UK - A new studio facility, Winchester Audio Barn, has opened for business. Three years in the making, it represents ‘a blend of retro charm and cutting-edge technology’.
Located in the Hampshire countryside approximately 55 miles southwest of London, Winchester Audio Barn shares space within a purpose-built complex that includes an event venue and restaurant/bar facilities, and a kitchen capable of catering for over 200 guests. There is also a classic car showroom and workshop.
The studio itself features a Solid State Logic Duality Fuse 48-channel SuperAnalogue mixing console, racks of vintage outboard gear and microphones, classic instruments and amplification, within a flexible infrastructure designed to support any audio production scenario. The Audio Barn also offers a range of accommodation packages.
The facility is the brainchild of Niall Holden, founder of VDC Trading, who, amongst other things, manufactures and distributes Van Damme Cable, used by many studios.
Acoustic design of the Audio Barn was provided by Chris Walls of Level Acoustic Design, while technical design and installation were handled by Bill Ward of Langdale Technical Consulting, who will stay involved long-term with the facility. Stuart Bruce has also joined the team as chief engineer and brings experience gained from a career that has seen him working and engineering with many of the world’s biggest artists and studios.
Both Bruce, as engineer, and Ward, as system designer, have long and extensive relationships with SSL and the company’s mixing consoles, which started back in the 1980s with their respective tenures at Sarm Studios in London. “We've worked very closely with SSL over the years,” says engineer, producer and educator Bruce. “When choosing a console for a commercial facility, you want something robust, familiar, and that always delivers sonically, but also something that you can put your hand on your heart and say, ‘I love this thing’. Naturally enough, that led to the decision the Audio Barn made to choose the Duality Fuse.”
The Audio Barn has been designed with maximum production flexibility in mind. There are over 250 mic and tie-lines within the recording space with custom-made audio panels on every wall of the tracking room and balcony, which was also carefully designed to be deep enough to fit a drum kit on. All of the recording rooms feature dedicated high and low level guitar lines allowing guitars and amps to played and recorded in a multitude of ways and locations, which include two bespoke amp cupboards.
The new building also houses a restaurant, bar and multi-format event space capable of hosting up to 250 people with a stage large enough for a seven-piece band. The venue, also intended to support the audio industry and other events, is linked over both Dante and analogue networks into the control room with additional connectivity enabling the use of multiple video cameras across the event spaces.
“We could have a gig with a six-camera shoot in the venue and simultaneously be mixing the audio, in analogue, on the Duality Fuse and be vision-mixing in another room for a broadcast feed. If an outside broadcaster wants to produce a concert in the main venue or the studio, outside provision including power, digital and analogue lines has been made for an OB Truck.”
The control room features a selection of classic outboard gear and microphones, Van Damme Purple patchbays, PMC main monitors and instruments including many of the vintage guitars and amplifiers from Niall Holden’s personal collection. The Fairchild has a heritage that goes back to Sun Studios; there’s a red Wurlitzer piano that used to belong to The Doors, which Amy Winehouse subsequently wrote Back to Black on, and the Hammond B3 was used on tour by Dire Straits for many years.
