Expensive. Repetitive. Creative. Rewarding. These are some of the adjectives that come to mind with respect to studio time. I spent countless hours in this chair mixing two albums and several singles alongside my friend Christopher Mitchell. Chris took over Halifax's Solar Audio, located on the third floor above present day Long & McQuade, and renamed it Common Ground Studio in 2005. Indeed this is where our lives intersected, with a mutual love of "World music", mixed with a healthy dose of bottom end. Chris is a self-proclaimed "audiophile", a bass player with a profound knowledge of acoustics and electronics and a finely tuned ear. It was such a pleasure to watch him work, almost effortlessly coaxing frequencies in and out, shaping the sound. I was glad to have earned a diploma in sound engineering at Recording Arts Canada, back when it was located in Stoney Creek, Ontario. It meant that I could understand the language of creating a "colour palette" with sound. My Mom was convinced that I was attending sound engineering school to become a studio engineer but really I was there to learn how to make a better record! It's a good thing I wasn't relying on this diploma for employment, since most sound engineering gigs have dried up now that everyone is recording on their home computers. The things I miss most are the SODA double 15" speakers. (Oh, the analogue dubs!) Common Ground had the same speakers I learned to mix on at Kingston Muzik Studio in the late 90s! We would monitor the mix through the NS10s and then when we thought we had it just right we would switch up to the giant, thundering 15" speakers built into the wall. A few tweaks here and there, particularly in the bass and drums, would take us from the living room to the dance club, or in this case, dance hall. Getting the bottom end just right in reggae is important because, well...