‘Crank it up as loud as you want’: Richland studio offers optimal recording environment

The sun never rises on Sunset Place Recording Studio in Richland, at least not in the part where the action is.

“We’re underground, so you don’t have to worry about bothering the neighbors,” owner Destin LeCornu said. “You can crank it up as loud as you want.”

For example, guests who descend Sunset Place’s steps first encounter a drum kit with all the bells and whistles — or more accurately, cymbals, snares and toms — to rock the proverbial house. And in LeCornu’s line of work, providing prime percussion is essential.

“Nowadays, if you’re serious about recording, you can figure most things out yourself,” he said. “The big barrier for people is recording drums, because you need multiple channels and a big room.”

That happens to be the first instrument LeCornu learned to play, when he was about 5 and living in his native Nashville, Tenn.

“My dad was a guitar player, and I didn’t want to play the same instrument at first,” he recalled. “So I kind of learned it in secret. Then I wanted to write songs, so that kind of motivated me to get better at it.”

Mark LeCornu also was a songwriter in Music City before the family moved to Sewickley, where Destin graduated from Quaker Valley High School in 2012. At the time, he was a member of a band called Crossing Boundaries that drew a substantial amount of local attention and opened for national acts.

“Eventually, we made a couple of albums professionally,” he said, and the results bolstered his interest in making his own recordings. “So I started buying a lot of gear and slowly building up a home studio.”

Fast-forward a few years, and he completed an album called “Stories Without Ends,” featuring richly textured original songs with LeCornu playing all the instruments and providing the vocals.

“I did all that in a bedroom,” he said. “It was really after that album that I started basically advertising my services.”

His initial venture was a studio in a home he bought in Brentwood and equipped specifically for that purpose.

“I had this A-frame house with a big front room that had 15-foot-high ceilings,” LeCornu recalled. “It was almost like a little ski lodge.”

At what he called Glass House Studios, he started giving lessons on various instruments. And he met music teacher Kate Griffin, who operated Pittsburgh School of the Arts out of her home.

“She wanted to expand into a commercial location, and this was also right at the time that I was kind of looking to get out of my house and move my studio into a commercial location,” he said.

He and Griffin partnered to set up shop at 5361 William Flinn Highway in Richland, just north of the Hampton line. Together, they offer group classes, private lessons and internship opportunities.

“I teach out of this space, because I want to offer my students the most real-world, professional environment for lessons,” LeCornu said.

Sunset Place, which he named after his home street in Nashville, offers amenities — his own talents, too — that he hopes fit the bill.

“I think the biggest thing that a lot of people lack is a good listening environment, having either good monitors or good headphones, and also knowing just what to listen for. And a lot of that comes through music experience: working on a lot of different stuff, solving a lot of problems,” he said. “As I’ve progressed further, I feel more and more confident about being able to identify what’s good about something, what’s not good about something, and then how to fix it.”

As a musician, he is working on a follow-up to “Stories Without Ends,” although the new album isn’t a solo project. Collaborating with him are Mick Francis on bass, Josh Gerba on drums and Todd Gummerman, a touring member of the Ohio-based band Twenty One Pilots, on keyboards.

I actually give my best performances when I’m playing with other musicians than if I’m just doing it myself,” LeCornu acknowledged.

Gummerman and Sam Wimer, a recent graduate of audio engineering school in Nashville, join LeCornu in providing their expertise on behalf of folks who record at Sunset Place.

Among them is Destin’s dad: Mark LeCornu cut his 2022 album, “Redemption Road,” and filmed the video for the title track in Richland.

For Destin, interacting with the artists is a key to coming up with optimal recordings.

“I’m not just the engineer, but I’m collaborating with them as a co-producer to kind of bring their ideas to life, and I end up playing usually at least something on everybody’s record,” LeCornu said.

“In this job, there’s never a dull moment. It’s always something new, every day.”

Visit www.sunsetplacestudio.com.