Young Avenue Sound will hold its grand re-opening party from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, September 25th at 2258 Young Avenue.
The public is invited to tour the studio, view the short-term rentals that are on the order of Airbnbs, listen to live music, eat, and drink.
They also can view the new 96X FM studio, which is operated by John Michael, who recently moved from Santa Monica, California to Memphis.
Taylor Berger and Elliott Ives bought Young Avenue Sound on Valentine’s Day 2022. Berger’s Two Broke Bartenders team manages the seven rental units. Ives, a songwriter/co-producer and a longtime studio and touring guitarist with Justin Timberlake, will be over the studio side of the building.
Ives describes the open house as “a grand reception, which will include anybody who has seen the building before, worked there, and wants to see a new studio in Memphis.”
Club owners, who need to find places for touring band members to play, can look at the short-term rentals, which are equipped with kitchens, Ives says. “This is a better way. A cheaper way.”
Young Avenue Sound is now “a one stop shop for musicians, bands.”
The studios include the original “high tracking room. All we did to that room was move the piano from low tracking onto the stage in there.”
And, he adds, “The room sounds so good we didn’t want to change anything. We want to keep it the same esthetic.”
That was the “original intention” of former owner, the late Don Mann. “Just when they built that studio. It’s there in its original form.”
The new Studio B, which was newly built within the low tracking room, is now the production suite for Ives and chief engineer Scott Hardin.
The remainder of low tracking is fully remodeled and has an editing suite and serves as “an homage to the late Leo Goff III. He’s a mentor. He worked at Young Avenue Sound on and off for years. He, basically, taught me everything I know about music engineering. He was a huge influence on me. He was Yo Gotti’s engineer for 19 years.”
Goff’s equipment, which includes his vintage analog collection, fills the room.
Studio A’s new control room has been completely remodeled “to upgrade the monitoring experience that Young Avenue Sound had not had before.”
Ives wanted “a completely different working configuration.”
They put in new speakers and built a wall to house the JBL monitors, which Goff gave to Ives. “I’m going a little bit more modern, but staying hybrid as far as vintage outboard gear goes.”
For instance, their console is “a classic NEVE VR32,” he says. A lot of studios are “getting rid of their consoles and going straight digital in the box, which is all digital on the computer. And we’re making it hybrid, so if somebody wants to mix in a classic way all spread out on a console, he can do that.”
Musicians also can work out of some of the short-term living spaces, which used to be Ives’ studio. “They can bring their laptops and still have studio functionality.”
Ives, who began working at Young Avenue Sound about 20 years ago, had no idea he would one day own the studio. He decided to make it a “world class studio.”
Music for the open house will be provided by Ava Carrington and Dylan Dunn. Music broadcast by 96X also will be playing. Light appetizers will be provided by Mulan Asian Bistro. Memphis Made Brewing Company will provide the beer. Wine also will be available.
“My ultimate goal is to eventually make Memphis better than a C-plus market by bringing a viable music business infrastructure back to where we can provide our home-grown talent with the power and global reach that it deserves.”
