AudioMedia - June 2008 - (Page 43)

KOOLWORLD > machine, sits another source of pride – the studio’s Soundtracs Jade console. This, though, is soon to be replaced, as Wooster is looking around for the next analogue front end: “The desk that we’re likely to go for will be the new valve console that TL Audio is bringing out I don’t want to replace the Jade with anything less to be honest, it’s been a great desk.” More generally, on the analogue front end, Wooster knows what he thinks: I personally believe it still helps with what we do – definitely for the live things, it does create a good sound, and that, after all, is what matters. As long as I feel that we’re recording at a sensible sample rate and resolution on digital recorders, it benefits the project overall. We try not to do everything in the box – we try to work a combination between automation and EQ’ing, bringing things back though the desk, and then recording again.” way, you then really learn to take a picture of the overall sound.” Remember, it’s not simply that Wooster has found a niche and is happy to work within it – the studio is a business, and it has to make money. “I don’t think you can really limit yourself to one thing,” reasons Wooster. Paying customers at Koolworld range widely in requirements and budget – even to those who want to do a voice over for their Pop Idol audition – but the studio doesn’t lower prices to fit everyone’s needs: “We can’t do an hour sessions,” explains Wooster. “It’s not what we do – there are other studios that facilitate that. In the politest way, you tell them that there are other studios that would suit their current needs better. If they want to up the level and up the standard of what they do in that recording, then I’m sorry, you have to pay it. If you want a shock, you go to a London studio, and see how much they charge. The B ottom Line Luton is outside London (about miles northwards), but it does have it’s own international airport, fast rail links to London, and sits squarely on one of the most important motorways in the south – all advantages that many overlook when considering the town. And Wooster maintains that the core customer for him is the musician. It is the musicians, among Koolworld’s client-base, who most often pick the studio; and it’s the musicians who are particularly budget conscious – ‘inexpensive’ is a criteria that London struggles to accommodate, but that Luton has been honing for some time. Long live the economically viable music studio ∫ I N F O R MAT I O N With Wooster’s extensive live experience (Gary Moore, Van Morrison, Leona Lewis, and more) I was keen to find whether he considered himself more ‘live or ‘studio’, and what influence one had on the other. “I think my career to date is probably quite / at the moment It’s a great luxury to get a good balance between the two, and I think for me, the two do go hand in hand. “Microphone technique and skills that you learn on the road apply in the studio, and techniques that you learn in the studio can apply on the road. It’s also given me quite an advantage with bigger artists that I work with when I go to do TV shows. I can walk into a TV broadcast studio and work their desks and understand the constraints that they have to work to, as well as trying to push the boundaries of what they do. They’re pretty much stuck in a studio environment and don’t totally appreciate what can be done from the live side of things – lessening a bit of compression some days, and leaving as much of the compression to when they run it through their mastering before they go to broadcast, as opposed to squashing the hell out of it at an earlier stage. “So, for me, it’s / , but if there was an honest answer, it would probably be that I was a live engineer before I was a recording engineer, that’s how I started.” Talking strictly Koolworld now, it’s also interesting that a single studio can become known for a particular genre, such as Jazz. Does it need particular skills? Wooster: “You have to understand how they want to capture it – you can’t just say, ‘Oh this is how we’re going to record it’. We suggest the best way to capture it, but at the end of the day, performance is absolutely everything, and key for what they try and do. “Some days it will involve everyone being in the same room. We do normally try and separate things a little bit and use our camera systems so they can inter-react, but if they specifically want to be in the same room, then you suck it up and take the spill with the performance. With technique, screening, good mic placement, you achieve the best sound you can achieve in rooms that you’ve got That comes back to doing it old-school, where you work with the overall sound as opposed to the individual sound. It’s definitely an eye opener. “Before we got heavily involved in the Jazz, isolation was key to everything, and you kind of get used to having clean sounds on every single mic. But when you come back to doing it this Live Vs. Studio W www.koolworld.co.uk AUDIO MEDIA JUNE 2008 43 http://www.koolworld.co.uk http://www.80yearsneumann.com http://www.neumann.com http://www.neumann.com http://www.80yearsneumann.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - June 2008

AudioMedia - June 2008 Contents Recording Post Broadcast AES Review What's Up UK? Geofocus: Australia For the Record Special Report: Videosonics Newstalk: DPA New Microphones Novation SL Compact Allen & Heath IDR-8 Eastwest Quantum Leap SD2 & Goliath Final Cut: Indiana Jones Merging ADR Module Koolworld SSL Duende Good Product Sampler: Microphones Video Guide AMSR Meyer Sound The Blue Planet Live! Royer Labs Mics R-121 & R-122

AudioMedia - June 2008

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