had the privilege of taking a studio design course taught by John Storyk, who designed Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix and went on to become one of the world’s most esteemed studio architects and acousticians.
One of the concepts that he taught was the idea of “Motherships and Satellites”, an idea which he credits to an incredibly prescient article written for Mix magazine by Chris Stone (Record Plant) and published in 1994 (starting on page 90 in the linked PDF).
In 1994, digital recording technology was just beginning to become affordable enough for use in project and home studios. This shift enabled workflows that would have been impractical or impossible beforehand. Suddenly an artist could easily complete some work in a small studio (the satellite) and then take the project into a large studio (the mothership) to accomplish tasks they couldn’t complete in the small studio. There are many reasons why this arrangement can be desirable. To list a few:
Large commercial recording studios typically start at about $1,000 per day (in the Austin market) and can rise from there. A smaller satellite studio may be half the cost and a home studio that you own yourself is free to use.
A small commercial studio may specialize in one specific niche such as mastering, allowing it to focus finite resources on the best design and tools for that specific job. (I believe this sort of specialization was a large part of what Chris was envisioning when he wrote the article.)
When working in your own studio, you don’t need to worry about scheduling around other clients. It is your own personal space.
If you have a home-based studio, it is available to you at 3 a.m. when you suddenly wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that you just can’t let go of.
When working in your own studio, you can leave the space configured in an arrangement that best suits your workflow. There is no setup required prior to working in most cases.
I had never heard the terms “Motherships and Satellites” used to describe this relationship but I was aware of the concept nonetheless when I designed and built Electric Platypus. My intent was to build a satellite. The idea was to do tasks like writing, rehearsing, and pre-production at Electric Platypus, record the main tracks at a large commercial studio, and then return to Electric Platypus for overdubs and mixing. What happened after I actually began operating surprised me. In many cases, I found myself acting as the mothership while artists’ homes functioned as the satellites. For this reason, I’d like to take the liberty of extending Chris Stone’s analogy. Today I think in terms of “Motherships, Satellites, and Probes”.
While not every space where music is made will fit neatly into these three boxes, this is how I define them:
Motherships:
Large facility with at least one large live room, one or more isolation booths connected to the live room, and a separate control room
All spaces are properly isolated (soundproofed) and have proper acoustic treatment on the walls and ceiling for their use
May have a second smaller “studio B” live room with a second control room
Heaps of outboard recording gear mounted in racks and a very expensive large-format recording console
Multiple sets of studio monitors, possibly including large mains in addition to near field monitors
A huge selection of microphones, instruments, amplifiers, etc.
Spaces for people to hang out, eat, take phone calls, etc. when not actively engaged in recording
“Destination” studios may even have lodging on the property so that artists have a place to stay while working on longer projects
Possibly one or more large tape machines in addition to digital audio workstations
Satellites:
Smaller in size than a mothership - less expensive to own and operate
Appropriate isolation (soundproofing) and acoustic treatment in all spaces
May have a separate live room and control room but more commonly a single room which accommodates all functions
A similar cross section of equipment to a mothership (outboard recording gear, microphones, amplifiers, instruments) but much LESS equipment due to space constraints and sometimes highly specialized equipment which is used for a specific niche (mastering, sound design, etc.)
A DAW controller (or even just a keyboard and mouse) instead of a large-format recording console
Usually digital only, occasionally a small analog tape machine available to use for effect
Probes:
Usually located in a spare bedroom, basement, or garage
Poor isolation (soundproofing) if any
Varying degrees of acoustic treatment
Limited equipment tailored just to the specific work that the owner wants to attempt in the space
I have made music in all three of these types of spaces. They all have their uses. And while the obvious reason to use more than one on a project is to stretch your dollar as far as possible, I will make the argument (in part 2) that for most projects, when done right, using a blend of these spaces leads to higher quality, not just lower cost.
New Release
Be on the lookout for Wonder Woman by Isabel Suarez - to be released on all streaming platforms on May 8th. It’s a lovely and heart wrenching song that she wrote for her mom. I’m super grateful that our schedules aligned and we were able to finish it in time for a Mother’s Day release. Click the image below to pre-save the release.
Available everywhere music is streamed on May 8th
If you’ve found this article interesting and know of somebody else who may want to read it, forward it along! Also, if you are reading this and haven’t yet signed up to receive this newsletter by e-mail, there’s a signup form at the bottom of every page on our website. Sign up and part 2 will be delivered to your inbox as soon as it is published.
