“I’ll probably go with Neumann KH310A
three-ways or some other ATCs – something
that will match well for rears,” he says, adding
that local audio post mixing engineer Michelle
Irving will be working out of Secret Door.
In all, there are four monitoring configura-
tions available via the studio’s Heritage Au-
dio RAM 5000 monitor controller: the afore-
mentioned ATC soffit-mounted mains, Focal
Solo6 Be’s, Yamaha NS-10s, and Avantone
Mix Cubes. Users can also take advantage of
Neumann’s new NDH 20 headphones.
“I’m thrilled with how the mains sound in
this room,” Abraham notes. “The combination
of the speakers with the Martin Pilchner-
designed room honestly makes for one of
the best mix environments I’ve ever been in.
The imaging is absolutely rock solid and the
bottom end is huge but tight and very even
everywhere in the room.”
Housed on the second floor of an old
factory building on Toronto’s bustling Dan-
forth Avenue, Secret Door has the atmo-
sphere and amenities that, beyond gear, a
studio space requires to inspire incoming
artists and producers. “There’s a kitchen area,
a bathroom with a shower, exposed brick,
hardwood floors, large windows, and 12-
foot high ceilings,” he proudly lists.
The studio is comprised of two primary
workspaces, Studios A and B, with the for-
mer comprising a 250-sq.-ft. control room
and 160-ft. booth and the latter coming in
at roughly 200-sq.-ft. Additionally, a space
between Studio A’s control room and the
live floor will soon become a vocal booth
and what was once a bathroom is now an
amplifier iso booth. Further modifications
will depend on incoming producers’ wants
and needs. “There are definitely ways to get
clever with a smaller space,” Abraham notes
from experience.
Studio B will be available nights and
weekends, but will also function as a
lounge. “It’s a beautiful room. Vibe is ex-
tremely important to me. I wanted the de-
sign choices – the lighting, the fabrics, and
furniture – to inspire artists coming in. I was
shooting for a combination of slick and or-
ganic and wanted it to feel and run like the
best possible home studio, but where you
can get big studio sounds.”
“I built Soleil to work more with bands,
but most of my production work is singer/
songwriters or pop artists, where I end
up playing or bringing in other people to
play most of the stuff on a record, or do
overdubs separately. For 95 per cent of my
work, I don’t need a large space, so I think
STUDIO A TRACKING ROOM
STUDIO A CONTROL ROOM W/ CUSTOM SOFFIT-MOUNTED ATC MONITORS
it’s going to be a great fit for a lot of modern
pop, hip-hop, and producer-driven projects.”
That said, Secret Door will be set up to track
full bands, with tie-lines and a video link
running between Studios A and B.
At 1,000 sq. ft., Secret Door is definitely
smaller than his previous workspaces at The
Hive and Soleil, but has an immense amount
of functionality to serve clients as well as
Abraham’s specific needs. “My business is
probably 60 per cent mixing and about 30 to
40 per cent producing, and I still do film and
TV composition when projects come along I
want to do,” he offers. “Since I work in a wide
range of genres, Secret Door is designed to
facilitate different workflows and both digital
and analog recording.”
Consequently, it boasts a Studer A80 2-in.,
16-track Mk II/III tape recorder, Antelope
Orion 32+ A/D interface, and an SSL Sigma
Delta 32-channel analog summing mixer
as the control room’s central components.
Although Abraham works primarily in Pro
Tools and occasionally Ableton Live, Logic
and Free Loops are also available.
Abraham places an emphasis on maxi-
mizing the speed with which he – or any-
one working in the space – can accomplish
what they need with minimal setup. At Se-
cret Door, he’s incorporated and improved
on some innovative workflow solutions he
created for Soleil Sound. As a result, Secret
Door is designed for users to, as he puts it,
“work at the speed of virtual instruments
and plug-ins, but with real instruments and
hardware if desired.”
Essentially, it’s “plug and play,” Abraham
elaborates, with onsite guitar and bass
amps and his Petrof upright piano always
miked up and ready to record. Various MIDI
controllers and vintage keyboards (among
them a Yamaha YC 30 transistor organ,
Moog Sub37, and Roland Juno 106) are
patched in on dedicated inputs to Pro Tools
via individual DIs. Clients can basically plug
in via USB or Thunderbolt and, using Abra-
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 31