York Street Studio

York Street Recording Studio is a New Zealand's Premier Recording Studio based in Auckland, New Zealand. The studio opened in 1991, and has been New Zealand's leading music recording, mixing and mastering facility.

The Neve

The heart of York Street Recording Studio's control room is the vintage 1974 EMI Neve. There were 7 of these fantastic sounding consoles made by the legends at Neve specifically for EMI studios around the world, one of which was in Wellington New Zealand. The rest are situated across the world - including one in U2's studio in Dublin. All of these consoles have been heavily modified over the years except York Street's, which is the only one left in original condition and retains the same warmth and clarity as the day it was built.

York Street's console (serial number A3095) is fitted with 24 inputs all with the very rare and sought after 1093 modules (5 band EQ) and has 16 returns. The console uses 1977 channel routing units and 3415 line amps. Kept in immaculate condition, the console is a lovely sounding beast.

The Studio Rooms

The Control Room
York Street's large control room is well lit and air conditioned making long recording and mixing sessions more comfortable.All equipment is well laid out and maintained to a high level with a logical, adaptable and easy to use signal path.

Engineers and Producers enjoy the confidence of making decisions in a reliable, natural sounding control environment. What they hear, the eventual CD buyer will also experience.

The Live Room
The recording area is comprised of a 1000 sq ft main room and mezzanine, with two adjoining isolation rooms and a third separate isolation booth.

The main room is 20 ft high and is New Zealand's only high-stud professional studio live room. It has virtually no permanent acoustic absorption, relying on room shape and deflective elements to achieve control of reverberation. The result is a space in which instruments have the opportunity to develop their natural timbre, and performers can hear each other and play together in an enjoyable, relaxed atmosphere.

Each isolation room is decoupled from the main room, further reducing any possible spill and allowing York Street engineers to record full bands playing live with virtually no bleed.

The Gear

RECORDING
70s Classic EMI Neve w/1093 Pre modules w/5 band parametric EQ
2 x Pro Tools HD II Exel, version 7
32X Apogee 24 Bit A/D D/A Converters
Apogee Big Ben Clock
Sony 2" 24 Track APR 24

Sony DDS4 data dat backup system
Fostex D - 25 (DAT)
Tascam DA-30 MKII (DAT)

MONITORING
Genlec 8050's with Genlec Sub
Yamaha NS 10 (with 200W subs)
ATC SCM 200 (Tri Amped)
Winchcombe/Dynaudio (Custom)
Genlec 1031As

MICROPHONES
2x Crowley and Tripp Naked Eye Classic
2x Neumann U 87
1x Neumann U 67
2x Neumann U 147 Tube
1x Neumann U 47 FET
2x B&K 4004 Omnis
2x AKG C 414 B-ULS
2x AKG C 414
2x AKG C 460 B
2x AT 4033
2x AKG C 3000
1x AKG C 1000
1x AKG C 5600 B
3x AKG SE 300 B
2x AKG C 535 EB
2x AKG D 112
5x Shure SM 57
2x Shure SM 58
4x Sennheiser MD 421
1x Beyerdynamic M 69
1x Beyerdynamic M 66
1x Calrec CB 20 C

INSTRUMENTS
2x Hammond Organs
1x Leslie Cabinets
1x Pleyel Grand Piano
1x Rhodes Piano

OUTBOARD EQUIPMENT

DYNAMICS
2x Urei 1176 Universal Audio Blackface
Compressor/ Limiter (stereo linkable)
4x EMI TG 12413 Compressor/ Limiter
1x EMI RS 168 A Stereo Limiter
1x Urei LA-12 Stereo Compressor/Limiter
1x Manley Variable-Mu Stereo Limiter/Compressor
2x Alan Smart Stereo Compressor/ Limiter
2x TLA Tube Stereo Compressor/Limiter
1x ADR F760X RS Compex Stereo Compressor/ Limiter
1x DBX 160 X Compressor/ Limiter
3x Drawmer DS 201 Noise Gates
1x DBX FS 900 Stereo De-Esser

REVERBS
1x Lexicon 480L with LRC
1x Yamaha Rev 5 Digital Reverb
1x Yamaha Rev 7 Digital Reverb
1x Klark Teknik DN 780 Digital Reverb
1x Roland SRV 2000 Digital Reverb
1x Lexicon PCM 60 Digital Reverb

PRE-AMPLIFIERS
1x SSL G383 2 Channel Mic Pre-Amp /EQ
1x TLA Tube 2 Channel Mic/Line Pre/EQ
1x Buzz Audio/Farrantec V-A2 Mic Pre/D.I

DELAYS
1x Roland RE 201 Space Echo
1x Roland SDE 3000 Digital Delay
1x Roland SDE 1000 Digital Delay
1x Korg SDD 1000 Digital Delay
1x Time Matrix 8 Tap Digital Delay
1x Behringer EX 1 Stereo Image Enhancer

MISCELLANEOUS
1x Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ
2x Aphex Aural Exciter Type C
1x Eventide H 3000 Ultra Harmoniser
1x TC Electronic TC 120 Spatial Expander/Stereo Chorus/Flanger
1x SPL SX2 Psychoacoustic Equaliser
1x Korg DTR Digital Rack Tuner

Artists & producers

The studio has been frequented by various artists from throughout New Zealand and Australia, as well as several other artists from around the world. The list of the studios clients includes;
Silverchair,
Crowded House,
Bic Runga,
Shihad,
Interpol,
Che Fu,
Dave Dobbyn,
Daniel Bedingfield,
Goldenhorse,
No Doubt,
Fur Patrol,
The Feelers,
Strawpeople,
Killing Joke,
Bailterspace,
Semisonic,
The Exponents,
Headless Chickens,
The Stereo Bus,
Englebert Humperdinck,
Hello Sailor,
Blindspott,
Tadpole,
Head Like A Hole,
Zed,
Ben King,
Pluto,
Supergroove,
Brooke Fraser,
Payola,
Carly Binding, and
48May.

Producers who have worked at the studio include; Mitchell Froom, Jaz Coleman, Youth (producer), Gil Norton, Malcolm Foster, Chris Van De Geer, Andrew Buckton, Malcolm Welsford, Danton Supple, Tchad Blake, Brian Paulson, Greg Haver, Bradey Blade, P Money, and Jonathan Campbell.

External links

[http://www.yorkstreet.co.nz/home.php Studio homepage]