With its main mix room centred on a 24-channel Neve Genesys G48 console, Newtone Studios is Oslo’s newest music production facility. ‘The Genesys fits right into our workflow,’ says studio manager Andrè Viervoll. ‘With total Recall of all parameters, analogue automation and DAW control, it has every feature we desired.’
Opened in January 2017 as a multipurpose, shared creative workspace with a commercial recording studio at its heart, Newtone is the amalgamation of three musical enterprises, combining the knowledge and experience of Viervoll, Tom Erik Skram and Aksel Jensen. Viervoll had managed Parachute Studio in Mølleparken for almost a decade, but when the lease expired he and Jensen joined forces and took the opportunity to unite with Skram and his team in Kalbakken.
‘[In Kalbakken] we could find the real estate we needed to build a studio and it made perfect sense to have it in the same space as a complete electronics workshop and a software/hardware development environment,’ Jensen explains. ‘Just as in the large studio complexes back in the day, we are able to service our own equipment, modify it and design and build custom gadgets to tailor the workflow as we want. Andrè brought his new Bösendorfer 225 grand piano and esoteric mic collection from Parachute, but then we needed a centrepiece – and after visiting AMS Neve HQ, we realised Genesys, was the answer. It soon arrived and we were ready to roll.’
Newtone’s Genesys G48 console sits in custom-designed furniture in the main mix room, with a Pro Tools dock and built-in touchscreen for the Genesys.
‘Sound-wise we get the classic Neve sound we’d expect, with industry standard 1073 preamps and 1084 EQ,’ Viervoll reports. ‘We are blown away with the sound of desk – and we really appreciate the tons of headroom we have. The only regret we have is not buying more channels and dynamics for every channel.’
