Lenora Vásquez-Quinn | Max Unger | Delia Archuleta
Cole Dreyer, Staff Engineer, Rito Seco Records
Originally from Fort Collins, Cole arrived in the Valley as an outsider and has spent twelve years fitting in, a process that can take a while in the SLV. He works with Rito Seco Records on an hourly basis, driving down over Poncha Pass from his home in Salida when the job needs him. The arrangement suits his temperament — he likes the work and likes going home afterward.
Cole studied audio engineering in Denver, spent his twenties doing live sound for festival circuits across the Mountain West — Red Rocks, Telluride, High Sierra — and a few summers on the road with acts that no longer exist. He grew tired of the touring life around thirty-five and shifted to studio work. Nora recruited him when RSR built out the in-house live room, looking for someone with a good ear who could capture acoustic performances with minimal intervention. Cole was the right fit.
He cares about room sound the way Max cares about song selection — as a first principle, not an afterthought. The studio at RSR is small and was built on a tight budget, and Cole has spent years learning exactly what it will and won’t do. He prefers one well-placed microphone to a wall of them. He and Raymond Puckett at Sycamore Sound in Nashville have traded enough notes on Kat’s Sundog’s sessions to have developed a mutual respect, and an ongoing disagreement about reverb tails that neither of them expects to resolve.
The live room’s walls are two feet of adobe. They don’t flatter anything. What goes in is what comes out — just quieter, and more honest. I’ve worked in rooms that cost fifty times what this one did and trusted them less.
Rito Seco Records 