eschatologics:

(Pictures - 1&2: Imogen Heap at her home recording studio in London; 3: one of Imogen Heap’s unfinished arrangements in Pro Tools)

“The main control room area occupies half the basement, so is semi-circular. Mastering engineer Simon Heyworth recommended that acoustic masters WSDG come and assess the space to help transform the playroom into a pro mixing environment. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, although when I said I wanted a fireplace they said ‘Ooh, you can’t!’ And actually there is a bit of an issue that it does give us more bass, but I just live with it.”

The ceiling was lowered to reduce the reverb time in the room, and the walls were treated with two four-inch layers of Rockwool separated by a gap. Wood panelling was initially chosen for the final acoustic treatment, mainly to avoid a lengthy wait for plaster to dry, but they subsequently found a new quick-drying plaster which encroached less into the space than the panels. After the shell was complete, Imogen worked with a carpenter to furnish the room, with their designs being vetted in WSDG’s modelling software.

The core equipment for the studio changed little from the modest kit-list used on the previous album. “It’s the same monitors — the MKs — which actually almost died, they’re a bit buzzy around the mid frequencies, but it was in the last month of mixing and I didn’t want to change them.” 

The main new purchases were a Focusrite Liquid4Pre, which handles most mic recording other than vocals, and a Digidesign D-Control work surface for Pro Tools. Despite the fact that she mixes entirely ‘in the box’ in Pro Tools, Imogen admits ruefully that she probably doesn’t use half the features on the desk beyond the faders, keyboard, and monitoring section. “I bought it thinking that it would help me get out from here [the centre section] and I’d be really dynamic with it, but in reality I just sit here. But it looks great, and when people come they go ‘Wow! It looks like a real studio!’”

There are two outboard racks, both dedicated to input and recording duties. One is Imogen’s flightcased signal path for vocal recording, and the other is used for recording all other sources. The permanent rack houses the Liquid4Pre, a Line 6 Pod for guitars, a TC Helicon Voiceworks Plus and some Joemeek rack processors. The flight case is dominated by an Avalon VT737 tube channel, but also has an Electrix Repeater and another Voiceworks.”

(MUCH more info via the main article here.) 

(via jeffreybesixdouze)

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Screenshots taken from the film.