18 l November 2013
www.psneurope.com studioreport UNITED KINGDOM Lofty endeavour
“There is/a place/in Newcastle. They call/the Loft/Studio...” Erica Basnicki talks to the men who converted the Animals’ former haunt
BEFORE THE Animals became one of Tyneside’s best-known rock bands, they recorded an album as the Kon-Tors at Mortonsound studio in Newcastle. Some 50 years later that very studio has been renovated, restored and revamped by music industry veterans, and long-time Newcastle residents, Andrew Archer and John Elliott, reopening as Loft Music Studios. The duo took over the studio
last July and invested £60,000 (€71,000) in upgrading the facility, which they will run alongside their existing business, Loft Music: a sync agency with clients including Sony, Disney, Electronic Arts, the BBC and Channel 4. “We had to move out of our old studio because the building was bought and knocked down
Loft Music Studios is the brainchild of John Elliott, left, and Andrew Archer
to build a new police station,” said Archer. “We were homeless for a bit and then a friend of a friend said ‘You know there’s this studio being sold in Newcastle.’ Nobody sells a studio; that never happens! We looked at the space and we were just blown away. It’s 185sqm, and it has an office and another production suite at
“We’ve got one of the best sounding rooms in the region, if not the best”Andrew Archer
Renovation work began as soon as Archer and Elliott took possession last summer, though according to Archer the live rooms themselves were already top-notch. “We’ve got one of the best sounding rooms in the region, if not the best,” he said. “It has amazing acoustics; everybody really likes the drum sound in there. It’s often the case that studios start with the technology, and build the room around it. But we had the opportunity to start with the room, and add in the technology we felt was right for the space afterwards.” In the case of Loft Music
Studios, the ‘right technology’ centres around an Allen & Heath GS-24RM console. “Allen & Heath, up until the
’70s, was really focused on big studio consoles and had as good a name as Neve and SSL,” Archer explained. “They’ve got the
A collection of over 19
different preamps including Neve, Helios and Malcolm Toft’s new Ocean Audio provide additional flavour, “so if somebody wants to come in and doesn’t want to use the desk at all, they can have a clean path” said Archer, adding that “for big jobs, it’s quite a good utility piece. The quality versus the affordability is excellent for it.” Next to be installed in the studio will be a pair of Focal Twin 6 monitors, which will supplement the studio’s existing of Genelec 8040 and Adam Audio A7 monitors. Since its official opening in
Live Room 1 at Loft Music Studios
the front, so we can run the business along side of it, because you know, studios don’t make a lot of money.” (Laughs).
experience to do it, they’re a British company which we like, and that desk really ticks a lot of boxes for a modern studio.”
June of this year, Loft Music Studio has been fully booked up with work on “big Hollywood movie trailers”, an album project for Global Underground/ Ministry of Sound with Archer and Elliott’s own band Trafik, and recording up-and-coming local bands. It’s Archer’s hope that Loft Music Studios can also help grow the area’s music scene, and perhaps keep local musicians ‘local’ just a little bit longer. “There’s a lot of talent in the north east of England, and a lot of the time people seem to think that they need to go to London to work with great producers, great engineers and great studios. That’s a good thing, of course, but what we want to do is say there is this talent and expertise in the north east, let’s try and keep everyone up here for as long as possible.”
www.loftmusicstudios.co.uk
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