FEATURES: RECORDING
Village people
WSDG has created a truly beautiful, world-class facility for
Chinese artist Hins Cheung. Caroline Moss takes a tour
IN A CORNER OF GUANGZHOU
not yet transformed by high-rise
of ces and apartment blocks, lies
one of the world’s leading recording
studios. Realised by young Chinese
singer songwriter, Hins Cheung,
Village Studios was born from a
desire to create not just a state of
the art workplace, but somewhere to
facilitate his plans for the future.
‘Because our compound was
designed from the ground up, we
could incorporate room for signi cant
expansion,’ explains Mr Cheung.
‘I have many plans for the future,
including a mastering studio and
a professional recording school for
training young people.
‘Music production is a work of
art. However, if there is a big event
in mainland China, they usually
hire someone from Hong Kong or
Taiwan, which is ridiculous to me as
we obviously have enough people
and we have a lots of recording
studios. But we don’t have any
iconic recording engineers here, so I
decided to create a recording school.
Our studios were not only designed
to be spacious enough to keep our
clients comfortable, but also to
accommodate professional recording
studio classes.’
Village Studios takes its name
from its location: a small area
encompassing a few surviving rustic
lanes and old buildings, which is
a world away from the modern city
surrounding it. The facility is built
around a peaceful central courtyard
with two ancient trees that have been
preserved, adding to the timeless
feel of the building.
The studio was brought to life by the
Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG),
which has been creating world-class
audiovisual production facilities
across the world for the past 40 years
and was brought in as architectural
Clockwise: The entrance to Village Studios; Hins Cheung, the artist who created Village Studios;
Almost all of the rooms within Village Studios can see into one another
and acoustic designers. ‘When I was
able to build this studio, I wanted it to
be one of the best in the world,’ says
Mr Cheung. ‘We are especially proud
that WSDG created our studio. John
Storyk’s rst studio assignment was
in 1968, for Jimi Hendrix. That studio,
Electric Lady in New York City, is still
active today, turning out hit records
for Beyonce, Bono, Kanye West and
other superstars. We hope to achieve
the same level of success, and to
have an equally impressive client list
40 years from now.
‘Another reason we engaged John
Storyk was because of his experience
in designing teaching studios for
NYU, the Berklee College of Music
and other universities. We have
made every effort to future-proof our
Village.’
‘I was introduced to Hins, and after
numerous phone calls, emails and
video conferences,’ recalls New
106 PRO AUDIO ASIA July–August 2014
York-based company founder John
Storyk. ‘We nally met in person and
continued what would become a long
and winding road through design,
construction and commissioning
of the studio. Hins’ directive to our
group was in fact quite simple:
”Create the best independent audio
recording studio in China, and at
the same time, design a studio that
rock groups as well as a symphony
orchestra would feel at home in”.’
On visiting Village Studios, it’s
apparent that this brief has been
more than adequately ful lled.
The 1,150 sq-m complex has been
beautifully designed and crafted
to provide a network of calm, yet
extremely functional rooms that ow
beautifully around the centrallylocated, 270 sq-m recording space.
This area is ooded with daylight from
windows and skylights, and can also
be blacked out for lm shoots. The
control rooms and recording areas
radiate around the live room, and
there is perfect line of sight between
all of them, giving a simultaneous
feeling of space and connectivity.
Additionally, the studios conceal
a wealth of classic analogue
recording equipment, at the same
time brimming with ideas for the
future. ‘I’ve had a great passion for
vintage gear since I was a kid,’ says
Mr Cheung. ‘It produces a deeply
resonant, dreamy sound which
digital equipment may not be able
to provide. We take care to preserve
the nobility and originality of each
instrument, treating each piece with
respect for the craftsmanship that
went into its making.’
Mr Cheung’s love of good
equipment, old and new, was
apparent to Mr Storyk right from
the beginning. ‘Hins has very clear
ideas about equipment and the
recording process – a kind of special
combination of analogue and
digital coherence,’ he says. ‘From
the beginning, I was very surprised
at his knowledge of systems and
the recording process. The nal
architectural design was a joint effort
Inside Village Studios