Less than an hour from London, the Winchester Audio Barn has designed by a world-renowned acoustician, a master technician and a dreamer to be ‘where vintage soul meets modern sound’, and may be the only recording studio in the world to share space within a purpose-built complex that includes an event venue, restaurant/bar, and a classic car showroom and workshop.
Opened in autumn 2025 in the Hampshire countryside, the studio is the work of VDC Trading founder Niall Holden, manufacturer of Van Damme Cable, a industry-leading brand that is widely used in both the music and live worlds.
‘It started off as a bit of the jam room where I could throw some guitars down there and just make a lot of noise without upsetting my neighbours,’ Holden recounts. ‘It kind of grew from there. I spoke to various friends; different opportunities came to light and the idea evolved. It soon became clear that we had the potential to do something different and create the kind of new-build recording space that the UK hasn’t seen for 25 years.’
The studio is centred on a 48-channel Solid State Logic Duality Fuse SuperAnalogue mixing console, racks of vintage outboard and microphones, classic instruments and amplification, a setting designed to support any audio production scenario. It also offers a range of accommodation packages with local partners designed to cater for everyone from pop royalty to junior assistants.
Acoustic design of the Audio Barn was handled by Chris Walls of Level Acoustic Design, with technical design and installation by Bill Ward of Langdale Technical Consulting, who will stay involved long-term with the facility. Music industry heavyweight Stuart Bruce has also joined the team as chief engineer and brings a wealth of experience gained from a career that has seen him working and engineering with many of the world’s biggest artists and studios, in a career that goes from Band-Aid to Stevie Wonder.
Both Bruce, as engineer, and Ward, as system designer, have extensive relationships with SSL dating from the 1980s and their respective tenures at Sarm Studios in London. ‘We’ve worked very closely with SSL over the years,’ Bruce confirms. ‘When choosing a console for a commercial facility, you want something robust, familiar, and that always delivers sonically, but also something that you can put your hand on your heart and say, “I love this thing”. Naturally enough, that led to the decision the Audio Barn made to choose the Duality Fuse.
‘I love the sound of it. I like the switchable dual Superanalogue/Variable Harmonic Drive (VHD) mic preamps,’ he continues. ‘The way you can set up a drum sound, then flip all the mic preamps and go, “Oh, there’s another character”, is superb. I’m not aware of another console that can do anything like this.’
Bruce had not worked extensively on the Duality Fuse previously, and found the console different from the previous series of SSL desks as it is designed to support today’s hybrid workflows, as well as support traditional tracking and mixing.
‘You can split each channel’s signal path, which allows the input to be taken from the channel path at the input stage or pre-fader, and be replaced with the DAW return,’ he says. ‘If I need to go hybrid, I press Focus, and console faders, V-pots and the master control panel provide control of key elements in my Pro Tools session, with the screens giving me visual feedback. Duality is so fast and flexible that if you set it up in the right way, you can take away a rough mix of the track to work on outside of the studio, because you’ve already got the balance when tracking.
‘If you want to quickly flip a bunch of channels into a different mode, you’re not standing over it for ten minutes pressing lots of buttons. And when different clients get to the end of their sessions, I can store a preset and the next time they come in, the desk’s already configured for the way they work.’
The Audio Barn has been designed with production flexibility in mind. There are upwards of 250 mic and tie-lines within the recording space with custom-made audio panels on every wall of the tracking room and balcony, which is designed to be deep enough to accommodate a drum kit. All of the recording rooms feature dedicated guitar lines, allowing guitars and amps to be placed and recorded in a multitude of ways and locations, including two bespoke amp cupboards.
‘I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and the things I always spec are Van Damme cables and Neutrik connectors,’ Ward says. ‘I explain to people, that if you're out of money, ditch a bit of kit, because you can buy that in six months, plug it in and go. But the stuff you're burying in the wall, the infrastructure is critical. Don't skimp on that, because you'll regret it.
‘Because we knew what the levels of gear were, we could wire it and design it accordingly, and we’ve put a lot of capacity in as well for more gear in the future,’ he adds. ‘It’s been a no compromise build really, and the results are the evidence.’
The new building also houses a restaurant, bar and multi-format event space capable of hosting up to 250 people with a stage large enough for a seven-piece band, and is also intended to support the audio industry and other events. This is linked over Dante and analogue networks into the control room with additional connectivity supporting the use of multiple video cameras across the event spaces.
‘We could have a gig with a six-camera shoot in the venue and simultaneously be mixing the audio, in analogue, on the Duality Fuse and be vision-mixing in another room for a broadcast feed. If an outside broadcaster wants to produce a concert in the main venue or the studio, outside provision including power, digital and analogue lines has been made for an OB Truck’
Complementing the array of classic cars in the showroom, which range from dream to reality, is a control room that is equally rich in heritage. Its selection of classic outboard gear and microphones, Van Damme Purple patchbays, PMC BBS XBD main monitors and instruments includes many of the vintage guitars and amplifiers from Holden’s personal collection. The Fairchild has a heritage that goes back to Sun Studios; there’s a red Wurlitzer piano that used to belong to The Doors, which Amy Winehouse subsequently wrote ‘Back to Black’ on, and the Hammond B3 used on tour by Dire Straits for many years. Accompanying these classic instruments, the car collection currently includes a 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV previously owned by Rod Stewart, a 1970 Mercedes 280 SE V8, 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL and 1996 Porsche 993 Turbo.