Peak Recording & Sound Inc. hits perfect note in Bozeman

It’s not every business in Bozeman that can boast visits by actors Peter Fonda, Dennis Quaid and Bill Pullman, TV newsman Tom Brokaw, sportscaster Brent Musburger and actresses Margot Kidder, Andie McDowell and Meg Ryan.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Snapshots of celebrities at work inside Peak Recording & Sound Inc. adorn one wall of the community’s oldest and most established recording studio.

When an actor on vacation needs to quickly rerecord some movie dialogue, or an NBC anchorman relaxing in Montana needs to send a voice-over to New York right away, Peak Recording is where they head.

It’s also where many local musicians — from church choirs to thrash bands — record their CDs. Advertising agencies record TV and radio commercials for Bridger Bowl and Big R at Peak. National Public Radio interviews done at the Bozeman studio can sound as clear as if the subject were in Cincinnati or London.

The company’s clients range from IMAX Theaters to the Museum of the Rockies planetarium and the Bozeman Symphony. Detectives have sometimes come for help in salvaging clues from fuzzy recordings.

Gil Stober, 47, started Peak Recording as a part-time business 22 years ago, when he was a staff engineer at KUSM-TV at Montana State University.

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Peak Recording & Sound,

PO Box 1404,

Bozeman, Montana 59771

Tel: 406 586 1650

Fax: 406 582 8019

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Since then, the studio in northwest Bozeman has grown into a full-time job and passion for Gil and his wife, Deb, 44.

Stober’s first studio was the bedroom of a rented house with an eight-track recorder. Today Peak has a sound-baffled studio equipped with a 6-foot-11 Yamaha grand piano and $3,000 microphones, separated by a large glass window from a solid wall of electronic gear that can record and mix up to 200 tracks of sound.

"When I first started, I was splicing tape with a razor blade," Gil recalled. "Nowadays it’s all done on computer."

His job requires the analytical skills of an engineer and the sensitive touch of an artist. Sitting in front of a mixing board with more than 500 knobs, Gil Stober sometimes makes decisions about what mix of drum, piano and guitar sounds best on a CD.

More often he works with the musicians, occasionally interpreting such requests as "’Can you make that guitar sound a little more blue?’

"You’ve got to be almost part psychologist, like a bartender," he said. "What it comes down to in the end — Does it sound good? That’s a huge part of it. Being able to listen, react intelligently and have good taste."

Deb Stober does everything from marketing to accounting to coming up with artwork for CD covers. She even got an album credit from one band for supplying their recording session with her oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies. It helps when the studio feels relaxed and homey, she said.

"It’s totally amazing to be in here" when the musicians are recording, she said. "I get to see the ideas going from ideas to full-fledged albums."

Homegrown recording studios

There are a handful of other recording businesses in the Bozeman area, but most are geared just to recording music. The variety of work done at Peak — and the company’s long survival in a difficult industry — make it unusual.

Music recording has been revolutionized in the past decade, as digital equipment has become so cheap that anyone can record their own CDs at home for $500 to $1,000.

"Anybody can be way better than Sun Records," the legendary studio that first recorded Elvis in the 1950s, said Jerry Mullen, a live sound engineer who works at Music Villa. "You can buy a digital, 24-track recorder for $1,200 to $1,300, that used to be 50 or 60 grand."

The result has been a profusion of people recording their own CDs and also trying to start their own studios.

The difference between Peak’s studio and most homegrown studios, Gil Stober said, is that most people are inexperienced at operating the equipment, and most don’t know how to set up their rooms properly for the best sound.

Among the more established or better known local studios are Ron Sanchez’s GLEA and Jeremiah Slovarp’s Jereco Studios.

"For a small town, it’s tough having three studios," said Sanchez, a former restaurant owner and member of the Donovan’s Brain band.

Sanchez, who has been recording about 15 years, specializes in rock ‘n’ roll bands and selling CDs overseas on his Career Records label.

He points out that while dozens of local CDs are on sale at Cactus Records, only a handful sell. Kids can put out a CD for $1,000 in their basement, he said, but unless they’re marketing all the time, they don’t have a chance.

Two-year-old Jereco specializes in sound recording for film, as well as studio, location and live music recording, Slovarp said. He has been sound engineer or editor for several films, including films shown at the Sundance and Tribecca festivals, and "Vertical Frontier," which featured a voice-over by Brokaw and won a best film award at the Banff Film Festival.

He also does live, digital surround-sound recordings, including the Bozeman Symphony Pops Orchestra at Big Sky.

Randy Arndt started Skyline Recording near Four Corners about 18 months ago. Arndt, owner of the Burrito Shop and a musician, said he specializes in recording gear from the 1960s and 1970s that produces a better quality tone.

Pilot of sound

When Eric Funk and the members of the jazz band Backburner decided to record their Christmas CD, they headed to Peak Recording.

"Gil is a true professional, a seasoned professional," said Funk, a well-known Bozeman jazz pianist and classical composer. "If we were going to try to do it ourselves, it would be total madness."

Stober is very knowledgeable as a studio technician and also as a producer — the one who makes the judgment calls, Funk said.

"I just totally trust him. He’s really, really bright."

Peak’s prices range from $50 to $65 an hour for a typical music or advertising recording session, up to $175 for ISDN long-distance phone link-ups to studios in other parts of the world.

Sitting at his elaborate mixing board, Stober said he got into this business because when he was growing up in Great Falls, "I always wanted to be a pilot."

His dreams of flying jets were dashed because of his poor eyesight.

"I’m not exactly flying," Stober said and smiled, "but I’ve got all the controls here."

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/09/21/news/econbzbigs.txt