There’s a Recording Studio in the Library

Hidden among the books and bookworms in one corner of the library basement is the Crossroads Recording Studio, which any student can use.

Amy Devoge, the studio’s audio engineer, works with thousands of dollars of professional equipment inside soundproof walls.

“It started two years ago,” Devoge said, “The dean wanted to put in a recording studio.”

Devoge said the Tech libraries dean, Donald Dyal, wanted the studio in the library so everyone at Tech could take advantage of the relaxed workspace. She said whether it is for music, voiceovers for video, or announcements for the theatre, the dimly-lit, well-organized studio is there for everyone who regularly walks the campus.

“It’s free for students, faculty, and staff,” Devoge said, while setting up microphones around a drum set.

“It’s just an opportunity for a lot of people that they normally wouldn’t get, to do a professional recording.”

Devoge said it usually costs around $60 an hour to record in a professional studio, so a lot of students take advantage of this resource, keeping her busy engineering their music.

Devoge said she is pretty much from Lubbock, and music has always had a place in her life. She said she started playing the violin when she was 4 years old after hearing it on the radio and on the PBS program “3-2-1 Contact.”

“I wouldn’t say I was like a virtuoso or anything like that, but I started young,” Devoge said. “It did train my ear really well, you know, it’s a fretless instrument.”

She said violin was a difficult instrument to keep up with though, and the high-pitch sound soured on her ears. Devoge said she played until she was 18, but she realized she would rather play a lower, groovier sound. She said her time spent playing the fretless violin and some classical piano helped ease her transition to instruments like guitar, bass, and drums.

She said she went to college studying music theory at Tech, but then decided to go to South Plains College to study sound technology. Devoge said she played in bands there and did some live sound engineering while honing her craft as a recording engineer, a career she said is hard to make a living with.

“Trying to find a job as a recording engineer can be difficult,” Devoge said.

She said with all of the affordable music production software on the market these days, the demand for studios and their engineers has diminished.

But two years ago, when Dean Dyal gave Crossroads its home in the library basement, she said she came back to Lubbock to work and help set up the studio, searching for all the studio’s equipment.

“Right now, I’m really enjoying this because I don’t have to worry about finding work,” Devoge said.

“I always have work, I always have plenty of projects, and I have good gear, and it’s fun. I like working with the students and everyone’s happy to use the studio. It’s a fun job. I love it.”

Crossroads is full of great audio equipment, but Devoge said the studio could still use a couple of toys, as she calls them. She said the next toy on the list is a guitar amplifier, so musicians can avoid the tiresome trek of carrying the heavy equipment from the parking lot and up and down stairs.

One of those musicians experienced that burden on his first visit to the studio, a junior music performance major from Fort Worth, Texas, Chris White.

“I hope I have the energy to record,” White said, catching his breath while unloading his amps and gear from the band parking lot.

But, shortly after meeting his engineer for the first time, the two quickly began working on the production for one of his songs, and White hopped on the drums, which he said is his first instrument.

“Then I went to guitar and bass, because my dad is a bassist,” White said.

He said his music is a little bit of everything, but mostly rock. He is the drummer, guitarist, bassist and vocalist, in his one-man band.

White said while his dad is a musician who plays gigs on most weekends, pretty much everyone on his mom’s side of the family plays an instrument too. He said he compares it to having a bunch of friends he can play music with.

White said recording music is what he has always wanted to do, and Amy Devoge and the loud Crossroads Recording studio in the quiet basement of the Texas Tech library is a close, affordable way to help him reach his goals.