Nestled in the heart of the blooming Black Rock community is the WNY jewel of audio-visual arts, Imagine Recording Studios. Inside a seemingly industrial building on the small strip of Military Road, between Grant and Amherst Streets, is a state of the art recording facility owned by Buffalo music guru and supporter Charles Anderson.
Since the early 90’s, Anderson has been responsible for recording key WNY artists such as Ani DiFranco, Robby Takac (GooGoo Dolls), Stan Szelest (a keyboardist with The Band), Gary Mallaber (Steve Miller Band) and many more. His love of music began in the early 60’s, with the influence of the Beatles and by the time he got to high school, Anderson played guitar and sang with a local band. Though a fine talent himself, Anderson humbly prefers to use this passion for WNY music to provide affordable, state of the art facilities for audio/video recording.
The moment you walk through the door of this concrete building, you quickly realize there’s a whole other world to explore. In the front unit, there is a video recording room with a large green screen, Canon and Sony 4k cameras, and extensive lighting gear. In a room next door is a video editing suite.
Then, just a short walk down the hallway, you enter a full-service, state of the art, audio recording studio, with one of the best live rooms I’ve ever experienced as a musician. At the helm is a fifty-inch Raven touch screen console that produces clean, pristine recordings. The tracking is done on a Pro Studio 11 HDX platform, which is a vastly different world of technology from my early days of cutting and splicing tape.
Again, just another short walk to the back portion of the building is Anderson’s new love-child of music, Imagine Event Center (IEC). This awesome new music and event venue has a capacity for 150 patrons and will serve beer, wine and a light menu of food. Unlike other venues that record live artists, Imagine Event Center is creating an acoustically superior room so that music does not have to be blasted at high volume to be heard and recorded over crowds. Sporting a 6’3” Baldwin grand piano and a 12’x30’ stage, Imagine Event Center will be a genuine epicenter for great music in Buffalo!
With Dwayne Hall’s highly successful music venue, Sportsmens Tavern just around the corner, and Hot Mama’s Canteen about a dozen doors down, Anderson’s club will be a new jewel in the crown of the Black Rock community. We’ll be keeping you posted, as the event center continues to be built out, but it won’t be long before all of Buffalo will be able to catch incredible live shows, as they are being recorded, while enjoying a beer or wine at IEC’s fabulous bar.