Taking up residence in his new Munro Acoustics/Steve Durr-designed studio in London’s Tileyard Studios complex, DJ/producer Mark Ronson acknowledges a Nashville studio built for The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach as its inspiration. ‘It just had a great vibe – kind of like one of those old RCA studios in Nashville,’ he says. ‘So my live room is, likewise, really well designed, with a no-frills vibe. It’s like walking into any old studio from the 1960s.’
Ronson recruited Durr, the man behind the Nasville design, to collaborate with Chris Walls of Munro Acoustics to build something similar at Tileyard.
With more than 50 permanent recording studios under its banner, Tileyard Studios, bills itself as ‘the newest and most creative hub in Europe’. ‘I haven’t had my own studio since I left New York about four years ago,’ Ronson explains. ‘I looked at some other prebuilt studios being sold, but then it came up that all these rooms were being built at Tileyard.
‘Building my own place from scratch meant that I could incorporate some of my favourite things from all the studios that I’ve loved working at during the last four years, like the analogue aspect of Daptone in Brooklyn, where we recorded the Amy stuff, as well as the Midi and computer aspects.’
Ronson found inspiration from the past for his live room, but the monitoring in his control room was a different proposition: ‘I was walking around other studios with Chris Walls from Munro so he could get a sense of what I liked,’ he explains. ‘We went to British Grove, and I just couldn’t believe how amazing the ATC SCM25A Pro sounded – so much punch, bite, and growl, then this really pristine top end. It was kind of a revelation, and I just thought there’s no way I’m going to get any other speakers other than those when I get into my space. I was sold on first listen.’
London-based Funky Junk sourced a pair of SCM25A Pro three-way active loudspeakers for evaluation: ‘They were very cool and easy to work with,’ Ronson reports. ‘They let me borrow a pair to test them out when I was at Avatar in New York, tracking some stuff for Paul McCartney’s new album.’
The loudspeakers are now permanently installed on the meter bridge of a vintage MCI 500 Series console.
‘When I was starting out, I used whatever monitors I could afford, then I worked my way up to Genelecs and KRKs,’ he says. ‘For the most part, I spend most of my time on the ATCs now. They give a great image of everything that’s going on, whether I’m tracking a live band or working on something with a massive 808 kick drum.’
More: www.munro.co.uk
More: www.proaudioeurope.com
More: www.atcloudspeakers.co.uk
