Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

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Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Arpangel »

Just watched this fascinating video, SOS visits Real World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1YYbaLQN0Y

Really interested in how they deal with bands in the control room, I’m having major issues recording just two of us in the same room, and mixing afterwards is a nightmare.
I notice they use screens, for isolation, but I’m interested in how you can get a decent balance recording and playing in the same room.

:think::(
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

They are very large rooms with very high ceilings that have been very skillfully treated acoustically.

You can hear from the stand-up interviews (apparently using a camera mic some distance away!) that they are pretty dead spaces. None of the instant strong reflections issues you inevitably suffer in a typical domestic room!
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Zukan »

I was there for a session and Gabe was sitting on the floor eating hummus. That is my contribution to this thread.

*coat - ticket to Islamabad*
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by RichardT »

Zukan wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:10 pm I was there for a session and Gabe was sitting on the floor eating hummus. That is my contribution to this thread.

*coat - ticked to Islamabad*

I thought for a second there you said ‘humans’ - it put a different complexion on your comment.
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Forum Admin »

Zukan wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:10 pm ...Gabe was sitting on the floor eating hummus.

Sure it wasn't Baba ghanoush? How close were you to him? ;-)
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Tomás Mulcahy »

Zukan wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:10 pm I was there for a session and Gabe was sitting on the floor eating hummus. That is my contribution to this thread.

*coat - ticket to Islamabad*

Kudos. I was there (not for a session) and I sat on the SSL to calm down. IIRC everyone called him Pete?
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Arpangel »

OK, so it’s hummus on the floor then, but I don’t even like hummus.
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Zukan »

Forum Admin wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:30 pm
Zukan wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:10 pm ...Gabe was sitting on the floor eating hummus.

Sure it wasn't Baba ghanoush? How close were you to him? ;-)

It could have been, but there was no way I was going to interrupt him and ask. He looked very focused and passionate about his Hummus. In the Middle East we have a saying 'never interrupt a man eating his Hummus'. The Gulf war kicked off because Khomeni interrupted Saddam during a Mutabal eating session.
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by The Red Bladder »

Arpangel wrote: Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:41 am OK, so it’s hummus on the floor then, but I don’t even like hummus.

Are you sure you didn't confuse it with humus?
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Sam Inglis »

The 'wood room' at Real World sounds quite different from the main room though. It's got quite a bit of wood and stone and is rather more lively. Somewhere I have the multitrack of something that was tracked live in the wood room and there is a ton of spill - not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by James Perrett »

If you want to hear the multitracks from a live session in the big studio at Real World you can download them from

https://www.telefunken-elektroakustik.c ... multitrack

Not a great deal of spill there although everything was close mic'd.
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Re: Real World Studios, recording in the control room.

Post by Arpangel »

I think unless you’ve got a big room, with lots of screening, I’m going to stick with straight to stereo, close mic’s, as close as I can to get decent stereo.
Our room is about 25ft by 15ft, the best sound we got with piano and Marimba, was two mic’s underneath the Marimba, and two mics on the piano,
There was just enough separation to raise or lower each instrument, I had them spread across four tracks, that’s the sound we got for that BBC recording, and it sounded OK, it doesn’t sound obviously like a small room.
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