A friend of mine has recently had his
55th birthday. On the same day he
was made redundant by the broadcast
organisation for which he has worked
all his life.

He was too young to throw in the
towel, so he decided to set up his
own small studio, specialising in
baroque and small classical ensembles
- his area of expertise.

He found a very fine location, a small
deconsecrated church in a village environment.
It is a fine wooden building, and like many
Lutheran churches has a floor plan in the
shape of a cross. He intended at first, to use it
as a purely classical, but realises that with most
studios it is pop music that pays the rent.

He told me that he had always considered
the control room window to be not just a
physical, but also a creative barrier in the
music making process. So his solution was to
have the control area built on a large octagonal
wooden platform, on rubber wheels which enable it to be
moved to any position within the recording space.
At the northern end he had build a room with drum
booth, bass traps, acoustic tiles and curtains (velvet drapes)
for pop sessions, and the rest of the space is open plan.

To solve the question of monitoring while recording, he
decided to use cordless headphones. Together we tried
Bluetooth which proved to be acceptable in the close
vicinity of the source, as in the control area, but not
practical for foldback in the recording area.
So he bought 24 pairs of Sennhesier RS 140
wireless headphones.

Each headset comes with an inductive charging cradle
which is also the FM transmitter with a power of 10mW
working at three selectable frequencies 863-865MHz,
perfect for monitor, and foldback 1+2. So he set up a
groups of three transmitters at eight points in the
recording area.

The audio systems were wired and working, building,
airconditioning, and electrical contractors were still
on site when I last visited, with work on schedule,
and he plans to open in November.

He has a firm 14 day booking for his first project,
music by Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1756) -
the Swedish Handel.

And the client? His previous employer!

Nice:-)

Iain






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