Blackwing Studios: Difference between revisions
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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*[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan06/articles/johnfryer.htm Sound On Sound ''John Fryer''] |
* [http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan06/articles/johnfryer.htm Sound On Sound ''John Fryer''] |
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* [http://www.mute.com/ Mute Records] |
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==Footnotes== |
==Footnotes== |
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Revision as of 13:20, 29 January 2010
Blackwing Studios was most notable for early Depeche Mode and Yazoo recordings in the early eighties.
Background
The Blackwing Studios complex was housed inside a deconsecrated church in South-East London. All Hallows church was partly destroyed during The Blitz in 1941. After the war Southwark Cathedral retained the north aisle and carried on using it as a temporary church. The destroyed south aisle was later turned into gardens in 1968.[1]
Blackwing was owned by Eric Radcliffe, who worked on most of the early Mute Records recordings alongside Daniel Miller.[2] Daniel Miller had discovered Blackwing when recording the Silicon Teens album. He required a studio with a big control room where he could set up all his synthesisers.[2] Daniel Miller carried on using Blackwing to record other new Mute Records artists. The first Depeche Mode album, Speak and Spell, was recorded at Blackwing using a TEAC eight track recorder. The album was engineered by John Fryer. [3]
Yazoo named one of their albums after the studio, Upstairs at Eric's due to the main Blackwing studio being above Splendid Studios located downstairs.[4]
When Clarke initially came to Blackwing to record with Yazoo he found that the studio was fully booked, Depeche Mode were recording their new album. He had the choice of recording at 4am during studio downtime, or building another studio. This is how Splendid Studios came about. It was a private studio below the commercial Blackwing studios upstairs. [5]
After the split of the band Yazoo, Vince Clarke decided he wanted to remain in the music industry. His initial enterprise after Yazoo was the formation of his own record label called Reset Records. The enterprise was a joint effort with Eric Radcliffe, the idea being to sign and produce new acts from their independent Splendid Studios, underneath the Blackwing complex. The recordings were then licensed to RCA Records for release.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).
Studio Equipment
When Eric Radcliffe opened Blackwing he initially used an eight track TEAC for recording artists, this was later replaced by a 16 track machine. A second recorder was acquired and locked together with the initial machine giving Blackwing 32 tracks of recording. This system was used for early recordings. The system was eventually rationalised when two 24 track machines were purchased; one for Blackwing and one for Splendid Studios, downstairs. The studio’s used an Amek mixing desk which was modified to work with electronic instruments. Everything between Blackwing and Splendid Studios was designed to be patchable through patch bays, none of the effects units were hard wired. [6] Vince Clarke installed a Fairlight CMI into Blackwing, which he had bought before the Yazoo tour, and used it on tracks like Never Never by the Assembly. Due to the low bandwidth that the Fairlight produced he began using the Synclavier, which used FM synthesis. This lead in 1984 to Clarke’s purchase of a Yamaha DX7, he also updated the soundcards in the Fairlight to create a fuller sound. The Fairlight was used to sample sounds of Clarke smashing all sorts of wood, china and glass that were found when demolishing the lower part of the church to build Splendid Studios. [7] Blackwing used a range of quality reverberation including an AMS RMX, Lexicon 224 and 224X and a Quantec Room Simulator. Recordings at Blackwing also used natural reverb from a long corridor that still retained the stonework from the original war damaged church. Above the studio there was a natural echo chamber that lay under the church roof. Eric Radcliffe left the echo chamber when designing the studios as it was seemed a waste removing it. [8]
Notable Recordings at Blackwing
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