“They encourage me to work in a way that I like, and I’m very happy to be supporting ATC — a British company that
works hard to make good speakers.”
– Matt Colton (MPG Mastering Engineer of the Year)
LONDON, UK: specialist British loudspeaker drive unit and complete sound reproduction system
manufacturer ATC is proud to announce that MPG Mastering Engineer of the Year Award-winner
Matt Colton has installed a pair of SCM150ASL PRO three-way active loudspeakers for critical
listening in his room at Alchemy Mastering in West London…
Thanks to an always-widening array of ear-bending analogue and digital technologies, the mastering process is far from simple. Mastering means bringing well-honed listening skills to the table and for Matt Colton — named Mastering Engineer of the Year at last year’s MPG Awards — mastering is where his heart has been for quite some time. Indeed, time well spent mastering his craft with several tenures across London — including Porky’s Mastering, Optimum Mastering, Alchemy Mastering, and AIR Studios — led to the sought-after, award-winning mastering engineer relaunching Alchemy Mastering with original owners Barry Grint and Phil Kinrade at a new Hammersmith facility where he has succeeded in becoming a master of his own destiny with his own well-stocked mastering room to boot. Here he continues to build on his growing
reputation, mastering for the likes of Coldplay, James Blake, Gary Numan, and Metronomy. Like his career, Colton’s mastering CV is a long and accomplished affair.
For Colton, though, there’s more to mastering than simply having access to the latest and greatest ear-bending analogue and digital technologies: “The thing about kit is that the things that are really important are the acoustics, speakers, amps, convertors, power supplies, and the wiring that connects them all together — anything that affects the sound in the room. You cannot get around that. So I would rather have a great-sounding room and a workstation with a couple of plug-ins than every piece of hardware ever made and a poor-sounding room, because — no matter how much you say you understand the room — we all react to what’s coming out of the speakers and make our judgements based on how it sounds in the room. If the room is too bassy then the recording is going to be bass light — even if we know the room is too bassy, so that’s fundamental.”
Fundamental to Colton’s current way of working is a pair of SCM150ASL PRO three-way active loudspeakers: “Having worked at AIR on a really lovely pair of hi-fi speakers, I felt I wanted to go back to studio monitoring and have something that maybe sounded a bit less polished in terms of the actual sound that’s coming out of the speaker. So I’m working on a pair of SCM150ASL PROs. I’d previously worked on a pair of SCM200s many years ago, which I loved, but I think the 150 is a great speaker.”
An unconventional demonstration convinced Colton that the SCM150ASL PRO patently met his critical listening criteria: “I did a lecture at Westminster University in Harrow to over 100 people in a really big lecture hall with a massive ceiling height of 50 feet or so. Ben Lilly of ATC brought along a pair of SCM150s and I played some James Blake records with really low sub-bass — down at around 35Hz, and they just sounded glorious. It was a wonderful experience to hear those records played in that room only on a pair of speakers. So, on that basis, I’ve got the 150s in my mastering room — sadly, not quite as big as that lecture hall!”
With well-honed listening skills par excellence, Colton is perfectly positioned to provide honest insight into the stunningsounding SCM150ASL PRO in action at Alchemy Mastering: “They’re a direct and honest pair of speakers. If the mix sounds good, then it sounds good here; if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. There’s no flattery on the part of the speakers, though they can be wonderful to listen to when you get it right. I’m enjoying working on them. They encourage me to work in a way that I like, and I’m very happy to be supporting ATC — a British company that works hard to make good speakers.”
“They give a really great image of everything that’s going on, whether I’m tracking a live band or working on something with a massive 808 kick drum.”
– Mark Ronson (record producer, DJ, musician)
LONDON, UK: specialist British loudspeaker drive unit and complete sound reproduction system manufacturer ATC is pleased to announce that genre-hopping, Grammy Award-winning record producer, DJ, and musician Mark Ronson has installed a pair of SCM25A PRO three-way compact active loudspeakers in his new Munro Acoustics and Steve Durr designed studio space at London’s Tileyard Studios complex…
“I was looking for a place around here,” he says, having first established himself as a diverse DJ on the New York club scene in 1993, before moving into record production in 2001 with American singer Nikka Costa’s first US album release, Everybody Got Their Something. A string of high-profile pop production and performance credits quickly followed for the likes of Lily Allen, Robbie Williams, Nas, Adele, Bruno Mars, and, most notably, Amy Winehouse, with whom Ronson bagged no fewer than three Grammys in 2008 — Producer Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and Best Pop Vocal Album. Ronson soon stormed the charts in his own right with his second solo album, Version, hitting the number 2 spot in the UK and earning him a BRIT Award for Best Male Solo Artist in 2008. Ronson repeated the feat in 2010, reaching number 2 with a third studio album, Record Collection, credited to Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
“I haven’t had my own studio since I left New York about four years ago,” continues Ronson. “I looked at some other prebuilt studios being sold, but then it came up that all these rooms were being built at Tileyard.”
With over 50 permanent recording studios to its notable name, Tileyard Studios, situated in London’s Kings Cross Central, bills itself as being the newest and most creative hub in Europe. Little wonder, then, that the super-successful Ronson was happy to put down his recording roots there: “Building my own place from scratch meant that I could incorporate some of my favourite things from all the studios that I’ve loved working at during the last four years, like the analogue aspect of Daptone in Brooklyn, where we recorded the Amy stuff, as well as the MIDI and computer aspect.”
Inspired by a visit to a new Nashville studio built for The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Ronson recruited the studio designer responsible, Steve Durr, to collaborate with London-based consultant Chris Walls of Munro Acoustics to build something similar at Tileyard: “It just had a great vibe — kind of like one of those old RCA studios in Nashville, so my live room is, likewise, really well designed, with a no-frills vibe — like walking into any old studio from the ’60s.”
While Ronson may well have sought inspiration from the past for his live room, selecting suitable monitoring for his control room was a different proposition entirely with ATC’s SCM25A PRO three way compact active loudspeakers quickly catching his ear: “I was walking around other studios with Chris Walls from Munro so he could get a sense of what I liked. We went to British Grove, and I just couldn’t believe how amazing they sounded — so much punch, bite, and growl, then this really pristine top end. It was kind of a revelation, and I just thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get any other speakers other than those when I get into my space.’ I was sold on first listen. I then had another chance to use the speakers when, Audio Power Tools, Brooklyn let me borrow a pair to test them out when I was at Avatar in New York, tracking some stuff for Paul McCartney’s new album.”
With Ronson duly sold on what he had heard, London-based Funky Junk, Europe’s largest stockists of new and used professional audio equipment, made the sale. Says Ronson, “They were very cool and easy to work with.”
Now that the super-sounding SCM25A PROs are happily nestling on the meter bridge of Ronson’s beloved vintage MCI 500 Series console at his super-sounding studio space at Tileyard, the results clearly speak volumes, as is borne out by their super-satisfied owner’s super-supportive closing comments: “When I was starting out, I used whatever monitors I could afford, then I worked my way up to things like Genelecs and KRKs — all really nice, but they’ve got nothing on the ATCs, as far as I’m concerned. For the most part, I spend most of my time on the ATCs now. They give a great image of everything that’s going on, whether I’m tracking a live band or working on something with a massive 808 kick drum.”
Audio Power Tools, Brooklyn, USA
Funky Junk, London, England
SINGAPORE: specialist British loudspeaker drive unit and complete sound reproduction system manufacturer ATC is pleased to announce that Yellow Box Studios, Singapore’s largest and most highly-awarded audio post-production facility, has installed a top-of-the-range pair of SCM300ASL PRO three-way active series loudspeakers in its new no-expense-spared music production and recording facility…
“The music production and recording facility is also meant to cover our post-production needs as we do quite a lot of music recording and ADR for our films and commercials.” So says Yellow Box Studios Managing Director Rennie Gomes, a go-getting, multi-tasking individual who is also actively involved as a sought-after sound designer and composer at the company he co-founded back in 1995. Backtracking further still, Rennie reveals, “Singapore was already a hub for post-production back in the ’90s, and, even before setting up Yellow Box, I already had a good pool of clients from around the region. So setting up in Singapore was a natural choice, given its strong infrastructure and economy.”
With a city centre-sited state-of-the-art studio and office to its company name, Yellow Box Studios set about producing soundtracks for feature films, television drama series, and television commercials with much success — so much so, in fact, that the decision was recently taken to expand its base of operations to include a new music production and recording facility housing a dub stage and one of Singapore’s largest recording rooms in a light industrial unit within a stone’s throw of Changi International Airport. Arguably a risky business move in today’s rapidly changing climate, surely? “You can’t hear a thing in any of the rooms, so all credit to the designer — who, coincidentally, created one of the rooms at Abbey Road — and an amazing building contractor,” Rennie responds, semi-seriously, before adding: “We were all aware of the challenging times the music industry is going through, but we knew we could make it work if we diversified the use of the room. Singapore doesn’t have many large recording rooms anymore, which puts us in a good position to record 30-piece string arrangements or a 60-strong choir, both of which we’ve already achieved since opening.”
Both studio and control rooms are suspended on floating floors with fully-ducted, acoustically-dampened, ultra-quiet air-conditioning. Professional as that may sound on paper, making that control room sound professional in reality involved installing some premier professional audio equipment, evidently. At its heart is a discrete analogue mixer designed by one of the most trusted names in pro audio, perfectly partnered with industry performance overachiever ATC’s flagship SCM300ASL PRO three-way active professional series loudspeakers as its main monitoring system. “They were highly recommended by one of my senior engineers,” explains Rennie. “We had heard a pair in another facility and were very impressed.”
And first impressions can count now more than ever in today’s tightly-constrained recording world, which is exactly why those SCM300ASL PROs have been paying dividends for Yellow Box Studios from the get-go: “The response has been mind-blowing — even more so from the audio professionals that have set foot in the room. In this day and age of huge compromises in sound production, because of tight budgets, we are proving that paying a little more does, indeed, go a long way. Engineers and musicians are bringing in their favourite mic pres, amps, and other gizmos to test in our room, and they’re amazed at the results. We’re finally able to do large-format recording, helped by having the SCM300s in a room that best compliments their sound, because being able to hear an accurate bottom end matters so much when you’re doing large string sessions and band recordings. In a sense, we are bringing back the romance of a great recording experience without any compromise — sort of a dying art, really.”
Reasons Rennie: “As for the music scene in Singapore and the region in general, let’s just say we’re still optimistic as we’ve already had some amazing compliments about the recording room and how accurate everything sounds, which is exactly what we were striving for in the first place.” Thanks to ATC’s SCM300ASL PRO three-way active professional series loudspeakers, what sounds good for Yellow Box Studios is also a good thing for its host nation, it seems: “Singapore has never really had a state-of-the-art facility for audio like this one, where film and music are merged. We foresaw this convergence of media a long time ago, and now music and picture are prevalent in all interactive and traditional media, so having such a facility also attracts mid-level to high-end projects to our shores as more and more projects we work on are for an international audience. There’s always a certain kind of magic that happens when I see film producers and directors meet with bands and music producers in the same building. I think it’s called… collaboration!”
Speaking of which, Yellow Box Studios’ collaboration with ATC was also deemed a resounding success at an all-important installation level, too. “The installation went very well,” wraps up Rennie on another uplifting note. “It was basically a case of set up and go, with not many tweaks needed as the system suits the room so well.” That it does. And, as a direct result of that fateful first listening session and subsequent sizeable installation investment, Yellow Box Studios can hear clearly now and forevermore with their new ATC300 ASL PROs.
Yellow Box Studios: www.yellowboxstudios.com
Mastering engineer Mike Wells has installed a new pair of ATC SCM150ASL Pro three-way active reference monitor speakers – purchased from Brad Lunde, president of U.S. distributor TransAudio Group in Las Vegas – at his studio in North Hollywood, CA. Wells almost immediately discovered how accurately mixes mastered at his new facility translated outside his studio while working with Vance Powell on an album that he engineered and mixed for up-and-coming indie rock band The Young Things.
From winning a shoot-out against other prospective mastering houses to completing the album master took only days, Wells reports. “The whole thing happened in four days, and I really think a lot of that had to do with the seamlessness of translation coming from the mix to the master. Vance’s perspective and the producer’s perspective on the mixes all felt very similar to what I was hearing. When I sent them tracks back they said, ‘Yes, this is what we want!’ I’m doing better work with the ATCs – I’m making better, faster decisions, I’m making less revisions and clients are happier.”
Wells recently moved into a room in the famed former Kingsound Studios complex in North Hollywood, now owned by production music company Megatrax, after relocating from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area over a year ago. The new ATC SCM150 monitors replaced a pair of Dunlavy SC-V passive monitors, which Wells had been using for the past eight years, but which were not suited to his new facility. “You need a lot of space and a long throw to be able to run the Dunlavys,” he explains.
“I didn’t want to lose the performance and the fidelity that I was getting, but I clearly needed a smaller format speaker,” he continues. During his research, Wells found a review in Stereophile magazine comparing the ATC SCM150 speakers with the Dunlavys, which are no longer manufactured. “The reviewer wrote that it’s so hard to find a speaker that can perform like the Dunlavy, because of its legend and its reputation. The ATC 150 was the only speaker he’d heard in a long time that not only came close but also that he felt would be a wonderful next-generation speaker. So I got in touch with Brad at TransAudio.”
Changing over to the SCM150s offered a number of advantages, according to Wells. “I’ve reduced the crossover count and I’ve got a smaller footprint. There are so many crossovers in the Dunlavy system that I always felt I had to double-check crossover count. But most people don’t listen on large array systems, so I wanted to get onto a system that was at most a three-way. Plus, because most systems today are active, I wanted to represent what’s happening in the marketplace better. So the ATCs met all of my criteria – and the price point was great,” says Wells.
He also notes, “I didn’t even have to play with the positioning. We put them down, turned them on, and…that’s what I was looking for! We fine-tuned them from there.”
He concludes, “I feel like I’ve been doing better work since I got the ATCs. It’s the sum of all the parts: this rig is the best that it’s ever been and I’m in this awesome, acoustically correct room. My revision list from every client has been greatly reduced, which I attribute to the ATCs and this room. It’s everything that you want to hear from a results standpoint.”
Mike Wells Mastering, 4470 W. Sunset Blvd, #147, Los Angeles, CA. 90027.
Telephone: +1.323.363.2339
Email: info@mikewellsmastering.com
Transaudio Group, 7340 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite A, Las Vegas, NV. 89128
Telephone: 702-365-5155
Email: sales@transaudiogroup.com
Dean St. Studios, Soho have added a pair of new SCM50ASL Pro studio monitors after their beloved old pair departed with their old engineer. Here’s their current engineer, Austen Jux-Chandler to give you an insight into the studio and why they saw replacing the SCM50’s as such a high priority.
Dean St Studios, 59 Dean St, London, W1D 6AN
Tel: +44 207 734 8009
email: info@deanst.com
British Grove Studios, Chiswick, London have added to their already envious selection of ATC studio monitors with two pairs of ATC’s new SCM25A loudspeakers. With five of ATC largest monitors, the SCM300ASL, already installed in both control rooms 1 and 2, and a wide selection of other monitoring options, the studio was hardly short. However owner, Mark Knopfler, studio manager David Stewart and the rest of the staff all believed the ATC SCM25A to be a must have loudspeaker. This has been reinforced by many of the engineers and producers working in the studio and the monitors have quickly become a favorite on the majority of sessions.
British Grove Studios
Tel: +44 (0)208 7418941
Contact: David Stewart
Email: davidstewart@britishgrovestudios.com
Web: www.britishgrovestudios.co.uk
Written and compiled by RA founding directors, Roger D’Arcy and Hugh Flynn and featuring the photography of Neil Waving who has been shooting RA’s studio projects around the world since 1987. The Book includes a foreword by industry legend, Adrian Kerridge, owner of the landmark recording facilities Lansdowne and CTS which were designed around ATC monitoring systems. Architectural-acoustic details, plans and photographs of both are illustrated in RA:The Book along with several other major studios featuring ATC speakers – including Alberts, Babajim (see image), Cream, Robert Miles, Rainmaker and Songphonic. The book provides an in-depth guide to RA’s design techniques over a 24 year period making it a “must have” item for anyone interested in the world of recording studios.
SPECIFICATIONS
Hardback – cover price GBP £135
350 pages printed on 130gsm “silk” paper
270mm x 380mm (10½ ” x 15″)
140+ project plans
330+ details and drawings
150+ full colour photographs
ISBN: 978-1-907759-16-1
Please note that RA:The Book is not available in any electronic or downloadable format
