On Sunday 26th June, thirty or so AMPS members gathered at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst) in Belsize Park for a tour of this magnificently converted ex-Methodist church. Breakfast was served in the canteen which features the pews saved from the alterations. The studio has its own cook (and licence!) with meals available 24 hours a day. The party was large enough to split into two groups, one led by Dave Harries, AIR's technical director, the other by Cliff Jones, the senior dubbing mixer.
Centrepiece of the new facility is the main Lyndhurst Hall which at over 5000 sq. ft is large enough to accommodate more than 100 musicians plus an audience of 600 people who can be seated in the balcony areas. It is quite a room, with huge vaulted ceilings and enormous windows. If you get the chance, discuss the almost infinitely adjustable reverb time with Ivan Sharrock. He was very interested in how one can record dialogue in a room where a 4.5 second reverb time is not unusual. A 72 channel Neve VRP Legend is at the heart of the control room.
The famous musicians who have used the Hall so far range in style from the late Henry Mancini, who recorded his score for Son of Pink Panther there shortly after its opening, to Elton John who is currently working on his latest album.
To the rear of the main building is Studio 1, also a music recording studio. Dave Harries explained that a great deal of care has been taken in making the room shape and acoustic similar to the much loved AIR Studio One in Oxford Street. This work had to be carried out within the constraints imposed by English Heritage as the church is a listed building. The whole conversion and equipping cost in excess of 16 million pounds with most of the expense being incurred in refurbishing the building and in particular the roof areas. Even the now non-functional chimney stack had to be replaced. As a fibreglass copy was not acceptable to English Heritage, the stack and all of the supports had to be rebuilt brick by brick exactly as before, at a cost of £240,000.
Dave demonstrated the Moving Wall Isolation System which can divide the available space in Studio 1 to suit the kind of music and size of 'band' to be recorded. One person can slide the massive panels around with ease. A 72-channel Neve/Focusrite console sits in the control room. It was the last desk to actually be built by Rupert Neve himself, transported from the Oxford Street studio and lovingly refurbished, keeping its characteristic sound intact.
Post production takes place on the three upper floors which are independently suspended and 'float' free from one another so that there is no sound transmission between the mixing suites and/or the outside world, no matter how hard a heavy metal band might like to thrash the speakers.
The dubbing rooms were originally conceived as the music mixdown suites, all based on the AMS AudioFile and Logic 2 dubbing desks. Dolby Surround was added and Studio 3 took to dubbing drama like a duck takes to water. The first was a four hour political drama for Central TV titled Faith, which will be transmitted in September. Cliff Jones pushed the knobs on the fully automated desk. Currently Cliff is handling the dubbing of Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct. Adjacent to this theatre is a well equipped AudioFile track laying room.
On the very top floor are five self-contained flats for client use. We did not actually see them but if they are finished to the same high standard as the rest of the facility, they will be most comfortable. All the interiors are clad in magnificent Beech wood. The trees, one of the last things to be shipped out of Bosnia before the civil war started, were transformed from raw trunks to beautiful wood in AIR's own workshops.
On a personal note, having recently worked there with Anthony Faust, I enjoyed the relaxed confident feeling of the place. And one of the great pleasures is dubbing in natural daylight. This may seem like flying in the face of nature, but I can recommend it.