York St recording studio in Auckland’s parnell opened their doors to the public yesterday. Tiens and I went along to see what goes into making a record and were keen to see this impressive facility. The thing that stood out for me the most was how friendly and genuine the crew are, these guys obviously love what they’re doing. The work that goes into the acoustics of each space was impressive, different spaces to achieve different sounds, room shape and diffusing the sound rather than killing it seemed to be the key to perfect acoustic reverberation.

It was interesting talking to Hook – one of the studio engineers – about compression in recordings. They don’t like it as just as much as us Hifi guys, but they have to please their customer. A band who is trying to ‘make it’ wants their recording to stand out, and some bands want compression so their track sounds louder, not just on the radio but also when those record company bosses are flicking through tracks of new artists looking for a group to sign, they want to stand out. It was good though, to hear that bands tend to cater for their audience, so for bands who target younger people who the majority of which are only going to listen in mp3 on their iPod headphones, the compression is cranked. Other bands who’s audience is a little more refined shall we say, use less compression because they know people will be listening at home or want the record to sound good on their own higher quality systems.

What is also nice about York St is the history behind it and the history behind the mighty Neve desk. Here’s a little description from wikipedia:

The heart of the control room is the vintage 1974 EMI Neve. There were 7 of these consoles made by the legends at Neve specifically for EMI studios around the world, one of which was in Wellington, New Zealand. One is at U2′s studio in Dublin, one is at ICP studios in Brussels, Belgium, two have been put together as one large console and is in Steakhouse studios in Hollywood CA, two are currently being put together at the Great Linford Manor in England and number 7 is here at York Street in New Zealand, which is the only one left in original condition and retains the same warmth and clarity as the day it was built…… Kept in immaculate condition, the console is a lovely sounding beast.

There’s some nice photos on both the York St site and Wikipedia so take a look if you want more, but here’s my shots from the day taken on my phone.

Mesa or Marshall? Whatever your preference, they've got plenty of options

One very nice Gretsch drum kit mic'd up ready to go

A Yamaha NS10 driver, used to record sub bass off a kick drum

The Vocal booth, with coloured mood lighting to boot!

Note the zig-zag wall behind the Grand Piano

View of the main room from the mezzanine

Wooden ceiling panels to diffuse the sound

The famous Yamaha NS10 Monitors in the mixing booth

The mighty Neve mixer, analog magic

They still record a tape master, then feed off to the computer

Hook showing Tiens the power of Pro Tools

The nostalgia wall of past recordings

Also, here’s the latest Nathan King song filmed at York St:

Thanks again to the York St crew, especially Hook who spent a lot of time showing us around, we had a great time!