Murray’s been at the Studio for a few weeks now. Benvie came in last weekend so him and Murray basically went on a bender. I blame Nick Robinson (click here, guy on the right) for letting them hang out after hours at his bar. Anyway, so Benvie came in a laid down some serious vibes, they laughed a lot and then drank a lot. Nobody is really sure how or what exactly happened that weekend, but it sounds great.
On Wednesday Murray took a session “on location” at Jace’s for some top secret keyboard work. It turned out killer, and his studio has windows (see natural light pictued in the header). I had a discussion with Dan L. (who’s engineered most of our sessions so far) about having windows to the oustide world in the studio and it’s a serious debate. On one hand it’s nice having light and breaking the feeling of total isolation. On the other hand, when recording, do you really want a reference to how much time has passed? That night has fallen at least a few hours ago? Dan L. made the good point about how just seeing the night triggers his internal clock that reminds him to be sleepy.
Verdict? I think no windows (though this shouldn’t devalue fresh air…that’s important too). We don’t need to know how long we’ve been in there, how long it may have taken to get a particular sound from an instrument. Recording devours time, rendering it powerless. Longing for the outside, for freedom from the beast of creation, is counterproductive.
Natalia Yanchak 
no windows ! well maybe , I think it depends… for the grunt type studio work, mixing editing and such, have a no windows casino-like environment lol (pumping in oxygen, no windows, no clocks… just go until the tank is on E) … but for the more inspired/creative driven sessions during tracking and stufff that ocean view via the bigg bay windows will do just grand! !
My band is recording our album in a windowless room, and the timeless nature definitely seems to add a crazed element to the recording.
At this point I think we’d benefit greatly from some natural light — it feels like we’re working in a space station or a mine in the centre of the earth.
What about retractable window shutters – so you can have them open for a bit in the morning and afternoon and then close them up like they weren’t even there.