Ground Floor: Cedar Rapids musician opens Crown Studios audio production facility

CEDAR RAPIDS - Tim King has made music in a lot of places over the years, including his mother's attic, his father's basement, and his grandparents' dining room.

These days, King is making music in his own space, Crown Studios, a full-line audio production facility.

'I want to make a comfortable living for me and my family doing what I love to do,” King said. 'More importantly, I want to help people express themselves through their music. I place that above my own stuff.”

King took up guitar at the age of five and began recording music when he was 10 or 11 years old. With a four-track cassette recorder given to him by his mother, he began studying old Beatles records and trying to replicate the recording techniques.

'I found I had an ear for taking sounds and emulating things,” he said.

Fascinated by the technology, King upgraded his recording equipment as often as he could to get more tracks and achieve deeper layers of sound. After graduating from Kirkwood Community College, he took a job at the now closed Music Go Round store in Cedar Rapids, selling used music equipment and teaching guitar.

'That job afforded the opportunity to hone my craft harder,” he said.

In 2011, King went back to school to obtain a degree in business administration, with the intention of applying what he learned to his love of music. During his last two semesters at Coe College, he developed a business plan for a recording studio as part of an independent study project and set up a company, Kingsway Audio Productions.

King opened his first studio in November 2014 in the Music Loft building on First Avenue, renting space from his former guitar instructor, musician Craig Erickson. During that time, he mixed Erickson's latest studio album and played drums on some of the songs.

In August, he moved the studio to a former office space in southwest Cedar Rapids, renaming it Crown Studios in an effort to build a brand.

King said he designed the new studio to be an inviting, creative environment.

'The trick is to get the space to work for you as best you can,” he said. 'I want the quality of my work to stand above any room I happen to be in.”

Crown Studios offers recording, mixing, and mastering services. Other services include editing, audio restoration, songwriting, and artist development. King also does session work, which is playing instruments on other people's recordings, and plays in his own band, Four Star Fate.

He said one of his clients recently landed a record deal, with a label release set for spring of 2016.

'At the end of the day, I enjoy working with people and fulfilling their idea of success,” he said. 'Before, it was a passion thing. Now it's a real thing.”

l Know a company or manager who has been in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor”? Contact Francie Williamson at francie.williamson@thegazette.com