David Budries is sound engineer at The Grove House in Mariposa, CA, and he told us all about it...
How long have you been running sound? How did you get into it?
I've been running sound since I was a sophomore in High School (1968). I was in a rock and roll band (keyboards) and we needed a sound guy. I loved the work, even though I knew very little at the time, I persisted. There were no sound mentors available to me at the time. I had to learn on my own, reading books about loudspeakers by Harry F. Olson and continually experimenting. My first "professional" gig was doing sound for Peter, Paul, and Mary at my high school in Port Chester, New York.
I've never stopped learning, experimenting and improving my skill set. With my business partner, Stephen Washburn, I started a professional sound company (Mantra Sound) in Glastonbury CT, in 1974 and we focused on sound reinforcement for acoustic musicians. Soon we were doing Festival Sound for things like the New England Fiddle Contest, as well as tons of other festivals featuring folk, jazz, light rock, bluegrass, choral ensembles, The Hartford Symphony Pops orchestra and even the Boston Symphony Pops Orchestra.
We did a ton of one-offs and worked with a crazy variety of artists including Victor Borge, Marvin Hamlish, Johnny Cash, Ralph Towner and Oregon, Keith Jarret, Gary Burden, Pat Metheny, McCoy Tyner, Aztec Two-Step, Maria Muldaur, Pure Prairie League, and many, many others. After 6+ years, I switched things up and started working for the Hartt School of Music, running their recording studio and starting an academic program called Music Production and Technology that taught musicians how to produce their own and other artists' music. In 1980, I became an early Sound Designer, writing music and soundscores for the performing arts as well as designing the large scale delivery systems needed to share that content with audiences.
I designed hundreds of regional theatrical productions (including 5 on Broadway), but kept doing sound reinforcement including working with The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival for 25 years. That event gave me the opportunity to produce programming for National Public Radio, editing and producing poetry content for Scott Simon's, Weekend Edition. All that experience led to an opportunity to start an MFA Sound Design Program for Yale University, at the Yale School of Drama, where I designed the curriculum and taught until December of 2021 (38 years).
I then moved out to the Sierra Nevada foothills (Mariposa) where I thought I would reinvent myself at least one more time and decided to refocus my skills back to sound reinforcement. The second iteration of my sound company is called Sound Situation, established in 1980.
How did you get hooked up with Grove House?
The Grove House is owned by my partner's (Gail Dreifus') son and his wife, Nate and Roselyn Pyle. Nate started his business as a beer and wine bar, featuring good music and after 4-5 years, the business grew and the level of bands also grew. I was planning my move out west when Nate bought a new larger facility. So I asked if he needed any help with the music side of his business and he did, so my relationship to the Grove House was cemented. Nate hires a lot of excellent musicians, local and national touring acts, so the demands on the sound grew and I followed.
We've been able to build a great reputation for good music and good sound (not to mention great food and drink) and that reputation continues to grow. We're constantly challenged to keep doing good work. As a musician and songwriter myself, I understand the stage and performance. I seriously respect our guest artists and take pleasure in providing them with a great experience. They really seem to appreciate the work we do.
Any particular highlights? Which bands have been the best to work with?
We've had so many wonderful bands come through Mariposa. This year some great ones include The Brothers Comatose, Nicholas Jamerson, Midnight North, Roger Perry, Tommy Prine, Blind Pilot, Diggin' Dirt, Pete Bernhard, and Charlie Parr.
How would you describe the acoustics/layout at Grove House?
The Grove House has great acoustics for sound reinforced music. The room has an irregular shape (resulting in very few standing waves), a lot of sound absorption on the ceiling and tons of diffusion on the performance walls. This all helps to make the room sound great whether the ensemble is rock-and-roll loud or acoustic-intimate.
What gear do you use?
Our system is a blend of old-school and contemporary tech. The Mains are a set of BOSE 802 MkIII's, selected for their wide dispersion in a modest sized room. The Subs are JBL PRX 918's. The monitors are JBL 610's or 710's (6 of each) and EV MPX12's (4). The mixing desk is a Soundcraft UI24r (24x10) and we have about 130 professional microphones (Neumann, Shure, Telefunken, Microtech Gefell, AKG, Sennheiser, Blue, EV, Ear Trumpet, Beyer, ADK, Audix, CAD, Nady, Sony, Crown, Bartlett, and more) to choose from, and I make those choices based on the needs and character of each artist.
For more information, visit thegrovehousemariposa.com.
