A former East Village (New York City) hair salon has morphed into a concise but efficient recording studio thanks to the vision of producer/engineer Michael Croiter and design work by Walters-Storyk Design Group architect/acoustician John Storyk. Croiter, drummer for Broadway musical Avenue Q, had been searching for workable (and affordable) space for a personal recording studio. According to the designer the 850-square-foot, 7.5-foot-high basement provided the necessary level of basic isolation despite the height challenge. Installed in the new space are an Audient ACS-8024 analog console (spec'd by PAD principal Dave Malekpour), a machine room and a live room large enough to hold a Yamaha C2 grand piano. Monitoring is via Dynaudio BM 15As, and Yellow Sound also offers Digidesign Pro Tools and Aviom A16 personal mixers.