By Thuli Mlambo
Building a studio pretty much from scratch is a daunting task but now the doors of Pytchley Road Studios are open, and movies, commercials, documentaries and television series for both local and international clients are being mixed there.
We thought now was a good time to catch up with Benjamin Willem, a music composer of film scores and owner of the studios in Bryanston, Johannesburg. Pytchley Road Studios specialises in all audio and post production for visual media and radio, focusing on international and local projects in commercials, radio, documentaries, feature films, animated projects, trailers, songs television spots and international and local television series such as the popular SABC 1 TV series, Soul City and Skeem Saam which is sound designed and mixed there.
Willem decided to embark on building his sound studios in the comfort of his home, as an annex to his home. “My main reason is for a way of life, I find it’s a much better creative space to have a door that opens up onto a garden and a pool rather than being stuck in an office block. It’s also an investment rather than renting space out,’ says Willem.
The studio has three studios within it; Studio One is where the music magic happens, where the writing, recording of songs and scores for the major films, commercials and TV shows are composed. Studio Two is the vocal/ musician recording booth and Studio Three is where all the sound design magic and final mixing of all the productions takes place.
Room design and acoustics definitely play a part of what makes the material sound better in a studio and the studio rooms are built in a way that one doesn’t really feel the presence of the other. The set-up is simple but organic as is their work flow delivering very high and professional standards and often having to meet international quality controls.
Walking into Studio One the first thing you notice are the compact Genelec speakers and these fantastic speakers bringing new tools and quality to help with working in almost any Semi treated acoustic environment.
“Genelec stood out for me, we listened to a whole range of different speakers, but with Genelec we could hear everything clearly. This allows me to work faster on my arrangements and mixes,’ Willem asserts. “Choosing studio equipment for me is very personal; I love the Genelec speaker brand because they’ve set a new standard for me, one builds a trust relationship with ones monitors. I guess you should always choose equipment that’s going to imporve and speed up your work flow allowing you to spend more itme in the creative space.’
He beIieves that choosing the right tools helps to facilitate his musical creative process. With regards to the Genelecs product Pytchley road studios opted for bigger and newer versions. The studio is fully kitted with Genelec 8240s and the 8250s. The main difference between the 82 range and the 80 range is that the 80s range runs only in analogue and the 82s can be run in analog or digitally. The 8240s can operate in “standalone’ mode via the analogue or digital XLR inputs. The 8240s are the most advanced monitoring speakers for recording studios, post-production houses and digital edit suites.
“Having the studio run digitally is an advantage, the speakers are phenomenal and we’ve also got the calibration software and microphone that allows tuning of speaker according to your room,’ comments Willem. The other amazing and impressive aspect of the 8240s is the volume level, it is of a considerably bigger enclosure and the bass from the speakers is well above its weight.
The studio is mostly digital but the recording is always done via analogue which is converted via the AD converter (RME) into the studio.
Anything that is on the machine is run digitally via an AES/EBU system, helping the monitoring not to have conversion interference with what one is hearing. Running the combination of the RME cards with the Genelec speakers in AES with calibration is proving to be a very powerful combination giving very clear representation and amazing results.
The pleasing aspect of the 8240s is the resolution in the mid-range. It was found that making decisions on tone and fine EQ adjustment very easy on critical elements such as the vocals, guitars, snare drums and so on, and the overall feeling is that these Genelecs make tracking and mixing faster and easier. The speakers also feature a small LED which indicates power quality and flashes green during calibration and red when peaking is fast approaching.
The wrap
I guess for any studio, it does matter what it looks like but ultimately the most important thing is what sound it produces. Pytchley Road Studios is now open for business, they’ve just finished off Ballade vir n Enkeling, a South African feature film to be released 20 March 2015. They have a line-up of both local and international projects, several more feature films, documentaries and commercials lined up for 2015. This goes to show the excellence of the work produced and the quality of the recordings emerging from the studio has been superb.