Pro Sound News – October 2003

Shark attack
New Project studio sinks teeth into game work

Yellow Shark Recording Studio is a new recording complex in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. After nearly two years and a substantial investment, the studios opened earlier this year.

“ The project called for a three tier investment,” explains studio manager Andy Lewis. “This initially constituted £520,000 into the purchase of the building which houses the studio. An additional £110,000 was then put in to renovation work. The actual cost of the designing and fitting of the studio came to around £250,000 in total.”

The man behind the project is local businessman and owner Jeremy Drew. His aim was to produce a professional recording studio that could cater for as many recording requirements as possible. “The studio was designed by Jeremy, along with Mike Weatherley whose sonic architectural construction skills ensured the best results possible,” says Lewis.

“ The studio wiring was left to Paul Nice who did a fantastic job of cleanly connecting up the myriad of cabling. We also had design advice from [locals] ATC, who were very helpful in offering their thoughts on monitor location and housing. The whole process took 18 months to complete.”

The studio is equipped with an analogue 48-track Soundtracs Jade-S mixing console, connected to two RADAR 24 digital hard-disk recorders offering up to 48 tracks of 24-bit recording, Pro Tools and up to four DTRS machines. Outboard compression, effects and EQ equipment available include two Urei 1176LNs, Focusrite Red compression and mic reampage, Lexicon 480L and MPX1 effects units, TC effects, Antares ATR 1A, Drawmer DS 201 noise gates and Massenburg GML 8200 EQ.

“ Currently we are running a Pro Tools Digi 002 system and OS 9.2 with Pro Tools LE 5.3.2,” explains Lewis. “The Mac is dual booting and also runs OS X. We will soon be upgrading to Pro Tools 6 to take advantage of the new operating system. We’ll be upgrading our RADAR machines too, increasing the recording format up to 196kHz,”

The studio offers a range of microphones from Neuman, E-V Shure, Sennheiser and Rode. Monitoring is, naturally, supplied by ATCC SCM200ASL Pro farfield monitors and ATC SCM20ASL nearfield monitors, alongside the customary Yamaha NS10s.

Yellow Shark is also equipped with many quality instruments such as a Yamaha C5 Grand Piano, Fender Rhodes 76 Mark 1 piano, Musicman Stingray bass, and Takamine acoustic guitars. A Yamaha 9000 PRC drum kit is also available, and sampling availability is provided with a fully expanded E-mu 6400.

“ We are able to cater for a varied array of recording requirements from single voice-over work to small choirs and big bands. We offer a spacious live room which can hold a number of musicians who can be screened off from each other if necessary,” explains Lewis. “The vocal/drum booth room is large enough to cater for a large drum kit and added percussion while remaining acoustically dry enough to be able to record controlled vocal performances.”

One of the studios first major projects has been to record the vocals for the forthcoming Pop Idol computer game, produced by Hothouse Creations and Codemasters, to be released on PS2 and PC. Six singers spent a total of ten weeks at the studio recording the 40 tracks each required for the game. The project was produced by Mick Dolan, with engineering from Lewis and co-production from John Acock. John Broomhall, head of game audio and representing Hothouse Creations, came back with more work for the studio in the production of the backing vocals.

“ I think our studio was chosen for the Pop Idol game vocal recording for the quality of our vocal room acoustics and the relaxing environment of the studio. We happily catered for the vocalists needs and the result was a very high quality,” says Lewis. “So far our clients have ranged from operatic vocal artists to a ten piece jazz funk band.”

“ With the installation of Pro Tools we can now offer post production, audio editing and even sound design or synching to video. We are keen to expand on technologies all the time and if there is a particular demand for a certain aspect of audio recording or such things as 5.1 mixing etc, then we can invest and install the necessary means to meet the demands happily.”

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