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anal0gue · 6 months ago

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a day in the life: YUNGBLUD at AIR Studios

a little something for those who want some of the older style sound engineering content :)

It isn’t all Decca trees and film scores at AIR Studios. This iconic Hampstead studio - founded by Sir George Martin in 1991, has hosted a whole host of artists and composers over the years. Although you likely will have seen shots of The Hall brimming with endless numbers of rather focussed looking string players, making light work of the latest Hollywood film score, you wouldn’t be blamed for being surprised that bands such as Muse, Coldplay, U2 and Red Hot Chilli Peppers have also followed in the same path at the legendary AIR Lyndhurst studios. So when one of the most highly rated upcoming UK artists - YUNGBLUD showed up to shoot his latest video for Coke Studio, it was time to wheel away the Decca tree and turn down the lights for something a little edgier than normal. To say the least. Here’s how the day unfolded.

7:30am:

As with any visit to AIR, the day starts with a reassuring warm greeting from the studio’s friendly reception team. Not a bad way to start the day. Even if it is 7:30.

A short walk down the freshly painted corridor and we are at the control room door to Studio 1. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Studio 1 is the largest space at the complex, but it isn’t. The Hall is the largest of several rooms, whilst Studio 1 is its smaller but equally fun space. Bright sunlight pours through the live room - something that is almost unheard of in the many dinghy, underground studios across the capital. Plenty of players love this room for that reason, amongst many others.

The live room is already packed with microphones that look a little lonely out there without the musicians present. The studio staff have been undoubtedly busy the day before setting up the room to the spec of today’s engineer Gianaluca Massimo. There’s every flavour of microphone under the sun - from a lovely looking R44, to a row of precisely lined up MKH40s for the string players. They don’t mess around here.

The studio is completely silent - nobody else has arrived yet, so I start off with some morning assistant duties: turning on the lights, powering up any displays, putting away any evidence of the previous day’s session and stocking the control room up on water and stationary. As a freelance assistant, you get to know the start-up procedures and quirks of so many studios, but it comes flooding back as soon as you step in the door.

8:00am:

The silence never lasts long. Gian and Jed arrive, who both work in-house at AIR. Jed will be operating Pro Tools and as with any recordist - naturally putting his hand to whatever needs to be done in between. In pours several of the production team, whose names I pretend I hadn’t instantly forgotten, when I shortly offer them a drink to kick off the morning. Hospitality is unbelievably important in any establishment of this level. The assistant is key in delivering this, not only to the clients, but also to whoever is engineering or operating Pro Tools. Gotta keep them sweet.

I take a short walk upstairs, naturally bumping into a handful of the regular session musicians who are next door in The Hall, recording a film score. In the midst of getting the latest dose of studio gossip from them, It’s easy to forget what exactly you came upstairs for

Whilst I make a ridiculous looking tray full of every type of tea imaginable, the canteen staff put the final touches to a mocha - a dusting of cocoa powder in the shape of the AIR logo. The clients love this one. It’s the little things that make all the difference.

I precariously tip-toe down the seemingly endless stairs, a string player holds the door open for me and I make my way back to the control room. Dishing out each drink, I pull off remembering who ordered which drink. Probably thanks to my overly detailed iPhone notes, which are full of random drinks orders from sessions past.

Everyone’s happy and we can get on with something a bit more…technical.

8:30am

Standing awkwardly amongst the crowd of production crew, precarious looking lighting rigs and of course - microphones, Gian tells me what still needs to be done before we hit record. No matter how well you prepare the day before, there’s always a few loose ends to tie up. You wouldn’t believe the amount of little bits and bobs that need to be carefully set up and checked for a recording to go smoothly. In a world-class studio, it’s always expected to run without or with very few snags. It’s a military operation.

I armed myself with some tape and a sharpie (classic assistant must-haves) from the drawer with G.O.S. kit written on it, which I found out after several sessions at AIR comically means ‘get out of s***t kit. Despite working super hard, the in-house staff at AIR have a great sense of humour, which is evident from little moments like this.

The personal headphone mixers need labelling, so I weave between the sandbags and microphone stands to put the labels on. The headphone mixers allow musicians to create their own monitor mix, and these are a great addition to any studio in my opinion. I also swap a few microphones out and add a few extras, as per Gian’s instructions. I nip round and check all the valve microphones are still powered up and sure enough, there’s a little red light glowing on each and every power supply.

Jed arms the tracks and we do a quick scratch round. This consists of delicately scratching the grill on each microphone, to check the signal is reaching the rig and monitoring in the control room in the way it should be. Each microphone has a different texture and shaped grill so over the years, you learn what the most consistent way of scratching them is. You want a nice consistent scratch to allow the engineer to even out any level differences between microphones.

Sometimes you get a full house. Not today. Scratching the left hand piano mic, I peer over the lid to see some shaking heads and frowning faces, followed by a barely intelligible ‘keep going’ over the SLS (studio loudspeaker - they always sound nasty…). As amazing sounding as these vintage Neve consoles are, don’t be surprised if you fall victim during the scratch, despite the unwavering efforts of the technical staff. I can just about see Gian repeatedly bashing a button on the console, probably an insert. “Come on”, I think, still scratching the grill of the microphone whilst my bicep suffers. The frowns turn to smiles and I can relax a little more knowing that I don’t have to swap out a valve mic…just yet anyway.

10am

All is calm in the control room. The clients are either sipping their drinks, furiously tapping away at their MacBooks or admiring the gorgeous Neve console that rightly sits centre stage. There’s about time to nip out for a smoke or take a final gasp of fresh air before the Marshall stacks buzz to life and Dom (AKA YUNGBLUD) puts down a ripping vocal. I love the calm before the storm. It really is the perfect metaphor for how it feels. Regardless of if it’s a 60 piece orchestra or a three piece band, the stakes are always high and quite rightly at such an iconic establishment.

11am

The film crew look set to go, as musicians holding all shapes and sizes of instrument cases filter through the wedged-open double doors into Studio 1. I stay in the live room to help with any requests or questions from the musicians, as there is inevitably something to sort out. Asking the brass players to hold up (their instruments), I slap the FET 47s in front of each, in a way I’ve seen my favourite engineers do and hope for the best. It’s funny how you doubt yourself even know you’ve done it a thousand times before. I show the vocalists and some of the band how to use the Avioms and make a last whip round the room before I close the oak clad studio doors and head to the buzzing control room.

Inside, I find Dom and the rest of his band have arrived in my absence and he enthusiastically greets us all. I instantly think, what a legend. He’s full of energy and humour, and I find myself pretending not to be slightly starstruck, as my mind flies through the sweet collaborations he has done with Bring Me The Horizon and Machine Gun Kelly, not to mention his catalogue of killer albums. He takes a moment to express how excited he is to be here, transfixed by the huge Neve and crowd of musicians congregating in the live room. I believe every word.

The tracks go back onto input as Dom skips into the live room, shortly followed by Miles Kane too who would be making an appearance. The control room springs to life as the huge monitors offer us a nice polished replication of what is going on in the live room. It’s always a sort of chaos when you first go on input. From a quiet control room, to a strange mix of of musicians tuning their instruments and conversations that you probably shouldn’t be overhearing. Jed sends out an A - 440Hz pumped through every set of DT102s for the musicians to tune up to. On a typical session, this happens on dot of the official session start, but not today. We’re going rock n roll today.

11:30am

There’s always a sense of feeling like you’ve got away with it, when the first take goes down and the microphones and signals have survived the ordeal. There’s a nod between the studio staff as we all confirm that everything is working as it should be. Gian solos a few mics after the take - you can’t do it during the recording in this room as the console is split and the other microphones would be cut if you soloed a channel. This still makes me laugh after a long time of working on the more modern in-line consoles such as the 88r. We are good to go and everyone is looking happy in the live room. Gian checks with everybody that they are getting what they want in the headphones - never to be overlooked. Again, all smiles and nods and we go for another. The click track’s VU meter rhythmically springs to life and 2 bars later, both rooms are filled with YUNGBLUD et al., at their finest.

Gian slides between the console and the outboard rack, tweaking levels across his chosen arsenal. It sounds great off the bat, but it doesn’t take long for the sound to feel like its been mixed already as he fiddles with everything from the classic 1176s to his trusty Pultec EQs.

Much like Gian, the camera operator impressively slides around the room, making an imperceivable amount of noise and capturing the whole performance in one shot. Dom skilfully plays with the audience, leaning into the camera whilst putting down an impressive vocal performance with his signature, enchanting attitude. I occasionally look up to see the camera feed on a small monitor in the control room. Although it’s small, you can see already how amazing the finished product will be. Everything is like a hyperreal version of itself - the live room looks otherworldly with the impressive lighting that was painstakingly put up a few hours ago and the audio sounds like a glossy finished product already. All testament to the hard work and experience of those involved.

We do around 8 full takes, which is enough for the camera operator to get the perfect shot and for us to have a solid foundation to work with too. Time for some lunch and then straight back to it.

1pm

I think it’s fair to say that AIR has the best studio food I have ever eaten. I’m certainly not alone in thinking that, as the queue pours out of the door and round the same staircase that I’d wobbled down earlier. There’s always several hearty options, not to mention some sort of dessert you can only ever have without a guilty conscience on a cheat day. With a huge portion of food, I find a seat at a table with a mix of AIR staff, who always are universally kind and friendly. I eat and study the eclectic mix of people sat in the canteen, from the top session players in London to the punk rock crew from our studio - I can’t help but smile. I finish my last mouthful, with the vibrant green moss artwork on the wall catching my eye - which after a bit of digging, was apparently made by the mum of one of the assistants. Pretty badass.

2pm

Pretending that I wasn’t in the depths of a food coma from lunch, it was time to gear up for round two. This time, we would be playing back the video and re-doing any parts of the music recording that would benefit from a bit more control. It’s safe to say that the performances were first class on the original take. But the performance wasn’t ever going to be the issue here. When you have so many different sound sources in one space, it normally benefits to take them separately for greater control. This isn’t always in the case of orchestral recording for example, where often a tutti take (everybody playing) will sound fine. But it certainly its the case when you have a drum kit and tiny string section competing with each other.

So this afternoon we would make our way through getting some alternative takes for each group of musicians. Some of the splits included strings, brass, band, vocal, percussion and backing vocals. All of which undoubtably benefited from the isolation of being recorded alone. This allows you more freedom with both editing and mixing and put plain and simply - just sounds immeasurably cleaner.

This creates a bit of fun for the assistant - running round to unplug all headphones not in-use to avoid any click spill - the arch enemy of any self-respecting engineer at such an establishment. As we were using Avioms, I couldn’t pull the old trick of unplugging the headphone splitter boxes to cut a whole group of headphones - each and every set of cans had to be unplugged individually from its respective Aviom. So each time we switched to recording a different set of musicians, I’d rinse and repeat the whole saga. I mean, I’m not complaining, it helps me get my steps in. Which is never normally a problem as an assistant, I can say with some certainty.

In between this, I carry on with my usual drinks rounds and full out all of the necessary paperwork for the session. This includes taking notes of all equipment used and any settings, on a rather nicely laid out spreadsheet, and making a nice diagram of the room layout. This would accompany a whole album of recall photos that could be referred to in the future. These are some typical assistant duties while the session is running. You often have to run out to the live room in the breaks to take measurements of microphone heights and grab some swift photos, while the room is empty. It’s quite an art.

3pm

Piping out another A to the players, it’s the turn of the string players. Studying the perfectly arranged dots on the stave, there’s always a buzz in the air as we give them 2 bars of click and off they go. Dom’s eyes light up and a number of others in the control room are smiling as the unarguably beautiful sound of a string ensemble pours from the monitors. You can practically feel the concentration it takes to sight read to this level, which is a phenomenon in itself. Jed makes a few notes on one of his two computer monitors, listing any potential mistakes or noises that he hears, whilst keeping an eye on Pro Tools which fills the other display. The take is complete and we all agree how lovely it all sounds. The usual discussion commences of any direction needed for the proceeding take. The band are having a chuckle at the way we talk about music so differently with the session players - how bar 27 should actually be mezzo piano not piano, how the hairpin on bar 50 wasn’t working and that the ensemble wasn’t great on the final bar. It’s quite normal to me now but fair enough - it is pretty different talking to a punk band to session players sometimes. After a few tweaks, we are good to go. We normally would do a few full takes and patch up any areas for improvement - a fast workflow typical of all types of session. It just works. It doesn’t take long before we have a lush sounding string section, played to perfection. Is there anything better?

4pm

By mid-afternoon, it was time for the last piece of the puzzle - vocals. Upgrading the rather tired looking RE20 for a sparkling C12, we make a little vocal booth in the centre of the room, and finish with the obligatory Persian rug which no studio would be complete without. I wheel out one of the ridiculously large monitor - normally used for film/tv sessions, and patch through the video from this morning - allowing each vocalist to study the video to sync their new vocals to. Dom goes first, barely visible because of the huge screen blocking our view from the control room window. He nails it. Does a few takes and leaves no doubt that that’s all we need. Rare to say the least. He really is a legend.

The end of the day nearly in sight, we watch and listen back to what we have. The clients at the back nod in agreement that we have everything we need in the back. I mean, it looks and sounds insane. Not that there would ever be any doubt, but I breath a sigh of relief at their approval. High fives are exchanged. Dom gives us a heartfelt thank you and a hug, then very kindly invites us to his houseparty, which is an offer that you don’t usually get after a session nowadays, especially at somewhere as civilised as AIR! “They’ll be a tattoo artist doing free tattoos”, he says and my mind instantly races through concocted images of the classically trained musicians getting a cheeky YUNGBLUD tat. It gets more rock’n’roll by the minute. I’m not used to this.

6pm

We all say our goodbyes and I silently disappear to the live room, to start the de-rig. We all muck in and tear through the setup, quickly but efficiently coiling every cable and putting each microphone ‘to bed’ - back into each unique box and then into the huge microphone cupboard. It’s all immaculately organised. Cables are sorted depending on their length and every kind of adaptor, accessory and piece of equipment has its designated place in the studio. There’s so many reasons why AIR is a world renowned institution. We make a little small talk with the crew from the band as they put away everything of theirs, from stacks to drum sticks. The corridor by reception is almost illegally rammed with flight cases. As I pray we don’t need the fire exit anytime soon, the crew start to wheel everything away into the truck and my prayers are answered without any casualties.

We make some effort to put a few bits together for the following day’s tv session, keep out any mics they may need and put some chairs and music stands out. All straight-forward stuff. Luckily we don’t have to do a full setup as there’s ample time tomorrow morning for that. There’s a sort of silence in the live room that tells you you’ve done your job for the day. I can feel that we all know it’s nearly time for the pub. Our feet hurt a little and we probably could have done with a few more hours in bed this morning, but there’s still a bit in the tank for a drink or two (probably more). Apparently everyone else from the session, including the band, has already made their way down to a nice pub in Hampstead so we decide to meet them there and enjoy a few casual drinks as if it were a normal day. People periodically come up to Dom and Miles to ask for a selfie and I am beyond amazed at how they can stay so kind and friendly after all these requests. Soon enough, I’m sat on the tube, smiling to myself about some of the days events and recalling them later on to my other half. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

#yungblud #sound engineering #sound engineer #audio engineer #recording studio #music #audio

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