A Great day at the Grove

What could be more fun? We arrived this morning at British Grove Studios in Chiswick at 9:00 (following a 5am start), to record strings for 3 tracks on the forthcoming Freya album. The live room was already set up for our strings players, with some of the worlds finest microphones - a selection of Neuman M49s and M50s along with an array of Schoepps - all courtesy of the Decca microphone collection. Alastair Gavin (currently MD for Mama Mia in the West End) was our string arranger and conductor. He'd lovingly scored out parts for 1st and 2nd violins, violas, celli and double bass, for 3 of the songs on the album. The 11 musicians arrived (including prinipal violinist Alexander Balanescu), the session files were loaded into the studio's computer, and at 10am sharp, the baton took flight. WOW! What a sound!!! Brilliant musicians!
I sat and listened as a piece of music written after a couple of cans of beer and a lengthy jam session by myself and bass player Karl Morgan suddenly took on a new life. It was an incredible experience!
The studio itself is stunning - built for, and owned by, Mark Knopfler. A fabulous Neve console in Studio 1, flanked by 2 beautifully refurbished vintage desks, fully plumbed in and working. In Studio 2 is a wonderful API desk. Both studios have a splendid collection of outboard equipment and each have 3 Studer 880s, fitted with 24, 16 and 8 track head blocks. The machine room is a work of art. It houses the power supplys and automation computers for the consoles, the servers, the A-D and D-A converters and the 2 Mac Pros. Everything is clearly labelled - a real labour of love. I love this level of attention to detail.

A truly magnificent day - one to remember. Thanks to all the staff at British Grove; to the musicians; to Alastair; to JD for the ride; to Major Butler for his significant expertise behind the desk, and as captain of the ship!