"They felt like rock stars” states Chadd Watson, director of the Oak Grove Middle School Chorus after his 100 students recorded songs at the Sunroof Recording Studio in Hattiesburg. The recording of a Beatles melody and “Laugh” song are just part of the CD they are putting together as a fundraiser. “Technology is a part of every day life and music is no different” Watson explains. “ In addition to following the national standards of music education, I also try to add a lot of extra experiences for the students. This trip to the music studio lets them see first hand how technology is used.”
As OGMS Chorus’ music store supporter, C & M has been instrumental in nurturing Watson’s effort to get the chorus program off the ground since he started last year. The business is unique in the Hub City because of the variety of services provided under one roof. Brian McLelland explains “I opened Millennium Music in 1999 and merged the retail end with C & M of Louisiana in 2004. I am manager of C & M Music Center, owner of Millennium Music and Co-owner of Sunroof recording. Millennium owns Sunroof. Within Millennium Music I have the recording studio, a production company which provides for live sounds such as staging and lighting, and a rental company. C & M is the retail sales area which includes instruments, recording equipment, DJ equipment, etc.” McLelland states he grew up around electronics working at his family’s McLelland TV business. “I took the music route because I really love it” he states. In addition to his electronic background, he and every employee play instruments and perform in bands. “We are a well rounded staff” he adds. “We’re not just here selling because it’s our job, playing music is what we love to do.”
Located in the back of the store, Sunroof recording studio is frequented by a variety of local artists with equal musical passion. From hip hop, rap, Christian, country, classic rock to heavy metal, they see every form of popular music. “The process of recording is a lot different than people think” McLelland states. “A five minute song usually takes a minimum of 2 to 3 hours to make depending on which direction the artist wants to go.”
Thomas Ralston, the other co-owner of Sunroof recording studio serves as the operator, producer, mixer, and mastering engineer. Though he assists private investigators with audio forensics and clandestine recordings for evidence, puts together music for dance and cheerleading routines and transfers old cassette tapes onto CDs, his studio time is usually booked with local recording artists. He states “I see a lot of rap, it is huge in Hattiesburg. This particular genre of music is unique in the fact that well known artists will re-release their music without the vocals on what they call mix tapes.” The local rapper is able to take the beats from the pre-recorded tapes and add their own vocals and flavor to it. “We‘ll record the music, work on the layers and I‘ll mix it” he explains.
Though some artists might bring their musical projects to him at any stage in the process, many choose to work through all the steps within the studio. Ralston explains that the first step is for the band to lay the actual tracks by recording the raw material as the vocals and instruments are played into the microphones. The number of tracks depends on the type and complexity of the music. While one particular rap song has 5 vocal tracks on it, one of the heavy metal bands has 22 tracks. Ralston states “What you might hear as one drum sound on the heavy metal song is actually a combination of multiple microphones, one inside the kick drum, one outside the kick drum, another on top of the snare, one on top of the tall microphone around the drum set, and 2 above the drum set that catches the overall sound of the kit.” By blending all these tracks together in the next step, the music will have more depth. Some instruments will actually take up several tracks. This first step can sometimes take weeks or even months to track a single song.
