3/17/2023 0 Comments Toronto sound studio![]() We got right in on the ground floor, so to speak. There weren't too many small studios in the Toronto scene. The pros, or whatever would be like, "You can't do it with that." These were the days when the big studios that charged big bucks were on their downward spiral. No, I'm talking about bigger studio guys from whom we'd asked advice. Would people come in and disparage your equipment? There was a washroom adjacent to the studio, a big, stone room - no one used it except us - so we'd use it as a reverb room. People would always be like, "Oh, you need this piece of gear." When we were starting out, we'd say, "Well, that'd be nice, but we really can't afford that." And we'd get by with an AKG 535 mic for vocals as opposed to spending a grand on a Neumann. We never recorded jingles or anything like that. We liked money, sure, but it was all about the music. What was unique about it were the windows and the views. So, you set up shop in the top floor of a warehouse and, from what I remember, everybody used to rave about the place. So we got the warehouse and that became the fabled Gas Station. We were getting so busy we wanted more space. The board wouldn't fit in the basement studio, so we put it upstairs. The same week I found a Tascam 85-16, a 1-inch, 16-track tape machine. It's a Yamaha RM 2408 - a 1985 analog board. So we expanded and bought this mixing board. I was like, "Hey, I can make a few dollars doing this, too." We were just learning the gear. We had the 8-track going, just to work on our own stuff. We erected a wall, so there was a tiny little control room and a live room, and we rented a space up top in the building. So this 300-square-foot, high-ceilinged basement of this warehouse was our studio. We pooled our resources, sold our Portastudios - we each had one - and bought a 1/4-inch, reel-to-reel, Yamaha 8-track. I started on my own, in the basement of a warehouse on Liberty Street - it was kind of like my apartment and I lived there. ![]() Technically this is the third Gas Station. So, how did you and Don Kerr get started in this business? You were both in the Dinner is Ruined band. He also meditates while adrift in a canoe, hauls gear in a bike cart, and sometimes ends sessions with a swim off the nearby beach. He also plays his 1976 Telecaster in Downie's backing band, the Country of Miracles. Morningstar has recorded the likes of Rock Plaza Central, Julie Doiron, and Tangiers, not to mention Tuvan throat singers from Mongolia. A decade later, and after an amicable parting of ways with Kerr, Morningstar runs the Gas Station Recording Camp in an exotic urban locale that's accessible by ferry and not open to private cars. They'd seen his poster and had a solution to his problem, so long as he didn't mind setting up shop in an abandoned portable school building steps from Lake Ontario on Toronto Island. And not long after - while recording the solo debut of Gordon Downie, the Tragically Hip frontman whose Coke Machine Glow album would become the warehouse space's final project - Morningstar got a call from a local not-for-profit arts group. He generated coverage in print and on television. While you sit back and appreciate the professional service and natural wood finishes, don’t forget to look around and take in one of the most unique collections of Matchbox Cars and Lego Star Wars pieces around, knowing as you do, that there is no other experience quite like that of Imagine Sound Studios.He put up posters and held a musical protest in his landlord's office. ![]() Found as often behind what is arguably Toronto’s most prestigious piano, a nine foot Bosendorfer, as he is in the control room, Mark is available to support you in achieving any of your recording needs. Running this state-of-the-art studio is Mark Camilleri owner, musician, sound engineer and professional pianist. From the generously proportioned rooms with sightlines joining all spaces, to the twenty-four square foot triple pane skylight ensuring plenty of natural light, no thought was spared to accommodate the needs of musician and engineer alike. Built by hand by owner Mark Camilleri and his father, every detail was considered to provide a combination of efficiency and comfort that leaves no want unfulfilled. Imagine Sound Studios, located in west Toronto, boasts over a thousand square feet of custom designed, uniquely finished space.
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