This Week's Find: Remixing Star Trek and Dave Matthews in Dupont

• February 21st 2013

by UrbanTurf Staff

This Week's Find is a Dupont Circle home where the Klingon language was recorded for Star Trek and the mixing for perhaps Dave Matthews best live album took place. It won't hit the market until next week, but UrbanTurf got a look inside and a story along with the sneak peek.

Back in 1991, Mike Hamady was developing a new hobby for sound production and mixing. Not long after developing this hobby, two things happened. Hamady bought a four-bedroom home on T Street in Dupont Circle and he applied for a job that required waiting around to get security clearance.

Then two more things happened. Hamady was cleared for the job, but decided instead to pursue his new hobby on a professional basis. And that meant building a sound studio in the most unlikely of places: his basement on T Street.

Not long after purchasing the home in 1993, excavation for the sound studio began, which meant dropping the basement floor six feet to optimize soundproofing. (After 20 years, Hamady's neighbors still don't know there is a studio down the street from them.) The design for the new amenity came courtesy of Acoustic Design Collaborative, Ltd. which had recently finished work on National Public Radio's studio downtown.

In 1995, Hamady's studio opened its doors. While it primarily catered to commercial clients like NPR and The Department of Justice, as well as up-and-coming area bands (The Almighty Senators and Clutch), Hamady relayed stories of two very cool clients.

The first was Paramount Digitial, which had the creator of the Klingon language record over 500 words and phrases at the studio for use on a Star Trek website.

The second was that the mixing for the Dave Matthews Band album Live at Red Rocks happened there, not long after the studio opened. "The two guys that came in didn't realize that they were up against the competition of a big producer in New York," Hamady said. "They almost backed out, but in the end, the band preferred the mix that they had done!"

Hamady, his wife and their baby on the way are moving to upper NW where another music studio is not in the plans. But for a music lover, his current home offers a pretty cool amenity. The home will be open on March 3 from 1 to 3pm. More details below.

* Address: 1760 T Street NW (map) * Price: $1.489 million * Bedrooms: Four * Bathrooms: Three * Listing Agents: Martin Toews and Jeff Brier, Coldwell Banker. For more information, email info@martinandjeffgroup.com

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this_weeks_find_remixing_star_trek_and_dave_matthews_in_dupont/6686.