Sound ideas
by Nicholas Frank
In Room 4 in the basement of Treadaway Hall, Department of Music and Theatre Arts adjunct faculty Michael Gómez is hard at work wrangling cords, plugging in computers and mixing boards and microphones, arranging high-end audio equipment, and affixing sound-dampening panels to walls.
Gómez has been at it for months, under the guidance and stewardship of Department Chair Matthew Mireles, D.M.A. By Fall 2026, the goal is to have a fully outfitted recording studio capable of releasing the music and audio projects of students to the wider world.
In keeping with all things St. Mary’s University, the studio is called Rattler Records.
Mireles’ full list of titles is long: Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Director of Bands and Professor of Euphonium. Gómez teaches music production, as well as drum set and directs the St. Mary’s University Pep Band. Both speak enthusiastically and about what Rattler Records will bring to students interested not only in perfecting their chosen instrument, but also in learning the inner workings of expert audio and visual production in the digital age.
A student can specialize in an instrument, such as the flute or euphonium, Mireles said, “but you also need to know about business. You need to know how the world works. You need to know how to work with others, how to make critical thinking choices.”
The resource of a fully functioning audio/visual recording studio not only offers students broader experience, it equips them for careers beyond St. Mary’s.
The small but mighty Rattler Records space is gradually filling with the necessary implements to realize that goal: a grand piano, drum set, padded grey sound baffles in a loose grid on the walls, a state-of-the-art mixing board and a computer system adequate to the tasks of processing multiple sound inputs and mixing them together into brilliant and balanced recordings. The standard computer keyboard is augmented with an actual Novation Launchkey piano-style electronic keyboard, so that when the ivories are tickled, synthesized sounds can be directly input into the system.
The endgame for students, Gómez said, is capability and versatility intertwined. The build-out of the studio is guided by Gómez’s aims to connect students with real-world skills they’ll need post-graduation, so they can bring their abilities directly into internships and jobs assisting production staff members. If they choose to work in similarly equipped recording studios, live productions or in virtually any audio production situation they might encounter — even their own Twitch online TV stations — they will be prepared.
While the Rattler Records studio is already open and functioning for students, Mireles and Gómez said they will continue fundraising efforts toward the fully decked-out, functioning audiovisual recording and production studio they envision.
“We’ve been growing incrementally with funding from different streams,” Mireles said, including a grant for technology, alumni donors and Department summer camps.
And one day soon, the songs that Gómez requires his students to make each semester — even the non-music majors who take the course as an elective — might be released on the Rattler Records label, helping launch St. Mary’s grads on their careers as recording artists.
