Located in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, the new Royal House Recording studio complex has been built from the ground up by Roger Goodman, after returning to his hometown after 15 years as a prolific producer/engineer in LA.
The US$3m has been equipped with a treasure trove of A-list equipment by the staff of Vintage King Audio’s headquarters – also located in Detroit – including SSL mixing, and Genelec and Barefoot monitoring.
During his tenure in Los Angeles, Goodman attended The Los Angeles Recording School and Full Sail University, before embarking on his career as producer/engineer working out of top LA studios including as Record Plant, Larabee and Paramount. He produced and engineered a series of successful artists, including Lupe Fiasco, Lil Dicky, Dej Loaf and Asher Roth, while garnering Grammy nominations.
‘I’m a third-generation Detroiter and after paying my dues in LA, I wanted to come home and really build a studio that could take us back to the good ol’ days of recording in the Motor City,’ Goodman says. ‘We’re in the same neighbourhood as Eminem’s 54 Sound and my goal is to further reinvigorate the Detroit scene, which has been a major recording destination since the 1940s.’
Royal House features a 48-channel SSL Duality SE console and monitoring with Barefoot Sound MM27, ATC SCM25A Pro, Genelec 1032 and Yamaha NS-10 monitoring. Its complement of outboard gear includes units Burl Audio’s B2 Bomber, a Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor and Chandler EMI TG12413 Zener Limiter. It’s l large selection of microphones includes models from Royer, Coles, Sennheiser, Electro-Voice, AKG, Neumann, Shure, Schoeps and Sony. Additional outboard is available from Neve, API, Pultec, Maag Audio, Empirical Labs, dbx, Purple Audio and Retro Instruments.
‘Vintage King is really at the top of its game – I worked with Jacob Schneider, and he would come to the studio at the drop of a hat,’ Goodman says. ‘The company gave me lots of options from a list of boutique items to the necessary standard gear. Now we have everything from choice guitars and guitar amps, outboard gear and the SSL console, and they guided us with incredible input on how the whole network was to be set up. The studio is so user friendly and producer ready – just the way it should be.’
