Alchemist Studios

Belle, embarquez ⚓️ *Belle, embarquez* — le nouvel album de Brise-Glace — débarque bientôt! Faites le pre-save maintenant sur Spotify et soyez parmi les premiers à l’écouter dès sa sortie.

Here is a pretty mic :)
This is one my favorites

Also in the idea of capturing the most of the church hall sound as possible, here is another tool we use.

This is our decca tree! It is a structure (array) where we can mount traditionally 3 microphones above performers, both to get a large stereo image, but also to capture a nice room sound!

This specific one we built because many of the commercially available options were not super solid.

Pair this with an over the top Manfrotto stand, and we are business!

Charles actually made a mistake on this one. When we bought the stand, we were trying to come up with a budget for a 15 foot stand. After a bit of negotiating, we got it, but with a catch. It was not 15 feet, it was 15 meters!!! (Oops!)

So with this structure and 15 meter stand and setup, we can actually raise the microphones on it higher than the ceiling in the hall! What that means for you is that we can grab sound with any microphone, as high up in the room as the room is high!

These are just a few ways we manage room mics and get the best possible sound for our sessions!

Here's something we've had just about from the start, but we don't talk about much.

Pretty high up in the rafters, we have two little squares mounted to the beams. Those are PZM microphones that we have permanently installed up there to capture some of the resonance and sound of the room!

We use them mostly for big drum sessions and large bands that push a bunch of volume!

We got more information about the church and its history!

Huge thank you to Stéphane Alary for finding and sending this our way!

The church was originally called Chapel Galbraith, built in 1928, and functioned as an anglophone chapel until the 1970s.

I want to share exactly what Stéphane wrote:

L'église unie Galbraith (Galbraith United Church) a été construite en 1928 sur la rue Mayenne (aujourd'hui la rue Prieur) dans le quartier d'Ahuntsic-Cartierville à Montréal, sur un terrain donné par M. J. Galbraith. Elle a desservi la communauté anglophone de l'Église Unie jusqu'au début des années 1970, avant de passer entre les mains de diverses congrégations et de changer de nom, devenant notamment l'église baptiste d'Ahuntsic (Ahuntsic Baptist Church).
Faits historiques marquants :
* Emplacement : Située à l'origine sur la rue Mayenne (renommée plus t**d rue Prieur).
* Changements de nom : Connue sous le nom d'église unie d'Ahuntsic (Ahuntsic United Church) de 1928 à 1964, puis sous le nom d'église unie de Montréal Ahuntsic-Galbraith (Montreal Ahuntsic-Galbraith United Church) de 1964 à 1972.
* Documents d'archives : La documentation concernant son histoire se trouve dans les archives Advitam de la BAnQ.
En 1928, la communauté d'Ahuntsic et de Saint-Michel a officiellement fait construire son lieu de culte protestant de référence, l'église Ahuntsic-Galbraith United Church, inaugurée au 10211, rue Basile-Routhier.
Histoire et construction de la communauté Galbraith
* L'année pivot (1928) : C'est précisément en 1928 que la congrégation a centralisé ses activités en érigeant son église sur la rue Basile-Routhier (qui portait autrefois le nom de rue Jacob).
* Fonctionnement en réseau : Le pasteur de la paroisse gérait simultanément les deux sous-communautés. Il célébrait le service du dimanche matin à Ahuntsic et se déplaçait le dimanche soir à la chapelle Galbraith, située initialement plus à l'est, à l'angle des rues Prieur et Saint-Michel.
* La Chapelle Évangélique : Le site à l'intersection Prieur / Saint-Michel a également abrité une mission désignée sous le nom de Chapelle Évangélique de langue français du nord de l'île,dans un secteur catholique.

We get questions often about the history of the church, including this plaque.
We did a fair amount of research, but with limited success.

The building was originally a Presbyterian church, and the brick outside dates the building to 1928.

The building was apparently only used as a church for about 20 years or so, and then became a notary office, dance studio, comporate office, and then 3 sets of owners running it as a recording studio.

The mystery comes from the plaque. It was installed when we were arrived, and the paint around it makes it look like it has been there for a long time.

We had some friends check with the presbytery, and it seems there was no record of the church, nor of Rev. John Garvin or his wife Rebecca Gillis.

If anyone is bored, please let us know if you happen to have any information, or any means of finding some!

At some point I plan to go the national archives and see if there's anything more to learn there.

Our open house was amazing!
It was absolutely unreal many awesome people showed up and it was a pleasure to meet each one of you!
Thank you all for coming, and another thank you for everyone who shared the event and spread the word! Your support means more than we can say.
One of you even sent us flowers! A total first for us here!!!
Again, thank you all so much, and I look forward to seeing you again soon!