Universal Music’s Forbes Street Studios, a new high-end, fully-commercial studio
based in Sydney, Australia, has installed an SSL AWS 924 delta, supplied by Australian
SSL distributor Amber Technology, for tracking and mixing duties. The SSL Room sits
amongst a nest of other media production spaces designed to create a full-service
environment for discerning musicians, producers, labels, and content creators.

Forbes Street Studios, designed by Michael Fronzek of Sound Spaces, is located in the
recently gentrified Woolloomooloo suburb of Sydney – now a developing magnet for
creatives and foodies from all over the world. The facility is open to all, not just
Universal Music artists, and has a clean, modern look and feel that sits well with its
useful mix of production and media rooms. In addition to the SSL Room, there’s the
45-square metre live room, the inspiration-ready writing room, the video-savvy edit
suite, and the broadcast-friendly interview room.

“The SSL Room is the centrepiece that has got the AWS 924 console and Barefoot
MiniMain12 monitoring,” says Anthony Garvin, the Studio manager mix engineer and
producer at Forbes Street. “The live room has very neutral acoustics and lots of
natural light. We can comfortably cater for at least ten players, depending on the type
of ensemble, and you can get great recordings of almost anything in that space.

“I think the writing room is modestly named – it has got lots of interesting gear in
there, and most recently has been used for the vocal recordings and mixing for The
Voice Australia. The edit suite has all the Audio-Over-IP gear for radio interviews, and
it has got Media Composer, Adobe Creative Suite, Pro Tools, and so on. So it is great
as another small writing space, for recording from the interview room, or for video
editing jobs, for example.”

The interview room is set up like a round-table radio interview studio, with windows
overlooking the busy William Street – the main route in and out of the Sydney Central
Business District. “A few weeks ago, Universal was hosting a media day for The Voice
Australia,” relates Garvin. “They had Boy George, Seal, Kelly Rowland, and Delta
Goodrem all in the building, and for part of the day they were doing AoIP radio pre-
records with stations around the country, from the Interview Room. It allows any
artists and clients to fulfil media obligations, without leaving the building, which can
be very useful.”

The studio’s new SSL 924, with its hybrid analogue approach, combines an SSL Total
Recall, SuperAnalogue console with comprehensive Ethernet-connected DAW control,
and the new Delta-Control DAW-based automation technology. “We were looking at a
few different consoles – all the ones you can imagine around that price point,”
explains Garvin. “Several techs that I know and trust all said ‘yes, go for the AWS’. In
their experience, it was the most reliable console, and I was worried about going too
’boutique’: You just don’t know how much support you are going to get maybe five or
ten years down the line.

“Of course, everyone loves the pre-amps. We have got quite a few outboard units,
and they have been used, but everyone has been very happy with the console
preamps.

“Also, you can step in front of the AWS and figure out 95% of it within about 90
seconds. All of the engineers coming through the facility have enjoyed that experience
– even though they all seem to use it differently.”

This aspect of the AWS – the flexibility to allow operators to work their own way – is
something that has emerged at Forbes Street as the client list builds. Garvin: “For
monitoring while tracking, for example, some will return just a stereo track from Pro
Tools, others will send to Pro Tools from the insert sends and use the insert returns
like tape returns. Others will split the board and use a few channels on the mix bus
and have Pro Tools come back from there while using the record bus for the recording
inputs, and others simulate an inline setup by using DAW control layer to mimic the
tape returns – even though they are just control faders.

“That shows the flexibility of the console. Everyone is doing the same thing in five or
six different ways, and everyone gets a result out of it.”

Garvin estimates that studio use so far has been around 75% straight recording and
writing sessions, with the rest being other media bookings, like radio interviews,
album launches, showcases, and so on – including the recent Cannes Lion 2017 award
winning AirNZ campaign featuring musician Ronan Keating and actor Julian Denison.
After only six months in business, the Forbes Street Studios’ satisfied client list is
already a healthy roster of the great and the good, including Shawn Mendes, Vera
Blue, Tigerlily, Gregory Porter, among others – a creative work load that does not look
like slowing anytime soon.