Spring Studio has provided professional Audio services to the Australian community since 1983.
Harry spent the first year, 1982, in Melbourne mixing live musicals, ‘The Sound of Music’ with Julie Anthony and ‘West-side Story’, both at the beautiful Princess Theater in Spring Street, Melbourne. Two quite different topics, but both with their own unique styles and challenges. During this period he also built Spring Studio in Middle Park and began recording local acts. Moving on from his first house, to a larger, older one in Park Street he started recording a wide variety of solo artists and some bands as well as completing some Mother Gong projects.
Recording now : Microphones
Neumann u47’s, AKG 451’s and D12s, Shure 57s and 58’s, CAD, Studioprojects, Microtech Gefell, and others .
Speakers
ATC, Tannoy, Bluesky, KRK nearfield.
Studio recording
Record to 24 simultaneous tracks at 24 bit 96/48K .
In order to optimize the listener experience, I employ multiple monitor arrangements and headphone mixes
Live recording
24 track HDD 24 bit 44.1/48K gives effectively unlimited continuous recording with hot-swap drives, and 3 pin XLR or 1/4″ balanced jack input likewise leads to easy interfacing with a large variety of professional mixers.
Our Audio Services also include portable mixers or interfaces depending on the exact requirements of the job. Our Korg MR1000 records 2 tracks at 44/49/88/96/192 and 1Bit @ 2.6/5.2 DSD which is an amazingly realistic format. As a result it captures the nuance of large acoustic spaces in breathtaking detail. 2 x Shotguns with blimps are also available.
Arrangement
Some of the recordings I do involve input in the area of arrangement or writing, maybe helping someone with musical ideas, or being a sounding board.
I have co-created so many projects that I’m no longer attached to ideas. Ideas are not intrinsically right or wrong and in my opinion don’t actually belong to anyone. The conversation determines whether they are relevant and serve the project.
Of course written or rehearsed themes and arrangements are the intellectual property of the composers, so we are drawing a fine line here. I am trying to say I like contributing where I can and when it is appropriate.
Larger projects require cooperative management of budget and resources and consequently I am happy to consider such extra responsibilities with some discussion and planning.
I always make an effort to let artists know where they are in the production process day by day as we progress together, which also simplifies the creative process and removes uncertainty as the project develops.
Score – with Sibelius 6
Our Audio Services include 40 years creation of professional scores from solo line to orchestra, and currently, scoring from MIDI files or by hand from keyboard input creates great results. Score printing, binding, part extraction and rationalization are sometimes an essential part of the process.
Sequence and Create with Native Instruments Komplete
Native Instrument’s Kontakt 64 output sampler and a vast sample libraries at your fingertips.
Mastering and other Audio services
At Spring Studio I have completed well over 300 CD’s of which I have mastered about 220. I have rescued two Neumann Cutting Lathes from destruction and rebuilt them to specification. They continue to give great service. I have cut over 5,000 masters for vinyl production over a period of 25 years.
I like to offer a very competitively priced and quick, efficient service, while maintaining the spirit of the music intact.
These days I am doing less of this work but I may be still available to help you prepare a master for cutting in case you are not sure exactly what to do.
I did rebuilt the silver spraying and nickel matrix plating facilities at four record plants, taught the operators how to make really good plates, and am also a part time boiler mechanic with a ticket to boot. That was an intense part of my life, and tested my knowledge of chemistry and physics.
4am starts and long hours are no longer so appealing, so I moved to building modular sound booths to enable anyone to create great sounding recordings at home or in the workplace.
This is a lovely old Neumann Disk Console that I rescued from a scrap yard in Sydney and rebuilt. I believe Zenith Records has it now. It is almost as old as I am. Photo from the days at Corduroy Records.
We had fun back then.