Rich Music Studios Sydney??

[HA_DA_JA]

Hey flicking through an article on a piano player who recorded some tracks at Rich Music Studios.
Does any have any history or stories to share about there time at this studio?
Cheers

[walding]

Well there was 2 one in the city which had an ssl and rich north in north Sydney.

I spent a lot of time in rich north in front of the MCI 500 desk.

Pretty much it was a OD mix room and used a lot by their students.

Rich city I tracked in and had some very nice outboard and a nice big main room.

Ah was 20 years ago at least since I did that.

I remember leaving rich north a few times at sunrise or being thrown out by the cleaners

[lonearranger]

I did an audio engineering course there in 1987, I think it was pretty new at that stage. I went in to meet Paul, he was very friendly and spoke to me for a while, and was always pretty helpful and down to earth. At that time the approach of the school seemed better then SAE and JCM, in terms of being in a working high end studio, rather than what seemed to be more likely operations setup to be schools. History has obviously proved which one was more commercially viable.

The studio was on the second or third floor of a small building in Kent St a few doors up from the corner of Druit St. There was one big live room, perhaps a smaller side room and control room, probably a reception area, and a small MIDI studio. Derick Williams and his Kurzweil (k250) were in the MIDI room most of that time. In the control room was a mix of glass/wood and looked pretty impressive at the time, and from what I was told and observed, nothing was done on the cheap. The tape was 24track studer and an MCI desk(with the patch bay on the right hand side, a lexicon 2480L and a PCM70. The only compression I remember was DBX. I think there were a few other nice things, but they were off limits to students (unless you paid the extra hire fees). A U87 was the go to vocal mic. Monitoring was either big speakers up in the walls, NS10s or Auratones.

I also did a few demo recordings with the band I was in at the time, as well as engineering/mixing a song with them as part of my course.

In terms of the school quite a few different people would come in for guest lectures, as well as Paul doing some of the lectures, there was also the house engineer Adam? who was there a lot of the time too. The only guest name I remember is Jeff Todd - I think he did a session on mid-side recording. Generally there was one night a week doing theory, and saturday arvos was hands on on the studio.

They may have moved out of there at some point, and I am not sure how long they kept going.


Cheers
Michael

[lonearranger]

Oh and there was a stereo tape machine for mixing down to, which I only saw used for tape editing demos, and I used as tape delay on vocals one time. Seemed no one used the tape, as they had the sony PCM / betamax system for mastering to which was supposedly better

[The Tasmanian]

I remember stories of a Ferrari being re-possessed

[rick]

lambagini ....


i remember when the ssl came in every audio nerd in town stood out on the street of the cdb and watched it get stuck on a sling and craned up to the floor ( 4 or 5 floor ) the crane driver said to the owner something like
so you have insurance for the lift right ..?

the owner said "no dont you have insurance for the lift "

crane driver .. well no ..

so up it went in a sling in the middle of the cdb .. and swung in the window funny day !

[The Tasmanian]

...yep, more stories from the gak days...

[jasound]

I thought Megaphon Studio would have been the one to be talked about at the moment.

I started work at Rich Studios in late 1991 as a Sound Tools operator doing cheap compilation albums for labels like Dino, J&B records in a little room next to the main control room. It was a pretty cheap room no real treatments apart from some felt on the walls, a Revox B77 and a domestic DAT machine, some kind of bookshelf Tannoys and the Sound Tools setup.
I heard the main room in Kent st acoustically was just good luck and not much was spent on it.
The console was an SSL E Series, recorders were Studer A827, Mitsubishi 32 digital and Otari half inch 2 track and Sony and Panasonic DAT machines. Monitors Urei 813 and NS10 with Perreaux amps. Lexicon 480l AMS Reverb and delay ect.
The live room wasn't what the label said, but the stairwell was a good chamber after business hours.

After a couple of months I moved into the SSL room mainly assisting but sometimes engineering sessions for the owner and his attempt at becoming a talent scout. He was a wheeler and dealer that had unusual deals going on all the time.
There was a phone in the reception area that rang maybe once every 3months. The number apparently belonged to a business associate, you had to answer it pretending to be another company take a message which was usually pretty cryptic and pass it on to the secretary, odd.
After a couple of months I was told that if I wanted to work at the studio I would also have to teach at the Audio Education Centre. I didn't particularly want to do this but to his credit he actually paid teaching rates not the pittance he was paying for assisting. Because I had come from a video post production facility ( we're I first meet our moderator Rick O'neil ) the owner thought he could offer a course in sound for video TV and film, ouch. I still feel bad for some of those students.
During the build of the second studio at Kent st, builders/musicians were promised studio time if they helped build the rooms. Things started going pear shaped and the "builders" were out of their depth. On the day the slab was being poured things went from bad to worse. Concrete truck is double parked outside on Kent st with a massive pump to get it to the 3rd floor, something goes wrong with the operation and there's a loose concrete hose spilling shit a over Kent st and people on their way to work, one of those persons happened to be the boss at Worksafe NSW.
I was also there when the mysterious business associate that owned the phone returned to buy some time for the owner when creditors were on the phone chasing money day and night.
That's another story, if there enough interest Ill try and tell it.
It was a Lamborghini
No signature on purpose.

[jasound]

Ah forgotten the best bit. It is the only job that I actually told the the boss to "stick it up his ass" it's something everybody should do once.

[Djembe]

I recorded in the city studio a few times as a musician.
Can't tell any interesting stories like the previous ones, but did know the owner when he was a singer/songwriter in a previous life. I remember him as quite a nice guy and a reasonable musician.

[rick]

The owner was on the dubious
Honour roll when I was at festival
At that stage in history
Him and some guy called Tom ( who when on to
Be the head of the SAE and owner of 301

Were the only two guys in the history of the place to
be FIRED from the festival
Studio .


That honour was later shared by many others
Due to retrenchment and downsizing of the company


But yes Paul and Tom .. Birds of a feather !
ermm
Entrapneurs
Yes I think I spelt that right !

[rick]

Oh yes that place had the digital 2nd hand
Mitsubishi
32 track that on somebodies session
Accidentally dropped in record on ALL
Tracks at once and ended any possibily
That it was allowed to be publically
Trusted ever again !

Personally it seemed to me like it was telling
The boss to shove it up his arse the only
Way it could !