Describing herself as ‘saddened’ by the passing of many of London’s historical recording studios, Nikki Affleck has opened her own – Blue Box Studios.
Affleck’s name is familiar to anyone who has moved through London’s studio and record industry during the past 25 years, as she managed studios (including Marcus, Nomis, Westside and Townhouse) since 1989 before moving into A&R coordination, working at the Universal then Sony Music labels.
In part, it was her own frustration over the lack of facilities available to book in the area that led her opening one of her own. Securing financial backing and a ground floor premises in Warple Way, Acton, she has created a studio complex that she believes will fill a gap in the market.
‘So many studios have closed in West London that in my work as A&R coordinator, it was proving really difficult to hire a good studio where my bands could write and record,’ she says. ‘Most of the record companies are West London-based, plus many producers and engineers seem to live in this part of town, yet there are now only a couple of commercial studios for hire.’
Designed by Munro Acoustics, the facility offers two production rooms with vocal booths, an SSL room and a video editing suite. Affleck polled a group of engineers and producers to establish which equipment they most like to work with, and built a wish list from the results. This sees the studios installed with an SSL AWS 924 console, Focal, KRK and Yamaha monitoring, the latest Apple computers running Pro Tools, Logic, Waves, Avid Media Composer 6 etc and a range of outboard equipment including an Avalon VT747sp stereo EQ and compressor, a UA 1176, an Emperical Labs EL8X, Tube Tech CL1B, SSL X Rack and Neve preamps and EQs, plus a selection of AKG, Shure, Sennheiser and Neumann mics.
Blue Box aims to combine ‘a high-end finish and top quality equipment’ yet fit with today’s precording and production budgets’.
‘By offering a Munro-designed SSL studio, we are up there with some of the best in London,’ she says. ‘Since my move into A&R coordination it’s been interesting to see the business from the other side of the fence. As a result, I have a good understanding of the budgets record companies have to operate within these days, and I’ve geared Blue Box towards this, to provide a realistic, high-quality studio on their doorstep.
‘We’ve designed it to both sound and look really good, with a stylish, boutique interior finish. We’ve had so much endorsement already from the people who’ve helped make this a reality that I have every confidence it will be a success.’
‘A rebalancing of economics has had to take place in the recording industry, and Blue Box has got its sums right,’ says designer Andy. ‘Their vision of providing smaller writing and recording spaces is right on track in today’s market, where the traditional recording model doesn’t generally apply anymore.’
The studio’s technical Install was handled by Genius Move Audio.
More: www.theblueboxstudios.com
More: www.munro.co.uk
