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Subterranean Sound is a truly unique recording space, both in terms of the level of care
that’s gone into its design and the pedigree of the gear inhabiting it.
The space, in Toronto’s affluent Yorkville neighbourhood, is a semi-private facility
owned by a successful Canadian entrepreneur who prefers to leave any discussion of the
space to his head engineer, Scott Lake, and Elliott Sairan and Jay Young of Mod My Gear.
That’s the trio that recently restored the studio’s crown jewel: the Neve Air Studios
Montserrat console, originally designed and built specifically for famed Beatles producer
George Martin some 40 years ago.
Subterranean Sound was originally conceived as a private creative space for its own-
er. As Lake explains, “[The owner] really built the studio for the love of it,” and as such, it
was designed and outfitted specifically to reflect his passion for music, recording, and the
associated technologies – a passion fuelled as much by a love of music as his respect for
the history of recording.
Consequently, it offers a wider variety of vintage and cutting edge gear and accom-
modates both digital and analog recording, and lately, the studio has opened its doors to
some outside clients that relish the opportunity to record in such a unique space.
Lake describes his role at the studio as “head engineer and everything else.” He got his
start in audio as a teenager doing live sound and running a DJ company. He also studied
psychology briefly (not a bad sideline for an engineer), but ultimately decided to study
engineering at Toronto’s Harris Institute. After graduating in the mid-1990s, he took an
internship at Phase One Studios and, within a year, became head engineer. Since leaving,
he’s done his fair share of freelancing but currently dedicates much of his time to Subter-
ranean Sound.
The space consists of three rooms: a roughly 600-sq. ft. live room equipped with a
“fold out” iso booth, a lounge (which also doubles as an iso booth), and an approximately
500-sq. ft. control room.
“We had another iteration of the studio
10 or 12 years ago and started out with an
Mbox and just kept building from there,” Lake
explains. This time, however, they decided to
go full out.
To that end, they reached out to Martin
Pilchner of Pilchner Schoustal International
Inc., known globally for their design and con-
struction of world class recording facilities.
Lake, the studio’s owner, and one of Lake’s
former colleagues at Phase One, Ziad Al-Hillal,
were also heavily involved in establishing the
layout of the space.
As for the famed console that now occu-
pies the control room, Lake explains: “As I men-
tioned, we had another studio but we were
talking about renovating. We had a Trident
console previously and were debating what to
use in the new space and started talking about
a vintage Neve.”
While trying to acquire the specific Neve,
which was for sale via Pro Audio Design, they
were offered other desks, but the owner was
insistent that he wanted the Montserrat.
Enter Sairan and Young of Mod My Gear.
Sairan started out in professional audio in 1991
SUBTERRAN
EAN SO
RED AIR M
UND’S RESTO
ONTSERRAT
NEVE CONSO
Chasing
the
Unicorn
By Kevin Young
Restoring the Historic Neve Console at Toronto’s
Subterranean Sound
30 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND
LE