Professional Sound - April 2021 | Page 31

AN SSL AWS 900 + ANCHORS THE CONTROL ROOM
While he hasn ’ t had the opportunity to make full use of the system just yet , he does recall the excitement of recording outside in the past , and it ’ s hard not to be convinced to try it . “ I did a song a long time ago where we did drums outside . They were phenomenal because they sounded like cannons since there were basically no reflections ; it ’ s all open air . I ’ ve also put a Leslie cabinet outside , with two U87s out in the woods , and you could hear the birds in the background . The sounds of this Leslie permeating around the whole forest were absolutely spectacular .” Certainly not your typical recording studio experience .
Moments such as these are very much engrained in The Farm ’ s DNA , as Richardson chose the locale back in 2002 specifically for the tranquility and isolation and the positive effects they have on both himself and clients coming to work , both mentally and logistically ; the band house includes full accommodation , which eliminates the need to travel to and from the studio during session weeks .
“ Bands come here and you can see their shoulders going down . You can see them calming down . The great thing is that there aren ’ t any actual obstructions here . Because if you ’ re in the big city , people can show up late . Here , they ’ re over in the band house . They can just go , ‘ Come on , guys , let ’ s get to work .’ It makes things so much easier being able to hang out here because you get to do what you want to do , and there ’ s nobody bugging you , so you have to focus .”
Now , when you have a musician on one side of the property and the producer in another building , communication is obviously a bit tricky ; however , Richardson has elected to ( continually ) keep it simple .
Professional Sound ’ s previous conversation with Richardson divulged that he exclusively uses audio talkback , and there ’ s no video communication in use anywhere . “ Nobody in their car looks at the radio . You know , they listen to the radio . If we were in the video business , yes , we ’ re going to have screens and cameras , but we ’ re in the audio business . There ’ s no video and I ’ ve done that on purpose .” With the Dante network in place , of course , talkback is just as simple as if the only degree of separation was the control room glass .
Speaking of the control room , it too has seen yet another renovation and upgrade . Less for practical purposes ( even though it would still work out that way ), and more for the love of the game , according to Richardson . “ I keep changing it because I get bored . It ’ s kind of like making a record . You don ’ t want to make the same record every day , so I began to change it around again and again and again .”
The first major change is that the control room has been relocated back to the main house from the band house . He followed the relocation up by replacing his 32-channel Ward-Beck console with the more modern SSL AWS 900 +, and then redid the rest of the room to boot . The renovation included the addition of new bass traps , an acoustically-treated
ceiling by Chris Potter , and a 90-degree re-orientation of the entire room ’ s setup , ultimately improving the sound of the room . “ It got better because the bottom end can actually do the full cycle now . The room was very short the way I had it .”
The new SSL console and renovations in general were inspired by the at-the-time pending arrival of a Dutch band called Kensington . “ I got on a Zoom call with them , and I was all old-school analog . I had the Ward- Beck console , I had an old Apogee system with the HDX card , and I was the old white guy ; basically , analog , analog , analog . My gear was all old and it sounded great , but when you have clients coming in , they ’ re looking at it going ‘ What the fuck is that ?’” As such , Richardson decided to modernize , bringing in the AWS 900 + and redoing the control room in seven days before Kensington ’ s arrival .
The console is flanked by Richardson ’ s impressive collection of outboard gear , ranging from the classics , like a bank of Urei 1176s ( two each of the black face and blue stripe variants ), to modern pieces such as a Kemper Profiler . He also points out the array of five Yamaha HS8s throughout the control room , which he has deployed for 5.1 surround sound work . However , that ’ s only a small part of the current monitoring suite . “ I mostly use the HS8s for five-one . I do have a pair of PMCs here , those are my mains which I love . Absolutely love them . I
RECORDING A LESLIE OUTSIDE
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 31