EMPTY WAREHOUSE THAT HAS SINCE BECOME STUDIO BASE BIN
“ Along with Studio G , the control room is the space where people ’ s mouths kind of drop ,” Chambers says with a smile . “ Honestly , the furnishings and design were almost more important than buying more outboard gear . It ’ s a cozy space that ’ s good for creativity . In the past , I had people feeling a bit cramped , because that ’ s when I thought racks and racks of gear would be impressive , but having a better flow with more space to keep people comfortable and , say , for a guitar player to be able to set up with a massive pedalboard and have people working around him without feeling confined or limited , that was really important .”
Once again , Chambers went “ all out ” with the acoustic treatment , even building his own diffuser on the rear wall of the control room that offers a “ great centre image where it feels like there ’ s nothing behind [ you ].”
The control room isn ’ t totally dead ; there ’ s no treatment on the ceiling , though it still sounds tight and boasts a very pleasing bottom end . “ The midfield monitoring is just phenomenal here ,” Chambers adds , mentioning his Amphion and Focal studio monitors .
Chambers says it ’ s always a challenge balancing the operation of the rehearsal studios with his production work , especially when he has multiple projects on the go – often with international clients or collaborators – at any given time , which seems to be the norm thus far .
He ’ s currently working with a vocal producer in Los Angeles , recording for Universal Music France ’ s publishing library , and collaborating with a cast of songwriters in Nashville , France , and across Quebec .
Time is indeed a valuable commodity and he ’ s hoping to eventually be able to spend the majority of it on his production work , but for now , it ’ s split about 50 / 50 between that and overseeing the rehearsal spaces .
“ The first couple of months , people expected to see my face almost as a host at the front door , so I ’ ve been balancing
my studio work with making sure things are running smoothly in the rehearsal rooms and making sure the clients have everything they need . After all , it ’ s a new space with new technology , so there ’ s a bit of a learning curve for everyone .”
Those state-of-the-art technologies have offered some new functionality for Studio Base Bin , including the ability to record 16-track audio stems from any of the seven rehearsal rooms . “ Within five minutes , you ’ re in full multi-track mode in seven studios ,” Chambers says , listing some benefits that might seem obvious . “ We ’ ve never had that capability before .”
If an artist is looking to do some pre-production , for example , they can plug in a MacBook , record the stems , and keep whatever they might need . In fact , Chambers had a client in not long ago that took a pencil condenser and recorded a guitar track directly into his DAW with other bands rehearsing around him . “ So he was here working for three hours , walked out with a phenomenal guitar track , and spent maybe $ 70 . It ’ s kind of mind-blowing what you can do today . We can literally have six rehearsal studios multitracking at once . I ’ m just using technology that ’ s out there to maximize people ’ s productivity , and give them a space where they can not only rehearse , but do several things under one roof .”
Chambers knows that the success of the new Studio Base Bin is very closely tied to the success of the creative community surrounding it , and that ’ s why , in addition to a purpose-built facility and second-to-none service , offering good value is at the core of his business model .
“ We know the music industry isn ’ t what it used to be and money isn ’ t falling from the sky , so I ’ m going to do what I can to stretch people ’ s dollars as far as they ’ ll go while not compromising the product in any way , regardless of whether they ’ re recording here or rehearsing here or writing songs or whatever ,” he says .
A lot of time , work , and resources went into this new iteration of Studio Base Bin , with Chambers even questioning its completion at times , so it ’ s more than thrilling for him that , even after just a few short months , the business is back on track and maintaining its reputation as hub of creativity in a city that has so much of it to offer .
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound .
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