Drive-In Studio
At the time of R.E.M.'s stint at the studio, "the set-up was really simple," Easter said in 1994. "I had almost nothing in the studio back then, except a tape machine and a console and two compressors and one delay device. We couldn't do any fancy stuff."
Easter explained the studio's layout in 2021:
[The studio] was tiny. The entire space was probably about 225 square feet. It was a two-car garage that had been divided up before my parents got the place. The previous owners split it up and turned it into a one-car garage, and then the other half they made into a children’s bedroom and this sort of utility room. The car area was where the band stood together, the children’s bedroom was the control room, and I think the bass and guitar amps were isolated in the little utility area next to the control room.
— Rod Brakes, Music Radar, June 3, 2021
Due to the confined space of the interior, studio sessions often also took place in the home's driveway, under the carport.
Equipment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/124_Shady_Boulevard%2C_Winston-Salem.jpg/220px-124_Shady_Boulevard%2C_Winston-Salem.jpg)
An early advertisement, which listed Shady Boulevard as a mailing address for the studio, itemized its recording technology:
- Quantum 20-input mixing console
- 3M M56 sixteen- and two-track recorders
- Lexicon Prime Time M93 digital delay
- Allison Gain Brain limiters
- AKG, Shure and Electro-Voice mics
- Electric and acoustic reverb
- TEAC four-track
- Cassette
- Drums
- Organ
- Electric piano
- Amps
- Toys
Artists
Other artists who recorded at Drive-In include Pylon ("Beep"), Suzanne Vega ("Gypsy"), Game Theory (The Big Shot Chronicles) and The Connells (Boylan Heights).
Easter closed Drive-In in 1994, and moved to Kernersville, North Carolina, where he opened his current recording studio, Fidelitorium Recordings.