The Story of adotstate

My name is Tito Sanchez, and I'm the founder and engineer behind adotstate Recording Studio.

For more than 20 years, I've worked with artists and helped shape music in Milwaukee — especially rap, hip hop, R&B, and vocal recording. What started with basic home recording equipment eventually became a dedicated recording studio built around helping artists create.

I was born in 1979 and became interested in music at a very young age.

Around age five, I remember repeatedly playing Tina Turner's What's Love Got to Do with It on vinyl. By six or seven, I was experimenting with a toy keyboard.

Around age ten, my friend Maverick and I were making skate videos on VHS and putting the hip hop music we loved behind them. Those early experiences with music, recording, and video were the beginning of what eventually became a lifelong interest in audio.

My first recording setups were simple. I experimented with equipment such as RadioShack mixers, Sound Blaster computer cards, cassette decks, and whatever recording equipment I could get access to.

My brother Eddie, my friends, and I also built a half-pipe and spent a lot of time skating while listening to artists such as N.W.A. The recording quality was basic compared with today's technology, but those early setups helped create the drive to keep learning about sound and recording.

After losing a job, I decided to invest in myself. I used money from unemployment checks to begin building the recording business.

One of the first things I did was print approximately 1,000 black-and-white business cards. I went out and promoted the studio directly — passing cards out in the streets and working with people I knew on Milwaukee's north side. That hustle helped bring in the studio's first wave of clients.

A mixtape project called The Murder Mill, which I worked on with Warren Carter and D. White, also helped generate recognition. From those early years, adotstate continued to grow.

Today, adotstate is focused primarily on vocal recording for rap, hip hop, and R&B artists in Milwaukee. The studio combines experienced engineering with professional recording equipment, including gear from Neve, Tube-Tech, and UAD / Universal Audio.

The studio is designed to give artists a comfortable place to record their music while receiving hands-on engineering assistance during the session. My focus is on working with the artists who come through the studio rather than recording my own music.

adotstate is built around helping artists record efficiently, feel comfortable, and leave with music they're proud to continue developing.

Ordinary booked studio time includes studio time and engineering assistance during your scheduled session. Mixing and mastering are not part of a standard session — the goal is a clean, solid recording you can keep building on.