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Julian Standen |
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Julian Standen, an American living in London owns The Library studio, He produced The Lemonheads radio hit "Mrs Robinson", The Soup Dragons first album and engineered Siouxsie & the Banshees alternative hit "Cities in Dust" and assisted throughout the recording of The Smiths first album as well as helping countless UK guitar bands get record deals via demos. He runs the popular recording equipment web forum - Gearslutz.com and is a self confessed Gearslut as well.
Vintage King: Where did you get your start?
Julian Standen: I started as a Tea Boy (intern) at Matrix Studio's, London, 1982, a 3-studio complex that had a Trident A range, Trident TSM & a custom built console. Over the years I worked there the studio bought the old prototype SSL B from the Townhouse, The A range got flooded, and replaced by a Soundtracks (sob!) and an SSL G replaced the custom console.
VK: How long were you there for?
JS: 6 years, then I left to go freelance in 1988.
VK: What would you say was your "niche"?
JS: I have become a guitar band "first record / demo master" guy...I usually do the first 2 singles then the band gets a deal, and moves on to a bigger producer.
VK: Doesn't that bug you?
JS: No, it's a zone I am comfortable with, there are some benefits, little or no A&R involvement, lack of time demands on the musicians (like video shoots / interviews etc) Bands at the stage I work with em are 100% optimistic and un-jaded. I'm usually only working on a few tunes at once and that suits me, I can't focus on 10 or more songs at one time, I am too scatter brained!
VK: Why did you set up your own studio?
JS: I could see the value of a small "producers private studio" as a freelancer, in my field, money is tight, having my own place means I can grab ALL OF IT! And do stuff for nothing in dead time. I started a publishing company to offer spec deals to bands I like that can't pay my fees but in reality, I don't do too many of those.
VK: What do you charge?
JS: I charge per track.
VK: How much?
JS: I hold the musicians upside down and shake them till every last penny falls out of their pockets take that and usually tell them to go get some more.
VK: Does that make you feel guilty sometimes?
JS: Not when they can score a record deal right after the sessions I did with em!
VK: How did you come to start Gearslutz.com?
JS: When I decided to open my own studio, my world became one of equipment review magazines, catalogues and a giant pad of paper where I would sketch the ideal gear inventory for my studios budget. I spent a year studying magazines and phoning people like Vintage King up and bugging them with questions!
VK: So you became a recording gear info addict...a gearslut?
JS: Right, then I bought ProTools and found it very hard to get going on, so I would read the Digidesign User Group forums to get info, particularly from rock n roll engineers on there who were making the difficult transition from tape to DAW. I also got hooked on the newsgroup rec.audio.pro and Recording.org forum. I got a break from a friend who was moderating at Recording.org who was moving on and I took over, it got real popular, from there I decided to start my own and invite friends I had made online over 4 years to join me as co-moderators with me. We now have 8 regular moderators and we often have guest moderators.
VK: It's a busy site!
JS: Yes, last count the pages of the site are looked at over 1.8 Million times per month. Our membership is due to pass the 10,000 mark soon, that's a lot of engineers! It could be said it was the premier recording hardware discussion forum site on the web.
VK: Are you proud of it?
JS: I am too busy reading it, learning stuff from it and administrating it to think about it. It's the global mix that I am most pleased with, there are folks from all over the world contributing. Full props to Meg Lee Chin for doing all the tech stuff to facilitate it.
VK: OK, here's the ultimate test scenario for a gearslut! Your studio is on fire; you have time to get 10 items out before it goes up in smoke... What do you grab out of there and give your reasons why.
JS: Ok, here goes...
1. Tom Stubbs, the in house engineer. He's got potential to be a REAL producer, so he goes out first!
2. My 4x Black vintage Helios modules...I am a big Rolling Stones nut and they (and Led Zeppelin & the Who) used to use Helios consoles, these, from the Ronnie Lane mobile truck so they have historic vibe! I use 'em for tom toms, acoustic guitar, vocals, clean "retro" guitars & kit when using the Glynn Johns 3 mic technique.
3. For the sheer $$$ value of them, my 16 channels of Prism Dream ADA converters would have to go out next...I use them for tracking a band into Pro Tools and they provide word clock for my whole digital world.
4. Then I would be heaving out the door (Tom get your ass back in here it's not that hot you wimp!) my ADAM S4A Column monitors...awesome sound, low ear fatigue but loud enough for rock guitar overdubs in the control room and no need for a sub.
5. Phew! They were HEAVY! Now I am taking out my Dual Neve 1073 rack... I like that on kick & snare when tracking & on distorted guitar. There aren't many Neve 10 series consoles left in the UK...US studios bought em all! Sometimes we forget we have the other gear and just use this for EVERY overdub!
6. Next would be my Crane Song HEDD 192 converter. I use this to capture my analog mix...which I do at 96k 24 bit. I love the Tape and Pentode process, it "cheers up" digital and makes it more analog like. It's better than the Prisms for distorted electric guitar.
7. I can hear the fire truck sirens! Not much more time! Err...OK I am starting to unscrew my AMS RMX 16 vintage digital reverb out of the racks. I use it mostly on lead vocals, using the much-loved "Ambience" program 2. The studio I interned at didn't have any Lexicon gear just these & some EMT plates...so I am kind of hooked on the sound. Singers like it too.
8. Fire trucks parking up now! OK... I am gonna go for my API 3124 four way mic pre. Awesome for clean guitars that you want a lot of harmonic overtone on, driven for punk pop snare (in that case the output gets padded down with a Shure pad barrel)
9. OK I think I can feel my shirt starting to burn! Err... OK for old times sake my SSL G384 is coming with me! It's great on drum sub group and on the right song on the mix buss. I also use it on acoustic guitars
10. OK. I can smell burning hair and a fireman is shouting "HEY ASSHOLE, GET THE F**K OUTTA HERE!!!" at me through his ventilator. Last item???? OK, I'm grabbing my Crane Song STC-8 compressor... it's a subtle glue machine for my mixes that I can't live without and a damn fine acoustic guitar and tom tom compressor too!
I'm outta here!
(With a Royer R-121 and a Neumann M149 in my pockets)
Jules' studio The Library - http://www.librarystudio.com Web forum http://www.gearslutz.com |
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