play a few dance tunes .’ So I got up on this 4-ft . elevated riser in front of 10,000 screaming frosh and played six songs and that was the best six songs of my life . The crowd went wild .”
Schroeyens took a break from gigging in 2002 , but got back into the industry in a big way in 2009 by founding The CDJ Show , Canada ’ s largest DJ and dance music conference now in its ninth year .
Schroeyens sees his role at Charterhouse Studios as that of an enabler , bringing creative people together through the various businesses housed in the building . The initiatives he and Murray have undertaken – not least of which was the replacement of a variety of gear and other upgrades that are ongoing at the studio proper – are aimed at making creation a fluent process for clients .
Although Murray and Kyle Schroeyens had overhauled the control room in 2013 , installing a variety of new gear including a console and patch , the control room has been revamped once again in 2018 with an eye to making the room work more effectively for anyone using it .
“ One of the big things was there used to be a Digidesign Icon console in the control room ,” Murray says . As time went on , he and Schroeyens became increasingly concerned about whether their “ giant system ” would continue to be supported and , if they waited too long to reconfigure the room , whether the gear they had would depreciate to a point of limited returns .
Subsequently , Murray and Schroeyens replaced the large-format console with a Euphonix MC-Control and four MC-Mix units for a total 36 faders . “ The Icon was awesome , but it took up so much real estate ,” Murray says . “ When it comes down to it , I could get away with two MC-Mixes and the MC-Control , but they ’ re good from an aesthetic point of view and ergonomically . The focal point in the studio now is a screen , so you want that at the centre of your stereo image and we wanted to redesign the room to make that happen . The footprint of the Euphonix [ gear ] is small , so you can put them between you and the display and not use much real estate , and it ’ s going to work with Pro Tools properly – the Ethernet is faster , you ’ re not worrying about the GUI or MIDI or anything like that , so that was the main reason we went that way .
“ So there was that ,” he continues . “ Then we put in a new patch bay and rewired the whole room because all of our outboard gear used to be wired as Pro Tools inserts , so you couldn ’ t really track through a compressor unless you got behind the rack and re-patched .”
Every point in the studio was rewired to the patch bay , with room left for expansion . “ We also put in the Dangerous [ Music monitor ] controller and a new iMac [ 3.5 GHz Quad-core i7 with 32 GB of RAM ], so we have 32 inputs and eight cores of UAD . That was the main part – the computer and the control surfaces ,” Murray sums up . The resulting recording rig also consists of Pro Tools HD 12 and 32 I / O of up to 32-bit , 192 kHz audio via two Universal Audio Apollo 16s .
The studio has a variety of vintage preamps
Large 13 x 17-ft iso booth for drums , etc .
from the likes of Neve , API , Avalon , and others , a host of other outboard gear and mics , as well as multiple near monitoring options , including Event Opals , Yamaha NS10Ms , and Tannoy System 215DMT main monitors .
While the gear has changed consistently over time , one thing that ’ s largely remained constant is the layout of the space . The main floor houses the control room , a 30 x 13-ft . live room with its own loading doors , and four separate iso booths , with good sightlines maintained between all of them .
“ The three smaller [ 6 x 6-ft .] booths are all treated slightly differently . The first one ’ s wired up with four speaker tie lines to run guitar amps from the control room . The other two booths have one [ tie line ] for heads and so on . Then there ’ s the bigger [ 17 x 13-ft .] room on the corner for drums , vocals , or whatever ; it ’ s flexible ,” Murray says . “ Ryan ’ s dad ’ s a country guy , so it ’ s got kind of a Nashville vibe . And we ’ ve got a Hear Technologies Personal Monitoring system , so it does do live-off-the-floor sessions quite well , with different booths for cabinets and amps and good visuals between all the players .”
Additionally , there ’ s a lounge / writing space and another small room that can be used as an editing suite or whatever else might be necessary for a given session or project .
A significant benefit to workflows on both sides of the glass at Charterhouse is having London Guitars and The PA Shop in the same complex .
The PA Shop is one of the country ’ s biggest retailers of DJ , recording , and pro audio equipment , so the fact that its showroom shares a roof with Charterhouse Studios has its obvious benefits .
London Guitars , which opened in late 2016 , focuses on vintage and boutique guitars , amplifiers , and pedals , but also provides pretty much all the gear someone coming through town for a show – or who happens to be recording in the onsite studio – might need in a pinch .
“[ London Guitars ] was the brainchild of myself and a couple of guys I ’ ve known for a long time ,” Schroeyens says . He notes that the guys
Iso A , one of three 6 x 6-ft . booths
who run the shop – Steve “ Bungie ” Kovacs , Boris Novosel , and Jeff “ Stan ” Fountain – are all veteran technicians who ’ ve toured alongside the likes of The Tragically Hip , Lou Reed , Barenaked Ladies , Ian Thornley , and a host of others . They essentially trade off running the shop when one or more of them are on tour . “ These guys are entrenched in the industry , and we ’ ve all wanted to do something like this for a long time .”
The intent was to create a truly unique music store – “ like the old guitar shops they used to go to , where the guys running the store know your name and care about you ,” Schroeyens continues – “ an organic , local , grassroots store with all the right stuff in stock for regular gigging musicians and professional touring guys coming through town .”
Located on the second floor of The PA Shop ’ s showroom , London Guitars carries new , vintage , and custom guitars , amps , and accessories , as well as drum accessories and keyboards , all of which clients at the studio have access to .
“ Now , when people come into the studio and I say , ‘ By the way , you can go upstairs and pick out whatever you want for the session , their jaws just drop ,” Murray chuckles .
Being a guitar player himself and an avid Kemper Profiler user , Murray has taken on the task of profiling many of the rare guitars and amplifiers that come through the shop . “ So even after they ’ re sold , the studio has access to those sounds ,” he shares . “ A couple of weeks ago , we got a 1983 [ Marshall ] JCM 800 in white , with the sales receipts and plastic covers for the cabs . I mean I ’ m a modern guy . I love my Kemper , but taking these amps and immortalizing them is really cool .”
Bottom line , the various operations sharing a single address at 46 Charterhouse add significant value to one another as a unique , synergistic musical ecosystem .
The wealth of contacts Schroeyens and Murray have developed in the local area and the industry nationwide doesn ’ t hurt either . “ Say a singer-songwriter needs a band , that ’ s another thing we have access to with our contacts ,” Murray offers . “ We want to be a one-stop shop ,” and that ’ s been key to their success in what he admits can be a hostile business .
36 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND