The engineers here at Sage Audio spend hours every day hunkered down in our CD mastering studio producing some of the best sounds in Nashville, so we’re pretty glad that our studio setup is full of good vibes.
It’s too bad legendary Queen guitarist Brian May can’t say the same for a German studio Queen spent some time in back in the 1980s. Speaking to Contact Music, May says that MusicLand Studio in Munich was not a great place to work.
“It was a real strange place… (Led) Zeppelin did a lot of recording down there, as did Deep Purple… but it was an utterly depressing place,” May said. “And people used to commit suicide by jumping off the top of that building quite frequently.”
![Ghost In Mastering Studio Shadow seen in building](https://api.sageaudio.com/storage/article/uploads/2012-10-mastering-studio-ghost-300x225.png)
The video for the 1985 Queen song “One Vision” was recorded in the studio, and the group also recorded “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” at the studio.
“They have this thing in Munich called The Fohn (wind) and when The Fohn blows… people go nuts and they commit suicide. It’s a studio down in the depths of this huge high-rise building… with no windows and no contact with the outside world.”
The studio was located in the basement of the Arabella High-Rise Building in the Munich, and was started by Italian producer Giorgio Moroder. Billboard reports that other notable artists that recorded in MusicLand included the Rolling Stones, ELO and T-Rex.
So, why all of this talk about creepy recording studios in Germany? Well, I’m not sure what got Brian May talking about it in the interview, but strange stories coming from recording and mastering studios have also interested me. While it seems some artists are definitely haunted by their own demons, legend has it there are studios around the world that house real demons and other ghosts. Here are a few fun ones I’ve found.
Soul Singing Ghosts in Alabama
The recording studio at 3614 Jackson Highway in Muscle Shoals, Al. is typically known as either Muscle Shoals Sound Studio or simply by it’s address (which is printed on the only sign on the outside of the building). The studio was used by some of the biggest acts of the 1960s and 70s, including the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Wilson Pickett.
But it’s the late lead guitarist of the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, Eddie Hinton, that current artists say they see walking around the studio, even though he died in 1995. It’s been reported that he wears a blue suit similar to the one Hinton was buried in.
While he was alive, Hinton was an extremely underrated singer and songwriter. The Drive-By Truckers recently presented his songs to a wider audience by covering two of them on their 2011 album, Go-Go Boots.
Werewolves of Beverly Hills
OK, so it’s not a werewolf, but it has been said that the ghost of Warren Zevon watches over the Cave, the studio in the basement of actor Billy Bob Thornton’s house in Beverly Hills. The rumor would make sense, as the two were reported as friends in the Zevon biography “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.” That book also revealed that at least one song from Zevon’s final record (a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”) was recorded in the studio.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
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2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
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4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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