Counting The Specials, Buzzcocks and Paul Weller among its clients, Woodbine Street reckons to be among the UK’s best and longest established independent recording studios. It is centred on a new Pro Tools HDX system – capable of recording 192 track (with 24 channels of Avid conversion) at up to 192kHz, 32-bit resolution – and a new Audient ASP8024 mixing console.
It is unusual for a studio to replace a mixing desk with an identical model, yet that is what owner John Rivers has done. ‘My first ASP8024 was purchased in the first year of production,’ he says, describing the decision to replace it as a no-brainer. ‘It has beautiful, pure sound, excellent EQ, crazy low noise and a very good price.’
The recent investment in the Warwickshire studio is part of Rivers’ commitment to ‘keep the equipment cutting-edge for the benefit of our artists’.
A producer, engineer and studio owner, Rivers set up in Woodbine St before moving to his current site on the other side of Leamington Spa in 1981. His involvement in recording began when he was ten years old…
‘It started with surplus equipment – an old Sony tape machine and a home-built desk,’ he recalls. ‘After a couple of years of getting increasing requests to record artists in my living room, I invested in a Tascam 4-track quarter-inch tape machine and an MM desk. My first LP recording, The Fight of the Day by Waterfall became collectable, prompting the band to release it on CD only a few years ago.
‘After investing in a Soundcraft Series II desk and 1-inch 8-track, there was hardly a day went by when a Woodbine production wasn’t on the radio. This culminated in my biggest hit of that time, ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials,’ he continues. ‘After moving to the current site, we’ve recorded with The Specials, Dead Can Dance, Love and Rockets, Buzzcocks, Dr Robert featuring Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and many, many more lovely artists.’
With a broad and diverse recording catalogue, Rivers believes that one of the best pieces of advice he has been given, was ‘don’t be a dictator; be flexible and listen to the artist; it’s their record’. ‘It makes me proud when an artist goes away happy and then comes back to record again,’ he says.
Accompanying the mixing desk and recording system, Rivers has installed Eve Audio SC3010 three-way main monitors (1.3kW/side) that provide ‘awesome clarity and musicality, and have transformed our ability to achieve great mixes.
