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Moving With The Times Woodbury Studios
In the current environment, studios have to offer something different to remain commercially viable. Audio Media visits one Hertfordshire, UK-based facility to see how it is adapting to a changing industry.
SET IN the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside, Woodbury’s pleasant surroundings belie the fact that it is within easy commuting distance of London and other main transport links. On the M11 corridor halfway between Harlow town and Stansted Airport, there are many public transport links close by and the studio even offers a pick- up service for the last little step of your journey. The view from the studio’s vocal booth is especially calming and inspiring to anyone who ends up behind the mic with the ‘red light on’.
THE BUILD
The plans for the studio were drawn up by studio design firm The Studio People (TSP), who have a huge catalogue of recording and broadcast facilities from Manchester College to Input Media in Acton. Construction was completed by some of TSP’s specialist builders but mostly by Woodbury’s owner, Ross Simpson, who among other things is a keen joiner with an eye for detail. TSP’s owner Peter Keeling notes how Woodbury was designed to utilise the limited space in order to provide a
32 August 2013
studio that is comfortable, ergonomic and ultimately creative.
The internal studio rooms
are suspended with superb sound isolation and the acoustics are excellent for its good-sized control room, which delivers that dead- studio sound without sucking the life out of the source.
KIT LIST At the heart of Woodbury is an industry-standard Pro Tools HD running on a Mac with an Avid C24 control surface. “Pro Tools HD was the obvious choice to allow for high track counts and plug-in instances required to keep the facility at the cutting edge of modern music technology,” said Justin Spier of pro audio supplier Studio Creations, who recommended and supplied Woodbury’s main equipment. Other kit includes PMC and NS10 monitoring powered from custom- modified Hafler amplifiers and beyerdynamic DT770, DT250 and DT150 headphones. On the microphones side, the extensive selection includes Neumann U87ai, Earthworks QTC40s, original
AKG C414, Rode NT2 and Audio-Technica 4050s and 3525s. Woodbury also boasts a range of plug-ins including the East West collection and has a number of classic outboards such as the Roland JV1080.
THE TEAM Simpson has owned small home studios for many years mostly for his own work as a professional composer, musical director, vocal coach and dancer. Working alongside Simspon is internationally recognised
Audio Engineer Simon Allen, who has worked on everything from world music through to pop hits during his 10 years in the industry.
Many other professionals
come under the Woodbury umbrella such as writers, conductors, musicians, video editors, and camera operators, giving the studio the whole package that is necessary to stay competitive in the commercial studio market. Woodbury has been doing
all types of work from low- budget demos through to top- level mixes including most
LUCKY THERE’S A STUDIO FOR FAMILY GUY
Recent sessions at Woodbury include the voice over of Mila Kunis who plays Meg in the well- known TV series Family Guy by Fox TV. Kunis was working in north London filming for a future project
and the producers of Family Guy needed six episodes from her. “I had to run a room test using our U87 so that they could hear our booth and check it against their normal studio and sound they have
in California,” said Simpson. The session itself required
some careful planning from Audio Engineer Simon Allen as they needed several monitor mixes for what he describes as, “a four-way conference call”. The show had asked for an ISDN line to run the session remotely with a couple of the Producers in California but Simpson learnt very quickly that ISDN’s are being used less and less so they ended up using Skype which worked perfectly.
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recently recording six episodes of Family Guy for Fox TV with Mila Kunis (see box). In today’s industry climate,
Woodbury acts as an example of a commercial studio that has remained profitable by offering the right blend of facilities and technical expertise with a fair pricing scheme. Simpson has built a great foundation by pulling in all his strengths and creating a studio that has been designed on both a technical level and aesthetically to the highest degree.
www.woodburystudios.co.uk
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