NEW YORK-Six years after it opened as an underground project studio in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn here, Basement Recordings has established itself as the leading multimedia school in its community

Trevor John, owner and director of the black-owned complex, says its transformation has fulfilled his dreams of empowering local producers, engineers, and musicians with the knowledge and tools they need to create their art.

"My main idea has always been that people have to have access," says John, a 36-year-old entrepreneur who has a chemical engineering

degree from Columbia University and 15 years experience in electrical engineering. "Technology is impacting on the music business in a major way. An artist can be extremely talented, but if he can't use and understand this technology it will affect his music, his marketing. It changes his whole value. What we've done in terms of the music aspect is create resources."

Basement offers three levels of classes in music production, digital media, sound theory, MIDI, equipment mechanics, computers, video, and related fields. The first level covers the basics of digital recording in a project studio; level two probes such aspects of digital sound as inputs/outputs, communications, buses, and the various professional digital formats; and the third tier gives students intense, hands-on experience working on specific projects.

The classes are offered free of charge for approximately three hours each, a couple of days a week, for six-to-eight weeks per level. The number of class hours varies with the needs of each student, according to John.

Basement-which also functions as a commercial recording facility-subsidizes the educational program with fees from the paid projects. Its overhead is low because most of its equipment is supplied free by manufacturers interested in contributing to the educational aspects of the complex.

Basement's gear includes a Mackie Designs 24-by-8 console; Yamaha DMP11, DMP7, and DMP7D units; a Yamaha DMR-8 hard-disc recorder; lomega drives; Tascam analog tape machines; and an analog six-track recorder from Japanese manufacturer Vestax.

In exchange for their products, the manufacturers receive reports on product use, suggestions for improvements, and proposals for equipment development. Other companies-i.e., Commodore Business Computers, NEC and Innovision-have also established symbiotic relationships with Basement.

The studio-cum-school also offers outside seminars throughout the New York metropolitan area. To date, more than 7,000 students have attended such programs at Medgar Evers College, the Schomburg Center, Long Island University, and other schools, says John.

"One of the things that amazes me about these guys is that they consistently get supported and consistently get attendance at their seminars," says Dave Firestone, VP of sales and marketing at Woodinville, Wash.-based console manufacturer Mackie Designs. "Usually we say no [to free-equipment programs], but these guys convinced me. People who are doing the real work are the ones that we're attracting these days."

Harrison William, a sound mixer who is working on a 30-minute video project at Basement, says the facility has provided him with educational opportunities that might be limited elsewhere.

"Here, they allow you to experiment-to come up with a concept and embellish it," says William, who has worked in a technical support capacity on "Saturday Night Live" and coordinated the sound for the independent film "Just Another Girl On The IRT."

William adds that inner-city youth now have the ability to generate revenue for the community by tapping into a multimillion-dollar industry. "Here, the focal point is to produce a finished product," he says. "Then you take that product, develop a market place [for it], and afterward you can employ the youth and put the money back into the community.

Teddy Vann, a Grammy Award winning producer who has worked at Basement since its inception, says, "Basement Recordings is that proper place where new ideas and new visions can be properly cultivated."

Vann-who earned a best R&B song Grammy for the 1992 Luther Vandross smash "Power Of Love/Love Power"-adds that Basement's location has been integral to its success. "It's where it should be," he says of the facility's East Flatbush site. "A house in Brooklyn with all the needed attitude to make young minds with vision possible."

Some of those young minds have come full circle at Basement. Having started out as students, they now teach classes. For instance, Leroy Francis, an 18-year-old audio instructor, says the access to the extensive range of technology and interactive instruction opened up opportunities for him and other youths in Flatbush.

"Everything that I'm using now-the mixing and producing aspects, computers, video-everything that I'm picking up now I can definitely use later" says Francis.

John adds that all of Basement's instructors were onetime students. He also points out that members of successful bands-like Immortal/Epic act Funkdoobiest-are Basement alumni.

Struggling musicians benefit from Basement's programs by learning the technology and using the studio free of charge. Trinidadian steel drummer Garvin Blake, who performed on the P.M. Dawn single "Forever Damaged," is recording his upcoming album, "Belle Eau Road Blues," at Basement. The project, a calypso/jazz fusion album that showcases Blake's world-class steel drumming, also features bassist Bakiti Kumato, who toured with Paul Simon during his "Graceland" period; drummer Damon Duewhite, whose credits include Rachelle Ferrell and Harry Belafonte; and noted bass player Gene Torres.

Basement opened in the late `80s as a recording studio in the cellar of John's East Flatbush apartment. John and Augustin Hinkson, a medical student who shared a serious interest in music production, recognized the need for a technological center in Flatbush. In 1989, they solicited various manufacturers to contribute products finally convincing Yamaha Corp. to participate.

"The relationship began with recognition that Yamaha was connected to the heart of the black community," says Yamaha senior VP Ron Raup. "It represented an opportunity to learn more about this growing market that was responsible for American music, jazz- things of that nature."

Basement's success has been so dramatic that John is considering expanding the facility "We're busting out at the seams," he says. "It got to a point where people would come in and we'd ask, `How did you know?'"

The word-of-mouth is spreading so quickly Basement is barely able to keep up with demand. "Just recently, people have been stopping me on the street," says Ricky Roberts, an 18-year-old graphics instructor at Basement. "They see me with the Basement T-shirt on and ask me how can they take classes. The word is out that Basement is teaching technology and they want to be down."

August 5,1995