The Bunker Recording Studio is a full service commercial recording studio located in Cockeysville, MD. It is designed based on engineer/producer Chris Bentley's experience on both sides of the console. The main idea behind the design of the studio is making the entire place modular and flexible. The drum floor can be rolled around the live room. The sonic wall moves and folds to change the shape of the room. Acoustic treatment is moveable and removeable. All of this is done based on the sonic needs of the artist's music.

There are three rooms for recording. The live room (15x30) is large enough for a five piece band. The room really shines, however when the drums can have the entire room. The isolation booth is roughly 5x7 with an angled wall to defeat standing waves. The dead room (8x11) is super tight and controlled and makes a great drum room as well. All three rooms sound different from one another and we work with bands to come up with the strategy that best fits. After the acoustic signature of the rooms was decided, line of sight was the priority.

The Bunker also features the Native Instruments Komplete set of virtual intruments, samplers, drum kits and synthesizers. 80+ drum kits, faithful software recreations of classic synths, royalty-free sample libraries and orchestral instruments are right there at the keyboard. These are great tools for creating hip-hop beats as well as fleshing out beats that have been created elsewhere.

The Bunker was designed around having two viable rooms for drums while allowing for eye contact between musicians. The rooms sound very different from one another and should be chosen according to your band's sound. The live room is big and boomy, great for big rock drums or for songs where the drums play a back in the room sounding supporting role. The dead room also sounds big, but in another way. Almost every square foot is covered in Auralex 2-inch wedge foam, which makes it very dry and tight. The mics hear drums only, almost zero room reverberation. This means that we can do some tricks to fatten the drums themselves (not the room as well), which is unbelievable for driving a mix.

The best way to decide what's best for you is listening, so here are two examples of each.

Live Room 1        Live Room 2

Dead Room 2       Dead Room 2