News
That’s the Spirit!
21 July 2009
Neve console and outboard helps add class to School of Sound Recording’s new studio
SSR – the School of Sound Recording,
in Manchester, UK – is more than a training establishment. Its genesis
was in Spirit Studios, a 4-track studio plus rehearsal rooms, whose
first customer (back in 1980) was The Smiths. It soon became the studio
of choice not only for Manchester-scene bands such as The Stone Roses,
Happy Mondays and New Order, but for producers including Trevor Horn,
Martin Hannet and Arthur Baker. With their help, Spirit gradually
morphed into an educational facility, becoming the School of Sound
Recording in 1984.
During those early years – and indeed until
his death in 2007 – one of the pivotal figures in Manchester’s creative
scene was the impresario Tony Wilson. A journalist, radio presenter and
TV show host who also owned the Factory Records label, he was the music
mogul behind many of Manchester’s most successful bands.
SSR’s
latest development, an answer to feedback from the students themselves,
blends those three strands – education, commercial recording and
Wilson’s work as a cultural ambassador for Manchester – in the launch
of the Tony Wilson scholarship and the unveiling of the school’s new
Spirit Studio, home to a lovingly restored Neve VRP48.
The
scholarship makes available £12,000 per year to help with course fees
for Manchester applicants looking for a career in music or media. The
studio, meanwhile, will earn its keep both as a teaching environment
and as a commercial facility. In educational terms, it is a top flight
studio completing SSR’s range of 15 studios and edit suites for audio
engineering, music production and film/TV production students.
Graduates will be able to book bands in there too and make money from
engineering sessions – ‘We intend to make Spirit Studio affordable
despite its amazing specification,’ explains SSR’s operational
director, Bill Devon.
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We’re doing our bit to support local talent… Spirit Studio will certainly rival the best the UK has to offer |
The Neve VRP48 at the centrepiece of this 1500sq ft facility is complemented by PMC MB2S-A monitors. With PMC’s conditions of sale insisting on extremely high standards in acoustic treatment, this is the first sanctioned use of these prestigious speakers in a European educational establishment.
While students were involved in the initial design and tutors helped with the cabling, SSR called in the experts for structural and other specialist applications. Acoustic design for the space – a large open plan control room and an isolation booth, plus networking to SSR’s live facility, The Charlie Jones Venue – was overseen by Jochen Veith, while refurbishment of the desk was under the direction of Neil McCombie (ScotchMcNeil Audio) and carried out at the premises of GJC Designs in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire.
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| Neil McCombie (L) and Gareth Connor |
‘Around 400 hours was needed to replace 12,450 capacitors with proprietary console spares supplied by AMS Neve,’ explains GJC’s Gareth Connor. The remaining 150 hours were for testing, fault tracing and repair, customization, cosmetics and project administration.
‘Each installation comes with its own set of challenges,’ he adds, mentioning among other things the need to make new power supply cables, the originals having been hacksawed through when the console was decommissioned in Taiwan. Then there are logistics.
‘With the SSR installation, the size of the lift necessitated that the console frame be partly dis-assembled at GJC Designs prior to its delivery to SSR. It is a little depressing having to unplug half of the console wiring, remove and pack all the plasma meter units, and unbolt the frame so as to split a fully-working console into two parts.
‘The manpower help and enthusiasm from the SSR people to move everything from the loading area to the Spirit Studio was greatly appreciated,’ Connor says, ‘as was their help in carefully manhandling and mechanically aligning the two console halves under Neil's instruction during the re-bolting procedure. The work associated with a console split can easily add two days to a commissioning job.’
That work has paid off, as has SSR’s insistence on the best equipment possible – including (of course) Neve channels in the Einstein outboard rack. ‘We use these as preamps/warm up processors,’ says Bill Devon, ‘and for that Neve EQ – very handy on digital sound sources and also final mixes.’ The room will be fully operational as from SSR’s September 2009 intake.
But perhaps the final word should go to Spirit’s longest-standing customers. As Mike Joyce, drummer for The Smiths, puts it, ‘Manchester has never really had a professional, top end studio. This is it. I can’t wait to bring some bands here. They will be blown away.’
