VINTAGE
KING'S
In the heart of New York City, Electric Garden stands as a one-of-a-kind recording space where vintage character meets forward-thinking design. Founded by engineers and producers Ben Kane and Drew Vogelman, the studio was born out of a shared vision: to create a large-scale facility that could inspire collaboration, push artistic boundaries, and serve the needs of a wide range of artists and engineers.
What started with Drew’s carefully curated collection of vintage gear at his previous studio, The Garden, has evolved into a world-class environment that blends technical precision with boundless creativity.
We sat down with Ben and Drew to talk about the inspiration behind Electric Garden, Drew’s long history of studio building, the unique features that set the space apart, and how the team approached the design process with artistry and experimentation at its core. Read on to discover how a former bean sprout factory was transformed into one of New York’s most inspiring recording studios.
What was the inspiration for opening Electric Garden?
My partner at the studio, Drew Vogelman, and I had put together a great collection of gear that had lived at Drew’s previous studio, called The Garden. He had a lot of vintage gear in a very small footprint, and I did quite a bit of mixing there. While talking one day, we decided to build a larger-scale studio that could accommodate a much wider range of artists and engineers.
Personally, I had the fortune of engineering for my own clients at dozens of studios all over the world, and had seen what made for a great experience for the artists, and technically what made for the smoothest sessions as a visiting engineer. It was exciting to create this dream recording space with all that I had seen, and to combine that with Drew’s experience in technically building studios to bring it all to life.
What other studios had Drew built at that point?
Drew originally built and owned Dessau Recording in lower Manhattan in the ‘80s and ‘90s. That client base was very eclectic, from Diamanda Galas to Bowie to the Beastie Boys. After he sold it, he built a number of post-production studios for commercial and film work. In 2008, he opened The Garden, which was predominantly a mix room with a large booth for tracking overdubs.
Electric Garden has a very unique design and vibe. What was your vision for how the studio should feel?
When we set out to design Electric Garden, it really reflected how I think we should look at every piece of the recording process. The thing that excites me about making art in the form of recorded music is the opportunity to push artistic boundaries, create and discover new things, and try to capture some real beauty in ways that are authentic and soulful to the people making the music. I also view the opportunity to collaborate and connect with other artists as one of the most fulfilling parts of making records.
When I think back to designing the studio together with the great Missy Ablin, I think that we were all baking the same values into the studio design process, in a way that is rarely done. I met Missy years ago in San Francisco. At the time, she was mainly a visual artist and had been doing community mural work, as well as her own paintings. By the time I had started conceptualizing Electric Garden, Missy had just graduated from architecture grad school, with a focus on some more wild and experimental design.
When Missy and I teamed up to design the studio, we centered the collaborative creative process in every choice that we made. Anyone who signed on knew that we wanted them to make something that they had never done before. Everyone from the acousticians (Zach Belanger and Misha Volf) to the carpenters and the many artisans involved became part of a circle that was willing to be pushed creatively and to push back with the goal of making something amazing.
Very few studio designs have this ethos guiding the choices made in the space. Ultimately, the goal was to create a space that would sound amazing, of course, but also one that is inspiring to work in and that sets a tone of boundless creativity for the musicians who enter. It’s not meant to be the type of facility you can walk into and phone in something uninspired. There are much better spaces for that kind of thing.
We were also clear from the beginning that we were building a studio for the recording needs of our future clients. We wanted to create a space that would serve the most demanding clients in the world from a musical, technical, and service standpoint, and we wanted to be able to share that level of attention and detail with independent and perhaps less experienced clients as well. Everyone who walks through our doors deserves to experience a space where everything is centered on honoring their creative process in the studio.
What are some unique features of the rooms?
Gear-wise and instrument-wise, it has always been the goal to have a vast array of colors and sounds for artists and engineers to choose from, whether we’re talking outboard gear and mics, or synths and percussion.
On that same note, we’re one of the few studios in New York that is designed to be fully integrated with both digital recording and analog recording. Because we work in both formats so often, we can sync and transfer off of 24-track tape as quickly as anyone, and can patch 24 tracks into or out of the tape machine in seconds via a single connection on a Cannon DL panel. The whole room is set up to be extremely flexible and cater to any workflow that a client might prefer.
There is a preconception that analog sessions eat up a lot of time—I think because so many studios have machines that mostly collect dust—but for many clients, it’s freeing to try to capture a performance on the way in. Even if they eventually edit or comp between takes, there’s something special about capturing the magic in the moment instead of creating the magic in the box after the fact.
It was really important for us to prioritize live ensemble recording in the design of our live room in Studio A. It does contain isolation, but we also created a unique feature that we call the “space corner” due to the beautiful handmade spacey fabric-art created by Danny Ebru, a master of water-marbling art with whom we collaborated.
The space corner is an approximately 10’x10’ area in the back corner of the room, and has absorptive walls and ceiling with heavy acoustic curtains on its outside wall. With this approach, we are able to get really dead sounds within the corner when desired, and fine-tune how lively the instrument sounds by opening or closing those curtains. It has proven to be a great creative tool for drums, vocals, and other instruments.
People also notice and comment on our use of atypical acoustic treatment in the spaces. Studio A features a living plant wall that serves as absorption primarily, and has poplar tree bark covering two adjacent walls in the live room for diffusion. Studio B has PET acoustic felt used in an innovative style that our acoustician Zach Belanger (aka Arcgeometer), invented and designed for the room.
Zach is a visionary acoustician (and thinker in general) who has an aversion to the norms in terms of acoustic products. It was refreshing to work with someone who uses a scientific and technical approach to push creative designs into new directions.
How would you describe the sound of the live room?
The Studio A live tracking room has a controlled and balanced sound, but it has a lively sound that can be modified with the curtains, as I described before. It's designed to be a versatile space with a beautiful sound when a band plays together acoustically in the room. The A Room can create acoustic energy and excitement, or it can easily be tightened up and isolated when needed. It can be warm and exciting-sounding enough to capture a 20-piece string ensemble, or intimate enough for a piano/vocal performance.
The Studio B live room uses a combination of the tree bark, acoustic felt, and wood to create a really tight and pleasing sound that our clients have loved for drums, guitar amps, and even small string ensembles. Studio B also has a vocal booth covered completely on the walls and ceiling with blue shag carpet. It has a perfectly controlled sound and is also a fun sensory experience if someone wants to lie against the fluffy walls between takes.
Drew wanted the Studio A control room to be hard in front and soft in back. It gives a more exciting sound when listening and mixing, while technically having a short RT60, so mixes translate really well, and you can work longer hours without fatigue. A lot of thought went into Control Room A, given the large size, which clients love for both working in and just hanging and listening.
How long did it take to build out the space and get all the gear up and running?
It ultimately took well over a year to turn the building, which was formerly a bean sprout factory, into Electric Garden. As far as the gear wiring and the cabling for the whole facility, we did the majority of it in about a month.
I worked with my longtime friend and technician, Ricki J. Begin, known to many as “tech to the stars.” He worked at Power Station in its heyday and worked with Walter Sear building Sear Sound’s custom console. His expertise was indispensable in getting the place running as he has installed and wired many studios over his career.
What kind of changes has the studio undergone over the years?
Since opening, we have upgraded Studio A to a 48-channel SSL Duality and shifted our 24-channel AWS down to Studio B. Both consoles were fully refurbished by Ricki. With that upgrade, Studio B was reworked to have ample outboard mic pres and outboard gear for tracking and mixing, as well as a smaller set of Augspurger monitors to match the power and clarity of the speakers in Studio A. Now, both the A and B rooms are running SSL desks through Augspurger Monitors.
Other than that, most of the upgrades have come in the form of new fun mics and instruments. We wanted to make sure we always have the tools our clients are looking for, so we’ve sought out anything people were casually requesting. Now, when someone comes up with the idea of recording a Logan String Melody through a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase and doubling it with an electric sitar, we can just say, “Yes, we have that.”
What are your thoughts on analog vs. digital workflows? Do you prefer one or the other?
We have clients who prefer to work on their own laptops using Ableton, for instance. We have other clients who will run hybrid setups with 24 tracks of tape synced up to play simultaneously with analog Pro Tools outputs. We work with some clients who come to Electric Garden to work entirely analog and don’t touch anything digital. Of course, there are clients who use our Pro Tools setup exclusively. It’s set up to accommodate any kind of workflow, and the Duality can deliver 48 tracks of analog or act as a digital controller for the DAW.
In all of these scenarios, people love the ability to run things through crazy vintage effects instantly. Even though we have all of the plug-in recreations, clients always notice the sonic difference in using the real thing. Having this wide selection of mic pres and compression for the front-end recording is such an important part of the process.
What has your experience with Vintage King been like?
I know Drew has worked with Vintage King since the mid-90s and knew Mike and Andrew [Nehra] from their White Room Studio days. He bought some of the gear they were selling and even used their studio management software that they had developed. So Drew has been working with Vintage King from the beginning and has always felt you guys had the best gear and the best tech.
He bought the SSL AWS 900 through Jeff Leibowitz years ago. The Neve mic pres (1066, 1073, and 1084), as well as the 2254A comp/limiter, along with a lot of his vintage gear—including a ton of vintage API stuff—were either bought or supported tech-wise by Vintage King over the years. Once we built Electric Garden, we brought tech in-house, but Drew has always respected the work Vintage King does.
Drew also bought the Studer A80 ½” tape machine from Vintage King back in the 2000s. That particular machine is very special. So many great records have been printed through our A80. We have many clients who will come in after finishing projects overseas or out in LA just to print their album through this particular tape machine.
