WEST SPRINGFIELD – While many might recognize the historic 200-year-old white church that sits on 732 Elm St., some might not know a seasoned recording engineer helps bands and musicians achieve their dreams right inside.

Warren Amerman grew up with two musically talented parents in Springfield. He was classically trained on the flute and spent high school playing the guitar in various bands.  At 20, the self-taught recording engineer picked up recording as a hobby while working toward his art degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He purchased a four-track tape deck to record his own music. His band friends flocked to him to record theirs.

His path to becoming a well-known and respected recording engineer was not a straight and narrow one. After college, he went on to pursue careers in photography, videography, videogame designing and computer programming – with recording always on the backburner. Over time, Amerman said he was still able to experiment with audio, in some capacity, for each of those positions.

The defining moment for Amerman was when digital multi-track recording equipment became available and affordable in the early 90’s.

“It seemed like everywhere I’d gone and everything I’d done, audio had been involved. I finally got to the point where I just felt like that’s what I wanted to do full-time,” he said. “There was a piece of equipment called an ADAT [Alesis Digital Audio Tape] that recorded digitally to a VHS [Video Home System] tape – it was weird, but worked very well. You could buy 24 tracks worth of that for about $10,000, which was pretty affordable compared to a full-blown analog recording studio. So, that was the moment where I said, ‘I think I can start a recording studio and put out a good product.’”

Amerman opened a small, temporary recording studio in East Longmeadow in 1995. Ten years later, he found his permanent and current studio – the historic white church on Elm Street. The aspiring engineer purchased the building and renovated the first two floors, which is now called Rotary Records. He has been at the church for 13 years now.

Aside from its ancestral charm and character, the 200-year old church offers the perfect conditions for an audio recording studio, said Amerman.

Complete with a cemetery graveyard and original pipe organ, the multi-level church houses a large, open room with 10-foot windows, providing just enough space and light – an added bonus – to capture quality sound.

“Because of the music I like to record – I do a lot of jazz and acoustic stuff – a lot of those bands want to be together in one, good-sounding room. It’s got to be a really good-sounding room; it can’t just be an average living room. It’s very hard to find a big, good-sounding space that is also affordable,” he said. “So, I looked for a long time with a realtor, and he showed me this church, and I thought, ‘that looks crazy, I can’t buy a church.’ But, it sounded so good in that room I just couldn’t say no. I think it makes this place somewhat unique in the area.”

As an audio engineer, Amerman sets up and operates recording equipment and is responsible for creating, modifying and producing music for bands and musicians. Bands of all kinds travel from all over the region, including New York and Maine, to have Warren help them create a product to promote their band. The engineer is also doing some work with the Western Massachusetts Songwriters Collaborative, which was started by Peter Newland, to put an emphasis on original music in the valley.

The recording process can take four-to-five days, explained Amerman. He works with the technical aspects of sound during the processes of recording, mixing and reproduction. The first step of the recording process is to record the songs through multitrack recording, where each instrument is recorded separately and later combined in a mix. This allows each instrument to be recorded one at a time, giving Amerman the chance to mold and shape the sound of each instrument independently.

Step number two is the editing process, followed by the mixing process. Once the tracks are in the proper arrangement, Amerman blends them into one cohesive unit.

The final step is called mastering, which is a form of audio postproduction. It’s the process of preparing and transferring the recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device, called the master. The purpose of mastering is to balance the sonic elements of a stereo mix and optimize playback across all systems and media formats.

Amerman then creates a file for the band that can be duplicated through a commercial company of the band’s choice. The bands can use these files to create things like CDs or demos.

To save money, Amerman does not have any other staff on board.

“I’ve been doing it for around 20 years, so I’ve gotten it down to a science by now,” said Amerman. “The variety of the music is what keeps me interested. What I enjoy is getting different kinds of music, learning about that kind of music and giving the client a sound that is their sound, not my idea of what the sound should be. It keeps it interesting for me, and means that every day is a little different.”

However, Amerman said new evolutions in the industry, combined with quicker production demands from clients, have been stretching him thin.

The engineer and producer now videotapes the sessions for his clients as well. Websites like YouTube and Vimeo have become popular outlets for bands to promote their music.

“I realized all of my clients were bringing photographers and videographers to their sessions. I was a videographer for about ten years, but then I got tired of it,” he said. “But, I could see how important the video aspect was becoming for these bands, so, I decided I was going to get some equipment and become a videographer again. So, now I do both.”

Amerman lives with his wife Debra in an apartment on the first floor of the church to keep up with his busy and demanding schedule.  He also rents out a second apartment to the bands that travel for his services.  

Aside from the added pressures of being a one-man-band, Amerman said it’s much more difficult to get into the recording industry than it was 20 years ago. The trend in music production is shifting toward home studios. Music can now be produced – using no more than a computer, USB microphone and headphones – through affordable or free software, like Garage Band and other apps. However, the quality is still not comparable of what can be done in a professional studio.

For someone aspiring to enter the profession, Amerman suggests exploring it on hobbyist level first. He also encourages individuals to take advantage of the Internet and other online resources for courses and tips – resources he didn’t have when he was younger. The self-taught expert said it’s important to gain experience in the field, without having to rely on it for a living.

Despite the modern-day obstacles, Amerman said he finds his job rewarding and doesn’t want to discourage anyone from pursuing their dreams.

“There are moments when the musicians are playing and I get this great feeling of, ‘wow, this is really great music and I’m happy,’” he said. “Those little moments happen occasionally, and I feel very lucky to be having a job where I get to enjoy music that’s good and interesting.”