Yellow Sound Lab

Light and Sound America Magazine
March, 2007
People Worth Knowing Interview with Mike Croiter

WSDG for NYC East Village Yellow Sound Lab

NEW YORK: A former East Village hair salon has morphed into a concise but efficient recording studio thanks to the vision of producer/engineer Michael Croiter and the creative space optimization skills of Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) architect/acoustician John Storyk.

Croiter, drummer for the hit Broadway musical Avenue Q, had been searching for workable (and affordable) space for a personal NYC recording studio. After discovering a funky former beauty shop with a low-ceiling basement on E. 5th Street, he called on WSDG to see if it could be made to work.

“We were amazed at Michael Croiter’s ability to see past the shabby conditions of the original space,” John Storyk said. “But as we picked our way around the hair clippings and debris a plan began to rise from the rubble.” Storyk knew the 850 sq. ft., 7 ½ ft. high basement could provide the necessary level of basic isolation, despite the obvious height challenge. There would be sufficient room for an Audient ACS-8024 Analogue Console, recommended by Professional Audio Design (PAD) principal Dave Malekpour, a machine room and a live room large enough to accommodate a Yamaha C2 Grand Piano. The street level space could double as a client lounge replete with kitchen and a charming view of tree-lined East 5th Street.

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Mix Magazine

Already living a dream as the drummer for hit Broadway musical Avenue Q, Michael Croiter's other big dream came true in 2005 when he found out that the Disney-produced children's show Johnny and the Sprites chose him to produce music for a full season. “I was actually working out of my 58th Street bedroom apartment at the time, using Pro Tools LE and a few mics, but suddenly I needed something world-class,” he recalls. “It was November, and they said, ‘We're starting next August,’ so every second afterward that I wasn't on Avenue Q, I was on the hunt for the perfect studio. When I walked into this place, I said, ‘This is it.’”

“This place” was a former beauty shop on one of the East Village's most beautiful blocks, 5th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Croiter turned to studio architect John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) to help turn the low-ceilinged (7.5 feet), 850-square-foot basement into a top-tier facility, complete with a versatile live room with Yamaha C2 grand piano, iso booth, machine room and spacious upstairs client lounge. Down to only a six-month window for actual construction, the turnaround was almost frighteningly fast, as WSDG worked around the multiple structural constraints to make the surprisingly comfortable Yellow Sound Lab (named in honor of Croiter's friendly Labrador, Tyler) fully functional in time for the deadline.

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design feature on new studio openings

A former East Village (New York City) hair salon has morphed into a concise but efficient recording studio thanks to the vision of producer/engineer Michael Croiter and design work by Walters-Storyk Design Group architect/acoustician John Storyk. Croiter, drummer for Broadway musical Avenue Q, had been searching for workable (and affordable) space for a personal recording studio. According to the designer the 850-square-foot, 7.5-foot-high basement provided the necessary level of basic isolation despite the height challenge. Installed in the new space are an Audient ACS-8024 analog console (spec'd by PAD principal Dave Malekpour), a machine room and a live room large enough to hold a Yamaha C2 grand piano. Monitoring is via Dynaudio BM 15As, and Yellow Sound also offers Digidesign Pro Tools and Aviom A16 personal mixers.

Pro Audio Guide
Yellow Sound Lab chooses Audient
Mar 20, 2007

Audient's ACS8024 analogue mixing console was chosen to help realise the vision of producer/engineer Michael Croiter to create his personal studio in New York: Yellow Sound Lab. An uncanny ability to see past the shabby conditions of a defunct hairdressing salon in East Village, helped Croiter successfully put together a petite, yet efficient recording studio within an incredibly tight time frame.

The slimline design of the console was only part of the reasoning behind his choice of the ASP8024, however. Croiter explains: "From the second I thought about expanding my business into a full commercial studio, engineers and sales associates alike were telling me about Audient. I knew I wanted to have an analogue console in my Pro ToolsTM environment, and after hearing the desk, I was very happy with it."

Croiter continues, "I like the amount of possibilities it offers, the clean signal path and the great stereo compressor. It's just so well thought out in its design. I've become a huge advocate for Audient."

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