Studio Three
“This has been here since the beginning as well. This is where they used to do radio shows, smaller chamber stuff, and it eventually became a pop studio as well – The Beatles recorded Revolver in here, all of [Pink Floyd’s] Wish You
Were Here, a bit of Dark Side of The Moon, and more recently Kanye West and Frank Ocean. Amy Winehouse did her last ever recording here.
“Out of the three main studios, this is the one that’s completely changed – it’s unrecognisable from what it was. In the 1980s, when MIDI thing came along, a lot more was being done in control rooms – the trend was to have a bigger control room and a smaller recording space. We didn’t have a modern space like that back then – Studio One and Studio Two are what they are – so it was decided to divide this up and have a larger control room. This was done in the late 80s by Sam Toyoshima, who was the acoustic guy back then, who did a lot of the big studios around the world. It’s still the same today!”
Classic gear
“Kit-wise, we have a big J Series SSL desk in here. Before that, we had the G Series. It was expected you had an SSL desk for pop music back then. They’re still great desks, which is why we still have one! There’s this classic TG sidecar, looking like a 50s cockpit. Lots of outboard, the old classics: old AMSs, LA-2As, Fairchild 660s, Pultecs – it’s great to use this older gear to add colour before you hit the 1s and 0s. It’s one thing to have it, but it’s another thing to look after it and maintain it, and make sure it works when needed. The monitors in here are big Questeds, if you want to crank your mix and hear what it sounds like in Ministry of Sound. When Kanye was here, he had it cranked ridiculously loud… it was unbearable in here!
“Sonically, it’s a versatile studio. Drums sound fantastic in here; we do a lot of quartets; overdubs for pop stuff – it sounds good no matter what you throw at it. Plus, it’s a self-contained studio – there’s a flat upstairs with kitchen, shower and lounge if you want to lock yourself away from the real world. Bring in a chef, if you like!
“In the live room, we can change the acoustics in here by flipping panels around, from porous to reflective if you want a softer sound. This used to be a mirrored room – it was the 80s, so Sam Toyashima decided we needed a lot of mirrors in here! It was a bit of a novelty, and had a certain sound (in fact, we had to screen up all the mirrors so we didn’t get reflections!), but didn’t get used much, so we did the sensible thing and divided it up into booths.”