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
