Sault Ste. Marie's newest live music venue set to make its debut (7 photos)

Sault Ste. Marie’s newest live concert venue and recording studio is getting ready for the spotlight and the Algoma Conservatory of Music says it is allowing more musical acts to be booked in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Loft is a 170-seat concert venue that was recently built into one end of a previously unused 5,000-square-foot attic in the Algoma Conservatory of Music, the building formerly used as offices for St. Marys Paper .

Guy Traficante, principal of Algoma Conservatory of Music, said the project has taken many twists and turns since then and was delayed because of COVID-19.

“It’s been a long process with lots of planning details. I don’t think anything ended up being exactly as what was originally planned, it evolved as it went,” said Traficante.

Usually the conservatory brings in about seven acts a year. Traficante said the new venue is allowing it to make a big jump to 30 acts this season alone. Between The Loft and The Machine Shop.

The project was first announced in 2016 when the conservatory received $2.1 million in federal funding to get the ball rolling.

Since then, the coffers have been topped up by a number of federal and provincial funding sources, as well as hundreds of donors in the community. The fundraising campaign for the project was put on hold because of COVID-19, but will resume in the new year.

“For funding in this interim period we very generously received financing through Community First as well as the BDC,” said Traficante.

The stage at The Loft is dominated by a concert grand piano that had to be lifted to the third storey by crane.

Seating can be removed or added, depending on the needs of the venue. Currently it is set up lounge-style, with 100 seats and a number of small tables that were built from reclaimed drawers found in the basement of the building.

The room includes professional lighting and a camera system is being installed to record live performances. A projector and surround sound system will also allow the venue to show prerecorded concerts.

Traficante said some of the best sound engineers in the business were brought in early on in the project assess the viability of turning the attic into a live concert venue.

“Basically they said to do almost nothing. What you have here — the basic bones you have — would cost more than $40 million to produce elsewhere and we couldn’t guarantee a better sound than it naturally has,” said Traficante.

The venue has been fitted with metal ceilings to complement the existing brick and steel beams in the room. Traficante said those hard surfaces reflect more of the sound throughout the room.

“The material doesn’t create the nature of the sound, the instrument does. The surface is simply reflecting that to you naturally and that’s what the room does,” he said.

Recently, a live band was brought in with no audience in the room to test out the acoustics.

“We had Frank Deresti and the Lake Effect in here to do our first dry run of a mic’d band and it was fantastic,” said Greig Nori, general Manager of the Loft and recording studio.

At the other end of the third floor is full recording studio and a live room, dominated by a vintage Neve mixing board that was sourced by Nori from a broker who specializes in tracking down gear.

“These things are like the Cadillacs of sound boards. This one is from the early 80s and is top-of-the-line,” said Nori.

The Neve board was also brought in by crane after a long trip from Miami and spending a few years in storage.

Nori said the board once belonged to producer Jimmy Douglas.

“He has recorded a Grammy-award winning album by Justin Timberlake, he has done Kanye West, Sean Paul, Rob Thomas, Ludacris, Jay-Z. He is one of the world’s best-known producers and he owned this board,” said Nori of Douglas’ resume.

The studio and Neve board are linked by fibre optic cables and a second set runs from the conservatory building to the The Machine Shop next door. Nori hopes that will attract more acts to book in the Sault to take advantage of everything the venue has to offer.

“There are no recording studios, in Canada anyway, that are linked to two live music venues.” Said Nori. “I think in the Sault we are sitting on something unique and we are hoping a lot of bands will take advantage of it because it’s a one-stop-shop.”

What is really exciting, said Nori, is the learning opportunities that will be made available by the performance space and recording studio for students of the conservatory, Algoma university’s music program and Sault College’s video production program.

“Once this is up and running it will be a revolving door of co-op students coming down here and giving them hands-on experience,” he said.

Situated in between the performance space and recording studio are new washrooms, an elevator and a commercial kitchen.

“We want to make our events more than just coming to see a concert,” said Nori. “We built a commercial kitchen in there so an artist can play for 45 minutes or an hour and then break and we do a full tapas and beer specials that might match the theme of the night.”

The Loft Launch series begins Nov. 5 and 6 with a concert by David Jalbert Piano, followed by the Ovalle Project Live on Nov. 14. Frank Deresti and the lake Effect play the venue Nov. 26 and 27.

For more listings at The Loft click here.