Nothing Studios was a former funeral home, located at 4500 Magazine St. in New Orleans, that was the recording studios and base of operations for Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor from April 1995-September 2004. It was jointly owned by John Malm and Reznor through a holding company called Hot Snakes. The facility was managed by engineer Brian Pollack.[1]
Nine Inch Nails recorded and produced a number of projects at Nothing Studios, including Quake, "The Perfect Drug", "I'm Afraid of Americans", The Fragile, Things Falling Apart, And All That Could Have Been, and Still. Other artists' projects were recorded at Nothing Studios also, including Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children and Antichrist Superstar, Coil's Backwards sessions, Zack de la Rocha's unreleased solo material, and Tapeworm sessions.
While writing The Downward Spiral, Reznor lived in the Tate mansion where the Manson family murders took place. When he moved out in December 1993, and with the mansion scheduled for demolition, he came to an agreement with the owner to take the infamous door on which the word "pig" had been scrawled in blood. He took it to New Orleans and installed it as the Magazine Street-facing side door to Nothing Studios.
Reznor relocated to Los Angeles in September 2004, and the former site of Nothing Studios was eventually put up for sale, for approximately $1.3 million. The studios were apparently not seriously damaged by Hurricane Katrina. During an interview on the Los Angeles radio station KROQ, Reznor stated that the building was not a studio anymore. Later, a collection of his photos were put on nin.com, detailing the aftermath of the hurricane on his former studios and the surrounding area, before Nine Inch Nails played a scheduled concert (which had become a benefit for the survivors). The property was sold in 2010 for $900,000 and was converted to office and retail space. The Tate mansion door was removed and sold to private individuals.
List of clients from the Nothing Studios website:
- David Bowie
- Coil
- Zack de la Rocha
- Bob Ezrin
- Peter Gabriel
- Maynard James Keenan
- Cyndi Lauper
- David Lynch
- Clint Mansell
- Marilyn Manson
- Alan Moulder
- N.E.R.D.
- Nine Inch Nails
- No Doubt
- Dave Ogilvie
- Pantera
- Pink
- Prick
- Puff Daddy
- The Radiators
- Tapeworm
- Three Doors Down
- 12 Rounds
List of gear from the Nothing Studios website:
Console:
- SSL 4072 G+ with Ultimation (24 “E” EQ’s – 44 “G” EQ’s, 4 stereo faders)
Monitors:
- Tannoy DMT-215 Mark II
- KRK 7000
- Auratone Mono Monitor
- JBL 18” Subwoofers
- Yamaha NS10-M
- KRK E8
Recorders:
- Studer A-800 MKIII w/ Timeline Lynx 4-Sync
- Panasonic SV-3800 DAT Recorder
- Apogee PSX-100 A/D – D/A Converter
- Tascam 122 MKIII Cassette Deck
- Tascam CD-RW5000 CDRW
Gear:
- AMS DMX 15-80S Digital Delay
- AMS RMX 16 Digital Reverb
- Anthony Demaria Labs Tube Compressor/Limiter 1000
- DBX 120X-DS Subharmonic Synthesizer/Electric Crossover
- DBX 160S Compressor/Limiter
- DBX FS900 De-Essers
- Demeter VTDB-2 Tube Direct Box
- Drawmer DS404 Quad Gate
- Drawmer DS201 Dual Gate
- Electrix MOFX processor
- Electrix Filter Queen
- Electrix EQ Killer
- Electronic Music Studios 8 Octave Filter Bank
- Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor
- Empirical Labs Fatso Jr
- Eventide DSP 7500 Ultra Harmonizer
- Eventide H3500 Ultra-Harmonizer
- Eventide H3000 SE Ultra-Harmonizer
- Focusrite ISA 131 Dynamic Module
- Lexicon PCM 80 Effects Processor
- Lexicon PCM 42 Digital Delay
- Lexicon PCM 41 Digital Delay
- Lexicon 960 w/ LARC
- Line 6 Pod Pro Guitar
- Line 6 Bass Pod Pro
- Line 6 Echo Pro
- Line 6 Filter Pro
- Line 6 Mod Pro
- Mutronics Limited Mutator
- Music Valve Electronics Tube Direct Box
- MXR Flanger
- Neve 1066 Mic Preamps
- Neve 33609/C Stereo/Dual Mono Limiter/Compressor
- Pultec EQH-2 Equalizers
- Requisite Preamp/Limiter
- Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo
- Roland RSS Sound Space Processor
- Sherman Filter Bank
- SPL 4 channel Transient Designer Effects Processor
- SSL C FXG384 Stereo Compressor
- Summit Dual Program EQ
- T.C. Electronic Fireworx
- T.C. Electronic TC2290 Digital Delay and Effects Processor
- Tech 21 Sans Amp PSA-1 Guitar Preamp
- Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Amplifiers
- Urei 1176LN Limiting Amplifiers
- Urei LA-4 Compressor/Limiters
- Yamaha SPX1000
- Zoom 9050
Amps:
- Crest 8001 Power Amp
- Crown Macro Reference Amp
- Ramsa Sub Woofer Processor
- Yamaha P3500 Power Amp
- Yamaha P2700 Power Amp
- Yamaha PC2002 Amp
- White Crossover EQ’s
- Various guitar and bass heads/combo amps
Hardware/Software:
- Apple Mac G4 Dual 1.42 with 1GB RAM running OSX 10.2.6
- Digidesign Pro Tools
- Emagic Logic Audio Platinum
- NEC Multisync XE Monitor – 17”
- Pro Tools HD 3 system (1 core card, 2 process cards, 192 Interfaces, Sync I/O)
- MOTU XT Express Midi Timepieces
- MOTU 2408 Format Converter
- 2Tools Interface Machine Control for SSL
- Digidesign Sound Replacer
- Drawmer Dynamics
- DUY Global TDM Bundle (DUY DSPider, DUY Shape, DUY Wide, DAD Tape, DAD Valve, Max DUY)
- Focusrite d2/d3
- IK Multimedia AmpliTube
- Line 6 Amp Farm
- Line 6 Echo Farm
- McDSP Analog Channel
- McDSP Compressor Bank
- McDSP FilterBank
- Sony Oxford EQ + GML option
- Spectrasonics Stylus
- Synchro Arts VocALign Project
- Waves Gold Bundle
- Wave Mechanics UltraTools (Pitch Doctor, Pure Pitch, SPEED, Sound Blender)
- Logic TDM Bridge
Keyboards/Synths:
- A large selection of analog, digital, current and vintage keyboards / drum machines / samplers available on premise with operator.