Certainly there are a number of factors, including brand value, a catalogue of seminal recordings and the sheer commitment to succeed.

One very important factor, however, is the dedication to technical excellence. The majority of today’s leading studios employ full-time, highly skilled engineers to commission, service and maintain their facilities, in order to uphold the highest levels of quality throughout the recording process.

When you step inside a world-class studio facility, not only will there be a selection of the best equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers, but everything will work flawlessly together, free from troublesome pops, glitches and intermittent faults, allowing the artists to focus solely on what they do best. And of course this is no accident.

There is often an assumption, especially in digital audio, that the presence of an audible signal at the end of a signal path is enough to verify that everything is OK. But even the most experienced engineers will tell you that you can’t always rely on your ears as test instruments. Do you know for sure that your digital installation has been correctly synchronised throughout? Have you verified that dither is being used at the correct word length at digital interfaces to avoid unintentional truncation distortion? Are you sure that the correct digital cable impedance has been used throughout to prevent excessive jitter? 

Or is your system so close to the limits that interference from something as routine as flicking a light switch in the control room is likely to take your system down in the middle of that otherwise perfect take?

These are the kind of problems that engineers face on a daily basis as systems evolve, equipment is repaired or replaced, or even just re-routed in different configurations.

At Prism Sound we take test and measurement very seriously and appreciate how important it is for any audio business to be confident about the performance and safety margin of their systems; in fact, we have been supplying audio test and measurement instruments for longer than we have been making recording and production equipment.

The more astute studio owners know only too well that there is a danger in compromising on technical excellence: The cost can range from inconvenient re-work or downtime at best, to ruined work and lost business at worst. These same studio owners also know that there is real commercial value in taking technical proficiency seriously; invest in the right equipment and the right people and the value will be in the quality of the final piece of work. This translates to happier customers and, in turn, to more business.