Manifold Recording: Preparing the Field

In January 2008, earth moved on a stretch of land off Seaforth Road in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Not for subdivision lots. For sound.

Michael Tiemann had been studying sustainable agriculture at North Carolina State University’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems. The slow food movement resonated with him, the idea that greatness is not just genetics or science, but soil, terroir, culture.

“What it taught was that it's not just genetics, it's not just science that makes great food,” Tiemann said. “It's also the soil, it's also the terroir, the culture… you need to prepare the field to harvest the fruits.” In audio terms, that meant building an environment conducive to “that organic realization of music and other acoustic pursuits.”

He and his wife, Amy, found nearly 17 acres in Pittsboro, 16.76 acres near Jordan Lake, half forest, half field filled with milkweed and pollinators, and broke ground in 2008. The studio opened in late 2011 after nearly four years of deliberate construction.

The cornerstone would be a purpose-built recording studio designed by Wes Lachot.

Lachot, based in Chapel Hill, approached Manifold as a rare opportunity. “It is certainly a luxury to not be constrained by walls at the outset,” he told Mix. “The physics of sound don’t do well with rectilinear geometry. With Manifold, we were able to start with an equilateral triangle at the listening position, then work outward from there… Everything else is an expression of that, down to the ways that the terraces flow into the land.”

That geometry was not aesthetic indulgence. It was acoustic intent. As Lachot further explained, “The creative vision Tiemann proposed was based around the musician and an environment where the Music Room would function as an extension of the instrument.”

The result is a main tracking hall defined by volume, angled planes, and controlled natural reverberation, paired with a 64-channel API Vision analog console and a 144-channel Harrison Trion digital console capable of film scoring and immersive workflows. A Yamaha concert grand anchors the room. The mic locker spans vintage Neumann tubes, Schoeps condensers, Coles ribbons, DPAs, and more. Analog outboard includes classic LA-2As and 1176s. The infrastructure supports both tape-based sessions and modern high-resolution digital production.

“When you sit in the chair overlooking the console,” Tiemann said, “you can look straight out the window into nature, and you're literally at eye level with where the rabbits and the wild turkeys traverse the grass.”

From the beginning, Manifold was built as both instrument and environment.

The First Decade: Sessions Across Genres

Manifold’s debut project in 2011 set the tone. Zenph Sound Innovations brought cellist Zuill Bailey and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian to record The Spanish Masters, a technologically ambitious “re-performance” project using software to drive a Yamaha Disklavier. The album reached Amazon’s Top 10 Classical list and signaled that this new North Carolina studio could operate at international technical standards.

In August 2012, guitarist Jimmy Herring of Widespread Panic held master classes and an intimate performance, his rig captured through the API console under the Music Room’s 24-foot ceiling.

That November, Béla Fleck joined string quartet Brooklyn Rider to record a live album before a 40-person invited audience. Engineered by GRAMMY-winning Jesse Lewis, the session blurred the line between concert and controlled studio capture.

Classical pianist Frederic Chiu spent a week retuning the concert grand to Middle Eastern scales for Hymns and Dervishes, relying on the room’s precision to render microtonal detail. Jazz fusion artists Alex Machacek and Gary Husband tracked through Carr amplifiers and Schoeps and DPA microphones for an audiophile duo project.

Rock and Americana followed. Kat Robichaud tracked an album shortly after appearing on NBC’s The Voice. In 2015, North Carolina native Sarah Shook recorded her debut Sidelong at Manifold, launching a national profile in the alt-country scene. She returned in 2018 for Years, later noted by Rolling Stone. Tiemann has described Shook as one of the studio’s homegrown success stories, an artist whose trajectory reflects the studio’s support of regional voices alongside established names.

Film and broadcast work expanded the scope. In 2017, Branford Marsalis recorded music for HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the studio pivoting quickly to accommodate orchestral scoring. In 2016, Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed the final stop of his tour in the tracking room itself, with multi-camera video capture. During the pandemic in 2020, Rapsody transformed the live room into a production stage for virtual appearances tied to the BET Awards and Essence Festival.

Fundraisers and performances have included artists such as the Indigo Girls and Carole King. James Taylor has performed in the space. More than 200 sessions marked the studio’s first decade.

Behind the marquee names is a working team. “There is staff,” Tiemann noted. “We've got a staff that's been working there for a number of years… an ensemble of engineers who have a variety of skillsets. Some specialize in audiobooks, some specialize in classical, some specialize in jazz. And we also have an extended community… nationally renowned engineers who work with very well-known artists.”

Beyond Music: The Author’s Room

Manifold’s reach extends beyond traditional music recording.

Author Lara Casey recorded two audiobooks at Manifold, Cultivate What Matters and Make It Happen, and described the experience in concrete terms.

“My publisher from Nashville sought out the best studio in the Southeast and they found it.”

“Not only was it acoustically superior and technically superior, to be in that space as someone recording two very personal memoirs was very filling. Usually these experiences as a creative are very draining, but to be in that majestic, there’s no other word for it, I have chills telling you about it right now.”

For Casey, the building itself mattered. “Even without you there, you could feel your heart for this space in every wall, in every nook and cranny.”

Her reaction underscores a through-line in Manifold’s story: technical excellence paired with psychological space.

The Property: Infrastructure and Intent

2540 Seaforth Road encompasses 16.76 acres in Pittsboro, originally approved under a Conditional Use Permit as Windsong Retreat for retreat and bed-and-breakfast operations before its revision to include the professional recording studio.

In addition to the main studio building, the property includes a commercially upfitted residence, equipped with professional-grade kitchen infrastructure installed in compliance with county health guidelines, and a 1,200-square-foot event or yoga space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the grounds. A meditation deck is set back among the trees. The land itself offers elevation and long views across open fields.

The studio is not visible from the road. “You can't actually see the studio from the road,” Tiemann said. “Almost everybody who comes the first time, they go all the way to the end of Seaforth Road.” But “once you enter the gate, that's when the whole studio opens up… when you enter that property, you're in your own world.”

Early photographs made the architecture appear severe. “People thought, ‘This looks too intimidating,’” Tiemann recalled. “But you can feel the love that's been put in there by the artists… and even though it did once look intimidating, I think it now looks inviting.”

The Next Chapter

The field was prepared. The geometry tuned. The consoles wired. The artist relationships established.

What remains is stewardship.

“The fact that the studio has been built, we've done all the hard work,” Tiemann said. “Somebody who is interested in maintaining the connection with nature, with their musical pursuits, and potentially being a mentor, a shepherd to new artists… this is a fantastic opportunity to reach into the community and really be able to offer something.”

In North Carolina, that opportunity carries broader implications. The Triangle anchors a region of universities, technology firms, and a deep musical lineage spanning folk, jazz, hip-hop, and Americana. A facility of this caliber, with analog and digital consoles, scoring capability, integrated video production, retreat housing, and acreage, offers not only commercial viability but potential alignment with music education, artist residencies, and cross-disciplinary work.

For more than a decade, Manifold Recording has demonstrated that world-class production need not be confined to Los Angeles, Nashville, or London. It can exist on 16.76 acres outside Pittsboro, where geometry meets landscape and a control-room window frames wild turkeys crossing the grass.

The next chapter belongs to whoever understands what was built there: not just a studio, but a field prepared for music to grow.