Classical gas

UK/EUROPE - After just over a year in business, London-based Classic Sound has established itself as a leading player in the location recording and post production sectors of the classical music business. Housed in the former Decca building in Belsize Road, Classic Sound is run by former Decca balance engineers Neil Hutchinson and Jonathan Stokes. Facilities include an Andy Munro- designed remix room and two digital remix/mastering suites, as well as extensive storage space for the impressive manifest of location recording gear."Classic Sound came about following PolyGram's decision to outsource their technical facilities," says Neil Hutchinson. "They decided it was not economic to keep it all in- house and decided to make a clean break. We then went to them with was essentially a small-scale management buy-out."PolyGram liked Hutchinson and Stokes' proposal/business plan, and within a month of its presentation, Classic Sound was up and running. The show was on the road and there was life in the old Decca building yet!"From a business point of view it was a steep learning curve," says Stokes. "We were confident of making the engineering side work, but were slightly apprehensive on the business-commercial front. Fortunately we got some good advice and set up on a proper financial footing."Classic Sound took on two existing edit rooms, a mixdown suite and equipment store. There are a couple of other businesses also in the building now, and there's space for more and, importantly for Classic Sound, room for their own expansion. Now they are one- year-old, the partners are considering various options on this front, though nothing is set in concrete as yet."Equipment-wise we invested in all the Decca-owned gear that we felt was state of the art and industry-compatible - Decca had a reputation for R&D and developing its own systems. We've added new equipment where necessary, such as the Genex GX8000s. We also took on the bulk of the location recording kit, including a range of specialist items such as the custom- designed Neve console, large boom stands and so forth. At one time last year we were recording three operas and a solo piano recital simultaneously, which gives you an idea how much gear we have."The majority of Classic Sound's work comes from PolyGram which includes Decca, Deutsche Gramophon and Philips Classics - they have a contract to make a certain number of recordings per year which gives the business a comfortable base. They also do work for other labels and organisations such as EMI and the BBC.The Mix Room offers 5.1 surround to picture and centres on an AMS Logic II with film panel and monitor facilities, while the two edit suites feature Yamaha 02Rs and 24-track SADiE 24:96."The Mix Room was built around eighteen months before we 'took over'," says Hutchinson. "We'd decided we needed a mixdown facility, but were a touch nervous about taking on the Logic 2; it was a big investment and a lot of people thought we were mad. However, it's behaved perfectly. We've had virtually no problems with it at all, and customer feedback has been most positive."The classical business is a touch in the doldrums at present, so while keeping our core bsuiness as classical, we are looking to expand in other areas, particularly with sound to picture and 5.1 DVD. And, of course, there's also the advent of digital television which perhaps will mean that people will take more notice of the audio element. DVD could give the classical business a shot in the arm. Whatever, the whole business is going through a shakedown, artists being dropped, mergers and so on. I think it's emerging at the other end now, and I like to think we're going to be in a position to capitalise."On the location recording front, Classic Sound can offer the complete package from sourcing the venue through recording and complete post production. Says Hutchinson: "We can take on the entire project, or just some aspects of it. We often get asked just to do the recording or the post proiduction. The Three Tenors, for example, was recorded via a mobile in Paris, mixed at Abbey Road and edited to picture here."Classic Sound's recording work is split fifty-fifty between the UK and continental Europe."We've just done La Bohame in Milan with opera stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, with Chailly conducting. For the BBC Omnibus on Chopin we recorded in Paris, Prague and the UK, and we spent virtually the whole of June in Rome working on three different projects, two for Deutsche Gramophon and one for Decca. We've done opera in Switzerland and some large scale recordings in Amsterdam. and have just received confirmation to record La Bohame in Israel."We are geared up to cover anything from a solo recital to a full scale opera. All our equipment is flight- cased, which does mean we need a room to set up in within the venue. In many ways, people prefer that to using a mobile truck. You can get that much closer to where the action is happening. On the other hand it's not just a case of driving up and sticking a few cables in, although we can set up pretty quickly."And looking to the future, Hutchinson observes: "There are a number of avenues to explore." Jim Evans