Out Of Eden

London's "band boom" of the early 1990s, epitomized by artists like Blur and Oasis, is changing, with the music recording scene here reverting back to techno and declining demand for large rooms. That evolutionary cycle has produced a new trend, current at many major London studios, in which larger facilities have turned themselves into synergistic landlords, creating small "project space" rooms that are then leased to musicians, producers and engineers who equip these satellite studios and create new work flows between their rooms and the main studios. This model can be seen at facilities such as Olympic, which has five such tenants; Townhouse, where there are four; Roundhouse, which has seven; and Stanley House, where there seven "programming rooms," as they refer to them, were open even before the new main studio was.

At first glance, that might seem to be the template for ‘Out Of Eden’, the recently opened studio of noted U.K. keyboardist and producer Andy Richards, which resides with the facility of Eden Studios, in West London. But Richards suggests that this particular relationship is far more complex, both from a business and a technological point of view.

"This is not a project studio in the classic sense of the definition," says Richards, whose keyboard work has graced scores of tracks for artists including Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Rush and Boyzone, and who has racked up significant production credits with artists including Prefab Sprout, Pet Shop Boys, T’Pau, Dusty Springfield and Alphaville. "It's a hybrid, really. The technology is far more powerful then you'll find in a project studio, to the point where it's truly a stand-alone facility even though it's within the walls of Eden Studios. It sets a new type of standard by combining two very powerful technology platforms — Pro Tools and the new Fairlight FAME 2 system. In doing so, we're creating what I think is a new model for working in music."

Richards' relationship with Eden, which has been in business in London for 30 years, is also somewhat different than those that have cropped up in recent years there. It seems more empowered, for starters; Eden invested in building Richards' ‘Out Of Eden’ studio, using a design by Eden technical director Mike Gardner, but a design that was to Richards' specifications so that it could accommodate a much larger array of digital audio systems. "It's very difficult working out the mechanics of an arrangement like this," says Richards. "But it's worth the complexity, because this is becoming the way a lot of this industry is going. We try to stay flexible, because it's working well for both sides. I'd venture to say that I expect Eden to recoup 100 percent of the hard costs of the room within the first year of operation."

Fairlight's New Engine
If the business end of the deal breaks new ground, so does the technical side. Richards has initiated a very powerful working environment by combining the first installed Fairlight FAME 2 with a large Pro Tools system, giving the studio the equivalent of 88 channels of digital audio. "But the real advantage of this system is that it's greater than the sum of its parts," Richards explains. "The core of the system is the Fairlight FAME 2, which is a very powerful machine. The company have built on what they learned in the post business and put a lot of that power into a system that I can use for music recording. So this studio now has the capability to be a post facility as well as a music studio. And that's where it really becomes the studio of the future, because it doesn't come with the limitations inherent in traditional project studios. Combine that with the fact that we're adjacent to a studio facility with large rooms and other amenities, and the possibilities are endless."

The synergy Richards' constantly refers to is the networking between the FAME 2 and the Pro Tools systems. Under most circumstances, the operational flowchart has the FAME 2 as the master controller, operating as recording input device, signal flow controller (the equivalent of a console) and final mixing device. The Pro Tools system is used for data storage and to access the large and growing array of plug-in processors that third-party developers have marketed for Pro Tools. "As a result, you're getting the best of both workstations, and together you're getting more than the sum of their parts," says Richards. "It truly makes this a one-stop shop for any number of audio applications."

Audio moves between the two systems in real time, using a 9-pin connector, time code and hard-wired AES/EBU I/Os. Outside audio data comes into the systems either as a direct digital transfer via AES/EBU or through the Pro Tools' hard drive. Richards opts not to use the OMF interface that both systems offer, since he says it's not yet developed enough.

Richards says the FAME 2 system has brought a new level of power to facilities such as his. "It’s a music-maker’s dream come true," he says. "Both the power and sound of FAME2 are quite exceptional. But what’s just as important is that it has tremendous interface ability with my existing equipment. Where the original FAME system was designed for post production, this new FAME2 has a much larger number and broader array of input interfaces built into it that work perfectly for music applications. I can plug my large Pro Tools system and my keyboards directly into it. The flexibility that gives me is incredible. The sort of specifications that are designed into FAME2 make it much more relevant to music than any Fairlight system that has come before. It not only accommodates all of my existing technology, but it enhances it by allowing me to use it in a highly flexible and integrated way. For instance, I can plug all my keyboards into the Pro Tools system via their mixer interface, and have those keyboards and all other signals come directly onto the FAME2’s faders. Then, it really gets good: FAME2 gives me fully automated mixing and recall of the whole control surface."

If there is a catch, it's that he's only one of a few people who can fly the combined systems at their maximum level. But Richards expects that to change, and plans to train assistants to become primary engineers on the combined systems. "Once that happens, I can see this studio becoming very much more a for-hire facility," he says. "And when that happens, then, as a publisher friend of mine told me the other day, I become a prisoner of my own success. And then I guess we’ll just have to build another studio."