Dan’s House Studio history

The studio is owned and operated by myself, Dan McKinney. Not only is this my studio, but home to my wife, Elaine, kids, and animals - hence the name - “Dan’s House Studio”.

I've been playing around with tape recorders ever since I was a kid, and used my first multi-track recorder in college, an old Dokorder 4-track machine, in 1979. Throughout the '80s and '90s, I spent a lot of time in my home studio, working on projects of my own, mainly using a TASCAM 8-track reel-to-reel machine. I also logged a lot of hours in studios working on projects throughout the years, including eight full-length albums for the Original Sins, and dozens of sessions contributing keyboard tracks to various artists in the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia, and New York.

(See my All Music Guide entry.)

I'd always recorded just my own stuff at home, though, up until 1997, when I first got my first clients into the 8-track tape studio, which at that time consisted of a semi-cleared portion of the living room floor in a house shared with two roommates.  Not long after that, I bought a house with the idea of putting a studio on the first floor.

This was the original "Dan's House" on Seminole St. in Bethlehem, Pa., where I worked from '98 to '02 recording dozens of bands. The drum room was in the living room, the control room in the dining room, and isolation rooms consisted of the basement, kitchen, and first floor bathroom.  We made some great recordings here, but the house always lacked enough space - during sessions with more than three players, it was hard to move without knocking someone over (although we did do some live sessions with as many as nine musicians!). We started building a new house & studio in Center Valley at the end of the summer of 2001, with plenty of room for parking, no close neighbors, and enough land to expand the studio in the future.

The new studio opened for business in August, 2002, in the first level of a newly built geodesic dome in Center Valley, Pa.  It's a beautiful property (apart from the occasional construction scrap heap), and there's enough space to get outside and stretch your legs between takes on the 5.5 acre property.

The studio now

Dan’s House is a comfortable place to work. The musicians who work here can relax and simply play their music. But despite the informal atmosphere, the studio equipment is serious stuff, as is my recording & mixing experience, and, ultimately, the sound you can expect.

We’ve got the capability to record up to 24 audio tracks live, with top-notch microphones & preamps, the best in analog/digital converters from Lynx, and state-of-the-art digital audio workstation technology from Steinberg.

Many hundreds of artists have been through these doors since the studio opened. I've worked with clients who've been in the music biz their entire working lives, and clients who barely even knows what a microphone looks like. No matter to me - everyone gets equal consideration and attention! A lot of my clients who came in as kids in garage (living room?) bands have gone on to bigger things - music's been improved, talent's been polished, styles developed, tours launched, videos shot, CDs sold. I like watching musicians grow as much as I like to serve people who are already well-established - each brings its own reward.

If you’re interested in working here, or just have some questions about the place, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.