Long ago when the Youth Council was planning The Den youth center at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center the vision for the place included a recording studio.

Visits were made to the Kirkland Teen Union Building, Community Center Executive Director Lynn Roberts explained, as well as to the Redmond Firehouse.

“The people at Kirkland were just so accommodating and willing to share all kind of information with us,” Roberts said. “That was sort of the birth of us understanding what we wanted (for the recording studio).”

It seems only fitting that the consultant they hired, Nick Kristoffersen, to help them get the studio set up as well as manage it worked as an intern at KTUB.

Kristoffersen said community center staff contacted his mentor at KTUB, Jeremy Keopping, who checked out what was going on with The Den.

“He in turn contacted me,” Kristoffersen said. “He told me, ‘There’s a studio being built down in Maple Valley, you should go down and help them out.’ That was two years ago and I’ve been helping them ever since.”

First he helped get The Den’s music stage for concerts set up — there are monthly concerts held there to showcase local bands as well as give kids a place to hang out on a Friday night — and that was the focus in 2008.

This year Kristoffersen’s focus has shifted to the recording studio.

“The first thing was budget, I just needed to know how much it was, and it was a tiny budget,” he said. “I knew there were some things that I liked. So we went out and picked up a Mac Pro, a top of the line computer, running industry standard ProTools. Your whole studio is in your computer.”

Acoustics were next on his to do list, Kristoffersen said, but since he didn’t have input on how the rooms were built he had to modify the existing space and “picked up some acoustic treatments to help control the acoustic environment in here.”

From there more hardware was needed including microphones and pre-amps, but with the bulk of the studio in the ProTools software on the computer, “I don’t need a big mixing board.”

And the reality is that to get something that sounds better than what the computer can produce can cost upwards of $50,000.

“After you get all those pieces together, what’s next on our list is software, plug-ins,” Kristoffersen said. “You get a handful of free plug-ins with the software then you go out and spend money on fancy plug-ins. One popular one would be Auto Tune, that’s one you hear on records all the time, it corrects the pitch of the voice.”

Being that there’s so much software involved, Kristoffersen is hoping to persuade companies to donate programs for the studio, but equipment and cash would also be welcome.

Once Kristoffersen got all the equipment it took about a day to set it up but he ended up spending more time registering all the software than physically setting up the studio.

“It’s not as much about the equipment but more how you use it,” he said. “That’s what I focused on when building this, not on getting a bunch of flashy hardware, but getting the right equipment to make a professional recording.”

Thus far he has worked with Maple Valley bands, generally high-school students, including groups that have won the community center’s annual Battle of the Band contests.

Among the groups he has worked with are The Road to Fame and Girlfriends, Fall City Shakedown as well as Le Attempts, which Kristoffersen said recently changed its name to Stranger Than You.

Kristoffersen has also recorded with his band, which is currently without a name, at the community center studio.

Recording time is set aside for the hours The Den is closed. Bands can book time all day Sunday and much of Monday as well as the hours before The Den opens on weekdays.

“It’s very flexible beyond that,” Kristoffersen said. “We can record everything an anything. By me having 24/7 access it gives us the flexibility to work with The Den’s schedule and a band’s schedule. I’ve spent 16 hours straight in the studio. I’ve got no problem working past midnight, whatever works for the band.”

Students who are under 18 and live in the Tahoma School District pay $20 an hour for studio time, while those outside the district boundaries pay $25, and adults pay $30 an hour.

A primary goal for Kristoffersen is to let people know he’s available and so is the studio.

“I want to just get a lot of bands in here and make sure they’re happy with the record they’re getting and build a professional reputation for this place,” he said.

Roberts has been pleased with Kristoffersen’s work so far and would like to the studio to grow, as well.

“Nick has been an absolute dream to work with,” Roberts said. “We’re just very fortunate to have him and want the public to know we have some real professional knowledge up here. And we want to open up all the possibilities for people.”

Roberts said that the studio is available for anyone who makes music, whether it’s a student recording a CD for a scholarship application or a vocalist who wants to build pop songs from the ground up, or anyone else who wants to lay down some tracks.

Kristoffersen hopes to make the most of the next Battle of the Bands, which will happen later this year, by offering extensive recording time to the winner.

“What I’m thinking about for that is offering considerable recording time — say five or 10 songs — to attract bigger and better groups to the battle of the bands so they can have something to really fight for,” he said. “It will give this place better exposure if we’ve got five or 10 top notch bands battling it out.”

Thanks to Kristoffersen that’s a possibility, as well as Maple Valley Rotary, Roberts said. Rotary has focused on The Den as a beneficiary during its fundraising efforts particularly its annual auction in November.

“The bottom line is that the community center is not making any money on this, we’re just covering our costs,” Roberts said. “This was intended to be for the community.”

More information about The Den recording studio can be found at www.myspace.com/bookingtheden or by sending e-mail to Kristoffersen at bookingtheden@gmail.com.