The building that houses Metropolis Studio has a checkered past that has seen everything from steam powered generators to pornographic movie sets. While the walls of the building could tell some quite interesting stories, a more alluring tale is that of Metropolis studios’ life in the building. Conceived in 1998 as the brainchild of Karin Clayton, Gary Langan, Carey Taylor and Alexander Skeaping, it is now celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Over the past 20 years Metropolis has recorded legendary albums including The Verve’s Urban Hymns, The Stone Roses’ The Second Coming and Amy Winehouse’s Grammy Award winning Back To Black, as well as the Live Aid and Live 8 DVDs. This year alone the studio has hosted U2, Pussycat Dolls, Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, Akon, The Black Eyed Peas and Stevie Wonder.

Ian Brenchley was appointed as the managing director of Metropolis in 2008 and predicts a positive future for the studio despite the decline of large studio spaces. He comments: “Metropolis has always been one of the top studios in the world, featuring cutting edge technology, a wealth of expertise and a creative hub location for the music industry and iconic artists alike. In our 20th year, we plan to take things one step further by starting a label, adding multiple new services and in short, put the rock n roll back into the music industry, not a moment too soon I might add.”

While the engineers who have used the studio get all the notoriety, the gear processing the sound should be duly noted. Metropolis’ big Studio A has three separate recording areas, one of which can fit up to a 26-piece orchestra. It houses an SSL 9072 J Series console with monitoring from Genelec 1035As and Yamaha NS10s, PMC or Auratone for nearfield monitoring. A Pro Tools HD 3 with Prism ADA-8 interfaces configured to 24 inputs & outputs (expandable) or Otari MTR 100(with dolby A or SR) is also in place, while outboard from Lexicon, Pultec, Maselec/Prism, Neve and Drawmer can also be used in conjunction with a full host of plugins, such as Waves Gold, Autotune, Serato Pitch n Time, Soundtoys, McDSP and Sonnox eq.

Studios B and C have a similar Pro Tools/Prism set ups used with an SSL 4064 G series console (60 mono / 4 stereo channels) in Studio B and a Neve VR 72- channel desk in Studio C.

Studio B features a central live area and two separate booths. Session monitoring is handled by a Genelec 1035A system with Yamaha NS10s or Aratone nearfield monitors. Both studios feature outboard from renowned names like Empirical Labs, Eventide, Manley, dbx, Tube Tec and many others while Studio C features an EMT 244 reverb.

A 5.1 set up for mixing sound to picture can be found in Studio E. SSL’s XL 9072K console is used with monitors from PMC and Yamaha. It also features an N-Vision House sync and an overdub booth with large sight lines maintained for producer to actor direction. The studio maintains the same high standards of hi-end gear found in the tracking studios.

Metropolis is the biggest independent mastering house in Europe, with six state-of-the-art mastering suites. The studio’s staff of ten mastering engineers share credits from legends such as The Beatles to recent hits from the Ting Tings and Coldplay.

The history and heritage gained in the last 20 years shines through in its credits as the studio continues to be a leader in the European market with plans in place to expand the business. As the industry changes, it is refreshing to see a studio of Metropolis’ size continue to maintain a high standard of recording and mastering for recorded music.
www.metropolis-group.co.uk