F.A.Qs - Page Currently Being Updated 6th January 2010

Can we all play live in one room?

Yes. I've worked in lots of well known studios and always found recording a live band in a room, with their amps miked in separate isolated places a compromising struggle. So it was our mission to build a studio that could effortlessly do that. Other studios achieve this by putting the drummer in a small dead drum booth, but as a building Analogue Catalogue is so big and solid that we've a choice of rooms, each with a different timbre reverb. So we firstly choose the right room for the drum sound and then place the other players facing the drummer with screens and their amps in different rooms/ spaces. Those amps are placed and miked for 'Keeps' not for 'guides'. no D.I-ing necessary. Vocals are often done as a guide so they can be concentrated on as on overdub.

I want a huge drum sound, How do you do that?

Depends on the song, but we often record the drums in the piano room which has a beautiful natural reverb or the hall which has a Victorian tiled floor and double height ceiling, or overdub addition snares in the tiled tunnel.

Do you have pro tools?

No. The Analogue V Digital debate goes on all over the place all the time but it's mainly centred on the sound comparisons, or the Pros and Cons of the abilities of the 2 formats and not the 2 totally different approaches to recording and production. When recording to analogue you're planning the final mix from the 1st minute of the 1st day of the session. There's no dithering and no "It sounds crap but we'll sort it out in the mix". Well recorded analogue tapes sound great before the mixing and mastering stages, the speed of the session and the instant good results keep up momentum and produce higher levels of focused creativity. Digital's infinite options often just leave you pasting together a thousand pieces of crap. We've never owned Pro tools or similar. But that said clients often bring their own set up and transfer the track(s) so far... build in analogue on tape... then transfer back to their computer for the mix. Rob Ferrier can work well in both analogue and digital. I'll do transfers but won't record to digital... a girls got to have morals!.

feel free to email me any techy questions