Where's the volume? A look at Britain's most advanced recording studio



What makes Alpha Centauri the most advanced recording studio in Britain? Is it the military-grade compressor? The in-built rubidium atomic clock? Or the heavy-duty kettle in the foyer? Jon Blyth reports



By JON BLYTH







Singer-songwriter Steve Rhodes is a perfectionist. To make his recordings sound exactly the way he wanted, he built the studio you see on these pages. Rhodes created a showy but stylish room in which most audiophiles could cheerfully spend the rest of their lives.

Having spent about £500,000, Rhodes became aware that he was building the best-equipped studio in the UK and decided to capitalise on that by renting it out. Alpha Centauri (above) was born, and the winning combination of both classic and new technology became available to the public.

Werner Freistaetter is the engineer who controls this array of dials, sliders and buttons. Here, he guides us through Alpha Centauri's dazzling set-up.





1. MIXING DESK

The place where the producer gets to act out all his George Martin fantasies, juggling sound levels while calling for more tea. The 60-channel Solid State Logic G+ mixing console wasn't easy to get hold of - SSL stopped making them a decade ago. This one has been kept in storage in Germany and Scotland, which is why it's in such pristine condition. They're adding the features of later models - which Freistaetter claims don't sound as good - to get the best of both worlds.





2. COMPRESSOR

This is the area where the music is tweaked, compressed and squeezed so that when it comes out of a little radio speaker it sounds mighty. Far left is the Fairchild ADL 670, a valve-powered compressor that was behind some of the big pop records of half a century ago. Just like the mixing desk, it's no longer commercially available.





3. EQUALISER

The unit second from the left with a blue light is a Neve 1081 pre-amp and equaliser. It's a classic 1972 design that never went out of fashion - every unit is still hand-built in Burnley to the original specifications, with the same components and hand-wound transformers. Combining a +80Db boost to the mic line with minimal distortion, it's an essential part of any fantasy set-up.







Pre-amp and equaliser section





4. COMPRESSOR

The item sitting on its own is the Vertigo VCS-2 compressor. Based on the same technology as the mixing desk, Vertigo built on and improved the technology, using exclusively bespoke components.



'One feature that Vertigo added is the side-chain filter, which leaves the bass sounds uncompressed, making the sound feel more open.'





Blue Coconut EchoVerb Tape Delay - a rare tape effect; nowadays done by digital plug-ins





5. DELAY UNIT





Most studios only have one or two delay units, but Alpha Centauri has five Lexicon PCM42s.



Freistaetter says they can delay for zero milliseconds --which sounds pointless in theory, but does make a difference to the sound. Freistaetter admits: 'It's a bit lo-fi, but in the mix it's just perfect'.







From left-to-right: Studer 820 analogue deck, used to record the final mix; and Apple Mac keyboard







6. APPLE MAC





Alongside the vintage studio gear is the modern essential - an Apple Mac. It runs Pro Tools software, which can replicate many of the effects of the hardware that surrounds it. Werner prefers the accessibility of the mixing desk. 'It just sounds better,' he says. 'Although one day, maybe, who knows?'







7. SPEAKERS

The big speakers are custom-built for the room and are called Dynaudio M4+. The speakers mounted on ceramic cones are Yamaha NS10s, found in almost every studio in the world, but the amp that drives them is a Hafler, a very high quality unit.





From left-to-right: Amps and speaker management systems in the machine room; and SSL G+mixing console







WHAT'S IT LIKE TO USE?



The 345 sq ft control room is spacious, quiet and cool. But step into the machine room, and it's a different story. It's filled with power supplies, computers and cables, and the whole rig is kept in sync with itself by a rubidium atomic clock - no other recording studio in the UK has a timekeeper with this level of precision.



The studio's two live rooms are generously proportioned and well equipped - as befitting the perfectionism of Steve Rhodes. 'He likes to do things properly,' laughs Freistaetter.



If you want to rent the room (and that'll put you in the company of the Sugababes and Keith Allen), it'll cost you around £800 per day. Tea bags and drummer jokes not provided.

a-centauri.co.uk







View from the desk. At the foot of the stack on the right of the Mac is a Federal AM 864-U military compressor (used for army radio). 'It only has one knob, but comes with a 50-page manual that explains how to use it in desert and tropical conditions,' says Freistaetter



