History

The Early Years (early, 1985 - 1987)
The earliest days of Metal XOR Studio can be traced back to Jason and Harry singing their ad-libbed lyrics to instrumental music on the radio (1985-87). Although they recorded their songs at various houses, when they recorded in Jason's room it was with nothing more than with a microphone plugged into his stereo.

It was also during this time that Jason was recording his own songs from a small Yamaha keyboard he received as a birthday present in the fall of 1986. And again, the recording was nothing more than a microphone placed by the keyboard's speaker and plugged into the stereo. In fact, in some songs you can even hear the clicking sound of the keys as they are played.

There was no fancy equipment, there wasn't even a name for this recording location, yet it served as the basis of what would eventually become Metal XOR Studio.

The Early Years (late, 1988 - 1991)
To accompany the small Yamaha keyboard Jason received as a birthday present in the fall of 1986, he borrowed an electric guitar and amp from a friend in high school early in 1988. In addition to the bands he was in during that time (Pheonix, The Two-Tones, and The Traveling Deengelburys), he also experimented with recording the guitar and keyboard at home. This was his early solo period.

In the summer of 1990, Jason got an old mixing board from where he worked. By using that and his home stereo, he began experimenting with "mutli-track recording." In June of 1990 he recorded what would become the very first Mune Mud song, "Plutonic." Over the next several months he recorded more songs this way. In early 1991, he collected the best songs and put them on a cassette and simply labeled it Mune Mud.

Not only was he recording his own music now, he also began acquiring new music equipment. In 1990 he bought his first drum machine. It replaced the cheesy drum sounds he was using from his Yamaha keyboard. In early 1991 he bought a 4-track cassette recorder, which allowed him to make true multi-track recordings. The quality of his recordings instantly improved and he immediately began work on a new album. Then he bought a delay/sampler effects pedal for his guitar (which he also used for vocals and drums). In the summer of 1991 he got a new Casio keyboard which replaced his Yamaha.

In November of 1991 he released his first true album, Olympus. Many copies were handed out and people were surprised that he was able to accomplish this in his bedroom.

So the studio was taking shape. He now had a mixer, a good recorder, an electric guitar with amp, an effects pedal, a drum machine, a real microphone, and two keyboards. He had two albums finished and was preparing to begin work on his third. Yet the studio still did not have a name.

Quintessential Disco-Quest Tapes & Discs (1991 - 1992)
After the release of the album Olympus in 1991, recording immediately began on the next Mune Mud album, Underwater Problem Factory. When that album was nearing completion in 1992, it was decided that the studio should have a name. So it was during the Underwater Problem Factory album cover design process that the name Quintessential Disco-Quest Tapes & Discs (or QDQ) was created.

The name was a by-product of the themes of disco and the 70's from the earlier band The Two-Tones. And it was during the Underwater Problem Factory recording sessions that the song "Go Disco!" was recorded (and appeared on the album). Thus was the origins of the first studio name.

Everything at the time was released on cassette, but CD's were becoming more popular in the real music world. So the "Tapes & Discs" was added to the end of the name to give the impression that the studio was technologically up-to-date.

The first song recorded under the QDQ label was "In My Heart" in November 1991 (which appeared on Underwater Problem Factory) and the last song recorded was the Underwater Problem Factory outtake "Nothing Cube" on April 19, 1992. The only album released under that label was Underwater Problem Factory in the summer of 1992.

Thus this period of the studio's history lasted from November 1991 to the summer of 1992.

Circle IX (1992 - 1994)
Circle IX was the second name the studio went by in its long history. Whereas the previous name, Quintessential Disco-Quest, was used just for the recording period of Mune Mud's 1992 album Underwater Problem Factory, Circle IX (or C9) was used for two years and covered the release of several albums. The albums released under the Circle IX label were:
 * Mune Mud Pryme Material [September 7, 1993]
 * NueroMorgue Devis Tortura [December 14, 1993]
 * NueroMorgue E. Phantasmata [April 5, 1994]
 * Mune Mud Mune Mud re-release [August 2, 1994]
 * Mune Mud Devaulted [August 2, 1994]
 * Binary Pipedream Binary Pipedream [September 6, 1994]
 * NueroMud ...Libra 971 [October 18, 1994]

The name itself comes from Dante's Divine Comedy. There are nine circles in the story, the studio was named after the ninth one.

There were two phases to Circle IX. After Underwater Problem Factory was released, recording soon began on the next album. The studio had stopped using the QDQ name. On May 19, 1993, the studio was taken apart in preparation for a large amount of new equipment that had been ordered. The equipment arrived and from June 7 to June 10 it was rebuilt from the ground up. This latest version of the studio had a new element, MIDI. Now the sequencer could be programmed to play back the sounds from the sound module and drum machine. This was a real break-through for the studio and this is when the studio actually took on the name Circle IX Studio.

The first song recorded following the Underwater Problem Factory sessions was "Palace" (which appeared on the 1993 NueroMorgue album Devis Tortura) on October 21, 1992, and the last song recorded was the original "Albino Boy" song on November 4, 1994.

After the "Albino Boy" song was recorded, the studio was slowly dismantled to be moved to its new location. A couple of months later, on January 28, 2005, everything was taken out of C9 and delivered to the new studio. It was the end of an era... but the beginning of another.

This period of the studio's history lasted from October 1992 to November 1994.

Metal XOR-A (1995)
There was a big change in the fall of 1994, Jason and a friend moved into a rental house together. Although Circle IX Studio was only five minutes from the rental house, it was too inconvenient to record music. So it was decided to build a studio in the basement of the rental house and move the equipment from Circle IX Studio to the new studio.

In early January of 1995, the basement was cleaned out and names were considered as the studio was designed and built. BlakMetal X-OR Studio was an early choice. But by the end of January it was known as Metal XOR Studio, or MXOR for short.

On January 17, the first plywood was cut. The walls were framed and shelves were added for specific equipment. And the power was run. The new studio was progressing very well.

Then February 5 was the first Isthmus (a musical project consisting of Harry and Jason at the time) jam. The video of the session shows them playing in the unfinished studio, the walls were still just framed and not all of the equipment had been moved in yet. But the jam was successful enough to lead to the first Isthmus album, Electric Field Donut.

Two weeks later on February 19, the final pieces of music gear were installed and the studio was complete. The first song worked on in the new Metal XOR Studio was called "Bacon". It was music written to accompany a medical video of a new surgery technique (being demonstrated on a pig body). The song was started on February 20 and finished and recorded on February 26.

Other than that special project, the first song recorded that appeared on a studio album was "Happy Little Squirrel" recorded on March 4. It was recorded by Jason and Jimmy and would end up on their debut ORC album Purging the Great Abyss in 1999.

The last song recorded in this version of the studio was on October 24, 1995, and was originally titled "Nine Days Wondering." The song was later renamed "At the Last" and appeared at the end of the NueroMud album Nine Days Wonder, which got its title from the original name of this song.

On October 30, 1995, the studio was moved from the basement up to a ground level bedroom. There were two reasons for the move. The first being the fact that the basement was more damp than expected and it was starting to affect the equipment and recordings. The second was the purchase of the studio's first computer program to control the MIDI equipment. And since the computer was upstairs in the bedroom, the studio had to move.

So after eight months, MXOR-A was finished. The studio moved upstairs and became MXOR-B.

No albums were released under the MXOR-A label. But songs were recorded that would end up on the aforementioned Purging the Great Abyss and Nine Days Wonder albums. There were also a few NueroMorgue songs recorded that have yet to appear on an album.

This period of the studio's history lasted from February 1995 to October 1995.

Metal XOR-B (1995 - 1996)
Metal XOR-A was not around for even a year before the studio was once again moved. On October 30, 1995, the studio was moved from the damp basement to a dry bedroom on the ground level of the rental house Jason was living in. This move also allowed him to incorporate his computer in the studio. He had just bought his first music software, CakeWalk Pro 3, and was eager to use it. After a long day's work, Metal XOR-B was ready to make music.

The first song worked on was a remake of "I'm With You", originally from the 1991 Mune Mud album Olympus. This was an experimental song for his new music software but it was never finished. The first song to be completed was "Albino Boy (Dance Mix)" on December 18, 1995.

But all good things must come to an end. In July of 1996 Jason moved out of the house and back to his parents' house. His roommate was getting married, so Jason's spot in the rental house was being replaced. The last song recorded in MXOR-B was on July 21, 1996. It was "One Lunar Minute" which appeared on the 1996 Mune Mud album Equation of Time.

On July 27, 1996, MXOR-B was taken down. The equipment was moved back to the location of the old Circle IX Studio and on August 3, 1996, MXOR-C was complete and ready for business.

There were three albums released under the MXOR-B label:
 * NueroMud Nine Days Wonder [November 1995]
 * Isthmus Electric Field Donut [July 9, 1996]
 * Mune Mud Monograph [July 16, 1996]

In addition to the albums released, there were also several NueroMorgue songs recorded (still unused to this day).

This period of the studio's history lasted from October 1995 to July 1996.

Metal XOR-C (1996 - 1999)
Metal XOR-B had been taken down on July 27, 1996, because Jason was moving once again. The equipment was taken to the house where the previous Circle IX Studio had been located. The studio was rebuilt and Metal XOR-C was ready for action on August 3, 1996.

Along with the new studio came a new version of the music software Jason had been using. It was an upgrade to CakeWalk that allowed him to do not only MIDI with the computer but audio editing also. The problem with his computer was that did not have much storage, so the use of audio editing was limited. But he began experimenting on September 11, 1996, with "One Night" (which appeared on the 1996 Mune Mud album Equation of Time) and "Tim Is Tuff", an old Two-Tones song that had been re-recorded at the first Isthmus jam session on February 5, 1995. Neither of these songs got far due to the lack of computer storage.

The first completed new song recorded in Metal XOR-C was on September 19. It was called "Vestige." Unfortunately the song has since been lost.

In early October he finally started working on "real" songs, ones that made it to albums or are still in the studio's catalog.

After a couple of years of productive recording, the studio moved again. The last song recorded at Metal XOR-C that appeared on an album (Purging the Great Abyss by ORC) was "Element of Fire" on December 24, 1998. There was another song recorded on January 4, 1999. This was "Mother Nature (Serenity Mix)". It was also an ORC song but it was not used on the album.

The albums released under the Metal XOR-C label were:
 * Mune Mud Equation of Time [August 13, 1996]
 * Isthmus Lambskin Temple [November 19, 1996]
 * Isthmus New Mexico Igloo [December 17, 1996]
 * Isthmus Ideas [May 6, 1997]
 * Mune Mud Sleep State F [September 23, 1997]
 * Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 1 [July 21, 1998]
 * ORC Purging the Great Abyss [March 2, 1999]
 * Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 2 [March 23, 1999]

So after two and a half years, the longest run thus far, Metal XOR-C was finished. On April 17, 1999, it was disassembled and moved once again, this time to become Metal XOR-D.

This period of the studio's history lasted from August 1996 to April 1999.

Metal XOR-D (1999 - 2007)
On April 17, 1999, Metal XOR-C was disassembled. Over the course of the next month the equipment was taken to Jason's new house and the studio was slowly put back together. On May 12, 1999, Metal XOR-D was finished and ready for business.

The first song recorded in the new studio was on May 15, 1999. It was called "Park Bench" and was an outtake from the 2001 Mune Mud album The Search for Metropolis. The first song recorded to appear on an album was "Cambrian Explosion", recorded on May 16 and appeared on that same album.

The albums released under the Metal XOR-D label were:
 * Nikki and Jason Love Songs [May 19, 2001]
 * Harry and Jason The Vintage Years Vol 1 [May 23, 2001]
 * Mune Mud The Search for Metropolis [November 6, 2001]
 * Mune Mud Olympus (10th Anniversary Edition) [December 29, 2001]
 * Mune Mud UPF (10th Anniversary Edition) [December 31, 2002]
 * Mune Mud Pryme Material (10th Anniversary Edition) [2003]
 * Mune Mud Singles Collection [2004]
 * Mune Mud Hobson's Choice [November 23, 2004]
 * Mune Mud Hobson's Second Choice [2005]
 * Mune Mud Equation of Time (10th Anniversary Edition) [2006]
 * Mune Mud Sleep State F (10th Anniversary Edition) [2007]
 * Paige Watson My First Album [August 14, 2007]

This version of the studio had four major revisions while remaining in the same location. Those time periods were differentiated by a number following the name, thus Metal XOR-D1 was the first version of the Studio all the way to the final one, Metal XOR-D4.

In November of 2007, the studio was once again rewired to accommodate the newest equipment and recording techniques. Although the studio was in the same physical location, it was decided to move on to the Metal XOR-E name.

Recording techniques changed in the last couple of years at MXOR-D. Everything used to be recorded to the 4-track cassette recorder, but in 2005 the computer started being used as the recorder. So the last song recorded to cassette at Metal XOR-D4 was called "Goodnight, My Someone" on February 13, 2005.

This period of the studio's history lasted from May 1999 to November 2007.

Metal XOR-E (2007 - 2010)
Over the course of the eight years that Metal XOR-D existed, the equipment and techniques used to record music changed many times. In November of 2007 it was decided to record a new ORC album starting January 1, 2008. Once the decision was made on what equipment to use on the album, it was time to redesign the studio once more.

On December 1, 2007, Metal XOR-E opened for business. Over the course of the next month there were a few test songs recorded. And then on January 1, 2008, the ORC album began. This lasted for several weeks until the project was put on an indefinite hold.

The new studio had a computer at its center. A Korg synthesizer was used as a MIDI trigger to play sounds inside the computer. All drums were also generated from within the computer. The only analog external sources at that point were the electric guitar and vocals.

Metal XOR-E is also where Paige attended recording sessions for her second album (still unfinished).

The albums released under the Metal XOR-E label were: This period of the studio's history lasted from December 2007 to February 2010.
 * Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival 10th Anniversary [May 22, 2008]
 * ORC Thru the Vent [September 23, 2008]
 * Equinox Dulcet Ethical Travels on a Green Planet [December 8, 2009]

Metal XOR Fallout (2010 - present)
...coming soon