AIR Mastering Takes Off With KMR

Audio Consultancy and Equipment supplier KMR Audio has supplied AIR Studios' new mastering facility with a range of top quality equipment to ensure the new service is second to none.
When a top London studio with the history and reputation of AIR (Lyndhurst) Studios decides to offer a mastering service you can naturally assume that it will be of the very best standard.
The mastering team of Ray Staff and Matt Colton, until recently at the acclaimed Alchemy Mastering, knew exactly what they wanted in terms of equipment and it was never going to be a compromise.
Matt Colton explained: "We were aiming to keep everything as clean and natural as possible.
"We want to hear everything as it should be before affecting the sound. That means we needed absolutely audiophile quality replay facilities."
That meant acquiring some of the finest audio equipment around from KMR Audio including 4 x Crane Song HEDD 192 A/D converters, a Crane Song Avocet Surround monitor controller, a Neve 8051 surround compressor, API 5500 Stereo EQ and what they are calling the mastering engineers dream, the MANLEY BACKBONE mastering insert switcher.
This unit is the centrepiece of a mastering system allowing precise control and manipulation of up to eight pieces of outboard gear.
Ray said: "The guys at KMR were very helpful as usual and allowed us to try various pieces of equipment until we were happy with what we wanted."
Matt added: "The Avocet converters are brilliant, their A/D converters sound as good as anything we have heard. With the mix of work we have they make a lot of sense as we can mix different sample rates at the same time. That allows us to avoid sample rate conversions at a later date."
The room was previously an audio visual dubbing room and the acoustics were developed with the close attention of Ray and Matt at each stage. Although the room is set up for 5.1 mastering, pride of place goes to the huge pair of TAD Reference 1 monitors, each weighing in at around 200 Kilos and driven by Tricord amps with balanced outputs.
A large LCD monitor screen allows the room to be used for DVD mastering as well while the proximity to AIR's technical department next door means that Matt and Ray are never short of technical backup.
Ray said: "We keep them on the run. Seriously, though, the standard of the installation is outstanding."
Although only open for six weeks to date, AIR mastering has already carried out a variety of work from classical recordings to what Ray wryly calls 'the other extreme'. Repeat business is already beginning to appear as well as projects from record companies and individual artists for whom Ray and Matt's reputation, combined with that of AIR Studios, is recommendation enough.
(KMcA/BMcC)