Professional Sound - October 2017 | Page 32

tandem with songwriting and recording . “ It ’ s a great space with a great vibe and just sounds very organic .”

The studio takes up the entire main floor and overlooks the halfacre lot ’ s backyard and a forested area . The house also boasts multiple guest rooms for visiting clients .

Very little construction was required to convert the space , given its large , open concept main floor ; that said , there have been upgrades to the infrastructure , including a complete redo of the electrical , as well as the installation of soundproof doors , minor soundproofing and acoustic treatments primarily in the isolation booth , and some cosmetic improvements .

In terms of sound and atmosphere , it ’ s warm and natural sounding . “ There ’ s no harshness in the upper mids ,” Thorney says .

“ The diffusion of sound is also excellent ,” Fair adds , citing the original oak flooring and a 6-ft . space below that , which enhances the diffusion .

The various spaces , including the sole isolation booth , are visually connected via video cameras and large displays instead of windows , providing total isolation while maintaining a line of sight that , owing to the sophistication of the video gear , is still highly functional . By extension , that presents unique opportunities for clients in terms of content creation , utilizing the system and programs including Final Cut Pro , Adobe Premiere , and Adobe After Effects to generate high-quality and great-sounding video content .

“ That ’ s one of the biggest changes I ’ ve seen [ in the industry ],” Thorney says . “ We do that with pretty much everybody . You have to do it now . Back in the day , there was a producer and two assistants . Now , you only need one guy – who also has to be a video guy .”

As for gear , Fair says : “ The studio came together organically . As we needed things , we went out and got them . We really paid attention to each thing we got . Basically , we have Neve preamps , 1073s , API and SSL channel strips , Tree Audio stuff … The big thing was getting good monitors , so we have the Barefoot [ Micro Main 27 ] speakers and others – but the SSL is what ties everything together . For a long time , we had the preamps and this outboard stuff and then we had Dangerous summing mixers . We took our time because we weren ’ t sure if we wanted to get an analog console or what was the right thing to do .”

Essentially , they bought preamps and compressors as needed . “ Initially , we were using Pro Tools and would patch things to our patch bay , but we took that as far as we could . We didn ’ t know what we wanted . We considered analog , but at one point , I was talking to staff at Studio Economik in Montreal , which is the place we got the SSL board , and it turned out to be the perfect console . You connect to your outboard gear and basically have a customized SSL with exactly what you want to use .”

Villa Sound treads the line between an old-school and newschool environment , offering digital recording utilizing a Mac Pro ( 8 Core with 12 GB RAM ) running Pro Tools 10 / 11 
 and HD 3 , Aurora Lynx 16 VT AD / DA Converters , and a Burl B2 Bomber AD Converter with the SSL Matrix 2 40-input analog console / DAW controller as the heart of everything .

“ It ’ s kind of an interesting console ,” Fair says . “ It doesn ’ t have any preamps or EQs or compressors like a normal SSL would ; it ’ s just all the routing . You patch in your preamps and compressors and sort of build your own SSL .”

Behind the console is a programming rig comprised of a Mac Mini 
( 2.3 GHz i7 with 16 GB RAM ) running Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 11 , interfaced via an MBox Pro 2 and two 24-in . Apple displays .

On the instrument side , Villa Sound has some decidedly cool pieces in its collection : a Heintzman Grand , ‘ 73 Fender Rhodes , Roland JU-06 ( Boutique Juno 106 ), as well as multiple guitars and amps , an Ayotte drum kit , and more . They ’ re currently in the process of adding a variety of hard synths to their inventory .

“ A big step for us was when we separated all of the software synths out of the Pro Tools system . Now , we have a totally isolated