Two years ago longtime music engineer David Heintz peeked through the dirty window of an aging Masonic Lodge on N. Columbia Street in Covington and saw a wide-open floor littered with junk, crumbled tiles and cracked linoleum.

It was a gold mine, he said. He fell in love.

Heintz had just broken ties with Legacy Music, a small non-profit Christian recording studio operated out of a friend’s garage in Mandeville. And although there are already three other studios on the Northshore — Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Balance in Mandeville and Sweet Mix in Slidell — Heintz was looking for his own studio space. Several months of “blood, sweat and tears” later, Studio Landing was born.

DAVID HEINTZ

The result is a new state-of-the-art, 2,400-square-foot recording studio filled with professional equipment such as Protools, Avalon preamps, a singing booth and a 40- by 60-foot hardwood floor jam space.

“You never know when that big band is going to come through that really shines,” he said. “There’s so much talent out here, but some people can’t afford thousands of dollars to record a few songs to get their demo out there. So that talent is wasted. Nobody hears them.”

That’s where Heintz steps in.

For a special $30 per hour introductory fee, Heintz will record anyone from rhythm and blues bands, country rockers, rappers, punk metal and more.

He said his prices are more than 200 to 1,000 percent cheaper than other area studios, but he doesn’t care. The music comes first, he said.

“Music stretches and expands your mind,” he said. “And people here are so talented. I just want to be a part of it. Even if it doesn’t make it big time, to know you worked on that is so cool.

“If bands are rubbing their nickels and dimes together they might get a session. But here the pay doesn’t start until the record button is on.”

Unlike Studio in the Country, where Kansas recorded “Carry on Wayward Son” and Stevie Wonder, the Neville Brothers, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffet have all laid down tracks, Sound Landing’s client base is just building.

Recently, Aaskish Khan’s group the North Indian Music band, made up of players from Denmark, California, Germany and other places, cut eight songs in the studio. Khan, a relative of Ravi Shankar, who turned on the Beatles to the Sitar, is scheduled to return, Heintz said. And Krystal Lupo, a former client who opened for country music star Randy Travis at the Castine Center in Mandeville a few years ago, hopes to cut a record, he said.

It’s only a matter of time before the hits come, he said.

For now, Heintz sits back in his leather chair, lights cinnamon candles and twists some knobs on the sounds board.

A few moments later, a smooth jazz sound gushes out of the speakers. The track is hip, but mature. Then New Orleans’ Sydney Beaumont’s vocals kick in.

It’s the next big hit, Heintz said, smiling.

It’s just one of dozens of tracks he’s recorded in the past several months, ranging from punk rock to country. Even former Louisiana Music Commissioner Bernie Cyrus has recorded a few songs there.

“When you have a studio like David’s, it’s on the top echelon,” Cyrus said. “You’re serious when you walk in there. You’re ready to put together a product.”

And like Heintz, Cyrus is not worried about more studios flooding the market.

“People are making records faster and more often than they did before,” Cyrus said. “Another studio shows the balance of success of individual bands selling records on the Northshore.”

Cyrus, who hosts a local music radio show, said dozens of CDs are mailed to him weekly.

“The bottom line is everybody has a record out now,” he said. “And David is a great engineer. I have no doubt they will come to him.”

And while the Mecca of live music and the birth place of jazz remains New Orleans, Heintz said the tranquility of a studio just several feet from the Bogue Falaya River, a coffee house and several good restaurants bodes well for stirring creative juices.

“You get away from all the other things here,” he said. “It’s like a big living room.”