Prosound News - April 2008 - (Page 22)

[22] Allaire Studios Dismisses Staff, Future Uncertain by Christopher Walsh SHOKAN, NY—Allaire Studios, a two-room “destination” facility situated in a 1920sera mansion in New York’s rural Catskill Mountains region, has dismissed the staff and ceased music production projects. Studio manager Mark McKenna, chief technical engineer Ken McKim, assistant engineer Stephanie DuFresne, office manager Susan Perrin and a part-time assistant engineer have all left the studio, according to McKenna. Presently, property manager Colby Reynolds is Allaire Studios’ sole remaining staffer. In the fall of 2007, Allaire installed the famed Neve Air Montserrat console, one of only three produced and the only one in the U.S., to replace the SSL 9000 originally housed in the studio’s Great Hall. That console and Allaire’s additional equipment, which includes a Neve 8068 in the second studio, remains on site. “The backbone of the studio, which is myself, Ken McKim, the two assistant engineers and the office manager, were let go,” McKenna tells Pro Sound News. “We had a bad winter,” McKenna explains. “We didn’t have a productive winter, and Randall [Wallace, owner] basically just didn’t want to fund the studio any further, to see us through to where the bookings picked up again. Basically, we ran out of time and money. We did have bookings on the calendar for spring—big projects— which had to be let go.” Wallace tells Pro Sound News that, while Allaire’s future as a recording studio is uncertain, his disillusionment with the music industry and popular music figured prominently in his decision-making. “I had been subsidizing it, thinking I had paradise and this would start producing really good records until after four or five years of people being hired to replace and cut and paste Matt Chamberlain’s drums. It got to the point where you say, ‘This is music now?’ All the top players are being robotized, and you wonder why it doesn’t sound good? Enough is enough. I’m not getting good records from this.” Wallace also said that he now feels that he should have staffed the studio on a commission basis. Although budgets have fallen sharply as the music industry consolidates amid a long and steep decline in sales, McKenna feels another evolution in the industry is more to blame for Allaire’s slow winter. “That doesn’t help,” he allows, but “I think it’s less attributable to the budgets than to [Allaire’s] remoteness. It’s really hard to get producers, in this day and age, to leave their homes, and increasingly, their home studios. So many producers are based out of Los Angeles, Nashville, New York or London, [and] to get them to commit to going to a remote location for two weeks, or more, is difficult. I think that might have had more to do with our problems than with the actual budgets. We were very reasonably priced—I don’t think our pricing was a problem.” Wallace, a professional photographer, confirms that Allaire is presently booked for a number of upcoming photo shoots. He is also co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wallace Global Fund, which supports environmental protection and social justice. He plans to build a private facility on the West Coast, he confides, with Amy Goodman, co-host of Democracy Now!, a national independent news program broadcast on various radio stations, television networks and online, “so I can do dissent-oriented work and get to the point. My notion is, if you aren’t going to create music worth listening to anymore, then I’m going to create verbal content to stop war and create necessary social change. I want to turn activists into rock stars. I’m looking at it from the point of view of what music should be doing.” In its short history—the studio opened in 2001—Allaire attracted a large number of high-profile artists and projects. David Bowie, Tim McGraw, Norah Jones, Rob Thomas, Joan Baez, Ryan Adams, Roseanne Cash, Gipsy Kings, Guster and Cassandra Wilson are among the artists who have recorded at Allaire, along with producers including Tony Visconti, John Leventhal, Craig Street, David Kahne, Matt Serletic, Steve Lillywhite and the late Arif Mardin. Last summer, the Black Crowes recorded their first new studio album in seven years, Warpaint, at Allaire with producer Paul Stacey. Allaire Studios www.allairestudios.com Lectrosonics Intros WA520 Wireless Antenna RIO RANCHO, NM—On April 1, Lectrosonics introduced its WA520 wireless antenna, which covers the entire UHF range between 450 and 850 MHz and consists of a directional component (Log Periodic Dipole Array, or LPDA for short) and an omni-directional whip element for re-transmission to the receiver. The two components are coupled via a 50-Ohm matching circuit. The WA520 operates by providing up to 7 dB of isotropic gain via the LPDA in the forward direction in order to overcome the inherent loss incurred by retransmission via the whip component. Lectrosonics’ WA520 wireless antenna The resulting RF field signal strength is +0 dBi or unity gain. Thus, the operating range of the WA520 is dependant on placement and the original RF field strength. Mounting and placement of the WA520 requires no antenna cables or power sources. It is critical, however, that the receiver whip antenna and the re-radiator antenna not be placed one directly above the other due to the antenna null directly above and below the vertical axis of the two antennas. The mounting block on the WA520 can accept several threaded stud sizes, including 1/4-inch20 (tripod mount), 3/8-inch-16 (pro tripod mount) and 5/8-inch-27 (mic stand). Lectrosonics www.lectrosonics.com Prism (continued from page 5) delighted that Prism Sound has stepped forward to continue supporting the brand and the customers. Prism Sound and SADiE have very similar philosophies—creating the very best products for their customers—and I am sure that under Graham and Ian’s stewardship, the SADiE brand can thrive once again. I wish them and our customers every success for the future.” Prism Sound is presently identifying a new location that will allow it to combine both businesses in one premise. During this transitional period, the Prism Sound team will operate from SADiE’s old headquarters in Stretham, Cambridge—a move that may become permanent—as well as the current HQ at Cowley Road. However, all enquiries relating to SADiE products should be direct- ed to Prism Sound’s head office at William James House, Cowley Road, Cambridge, U.K., at +44 1223 424 988 or sales@prismsound.com. “I think that the future strategy will really emerge,” Boswell predicts, “because the user base is so vocal, supportive and committed that there will emerge a medium-term strategy, which is to make sure that they, and other people like them, are satisfied and regard the product as the top product in their field. We’ll be able to look at an evolutionary phase, of an improved and upgraded SADiE product, in the medium term. In the longer term, we’ll be looking at a strategic level to see where we think the product and the brand should go, and that could mean all sorts of things.” Prism Sound www.prismsound.com SADiE www.sadie.com prosoundnews.com April 2008 http://www.lectrosonics.com http://www.allairestudios.com http://www.prismsound.com http://www.sadie.com http://www.xilica.com http://prosoundnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Prosound News - April 2008

Prosound News - April 2008 Sound Business Contents Sound Retail Mojo’s Working at NY Noise Studio Showcase: Jungle Room Studios Software Tech Tracks Sessions Nomad Takes Root TCB at NYC’s JSM SoundScreen White Space Turning Gray Audio for Video and Broadcast Field Reports:Sony PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder; Holophone H4 SuperMINI Surround Microphone Sound Innovations: Earthworks Audio PianoMic System Frozen Liquid Live Sound Showcase: Jill Scott Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View From the Top Product Spotlight Advertiser Index Company Index Classifieds Music, Etc.

Prosound News - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.