Presence Studios Westport "The Studios"

A Notable Presence in Suburbia
World-class studio hosts top-notch talent for surround projects.

Presence Studios Westport in Connecticut is located less than an hour’s drive up I-95 from New York City. Owner Jon Russell, a composer and producer, originally established the facility as a private studio in 1980, steadily expanding his client base from local to national to international and eventually constructing a purpose-built three-room complex at its present location in 1993.

The studio complex, designed by the Russ Berger Design Group, has established a reputation as one of the most advanced recording facilities in New England. One of only 30 members of the distinguished World Studio Group of top class facilities, Presence Studios has attracted some notable clients including Elliot Scheiner, who has mixed a good number of 5.1 projects in Studio A for DTS release.

"He’s become a good friend, and he’s a great engineer," comments Russell. He reveals that Scheiner, who lives close by, first approached him years ago about working at Presence but only really began to bring his projects to the studio after the current Flying Faders-automated AMS Neve VR Legend console was installed. "Once we got the Neve in he started getting more and more comfortable."

Scheiner’s credits at Presence Studios are impressive. "He did the DTS mixes for Sting’s Brand New Day," Russell recalls. "He did John Fogerty’s Premonititon record, which was nominated for a Best Rock Performance Grammy. And we just finished an IMAX film called All Access, and that we mixed in surround."

Russell remarks that All Access features a who’s who of the music industry, including Moby, Dave Matthews, Sting, Sheryl Crow, George Clinton, B.B. King, and Santana, and includes footage from concerts filmed over the last six months that reveals life backstage, on stage, and on the road.

Studios B and C provide postproduction services for voiceovers, including ISDN capability, music vocals, ADR, and mastering, in addition to offering video layback, format transfer, and duplication facilities. Russell, who has been a Fairlight fan for many years, reports that the studios’ two 24-track MFX3plus systems are in the process of being upgraded. "We have a Fairlight Prodigy in Studio B," he says, adding that Studio C will soon feature a second Prodigy. MFX3plus recorder/editors can be easily upgraded with the addition of Fairlight’s Prodigy console surface to add automated mixing functionality to the system, notes Russell.

All three rooms share the Fairlight resources, Russell explains, since all of the processing resides in a central machine room, offering clients the ability to simultaneously record and mix in Studio A while editing and overdubbing continues in the adjacent rooms. "And we could take one of the Prodigies and turn it into an MFX and send it into another room if, for instance, in our A room, Elliot wanted to do some extensive editing or any 24-bit things in there," he adds.

The ability to disconnect the Prodigy console and substitute an MFX3plus controller in another room offers a versatility essential for the location, says Russell. "When you’re up in suburbia you’ve got to be flexible, and you’ve really got to think about your setups," he observes. "You just can’t commit to anything."

The equipment complement in Studio A also reflects Russell’s desire for total flexibility. In addition to the MFX3plus hard-disk recorders, clients can take advantage of up to 96 tracks of DASH and 48 tracks of analog recording, with Sony 48-track digital and Studer 2-inch analog tape machines readily available. Classic and current models of analog and digital outboard processors are well represented, including dbx, Drawmer, Eventide, GML, Lexicon, Neve, Summit, TC Electronic, Teletronix, and Urei.

Studio A can accommodate stereo or surround projects, with monitoring for 5.1 projects provided as needed. "DTS came out here and spent a couple days with us and we got the room completely set up," Russell explains. The speaker setup initially mapped out by DTS’s Rory Kaplan, is recreated to very tight tolerances using laser measurement, he elaborates. "We’ve had a lot of custom stands made for the speakers, and what we have now is a blue print. If we have a 5.1 session, the engineer comes in and follows that blueprint."

Studio A incorporates ATC’s large SCM-300A main monitors soffit-mounted in the front wall with SCM-20 surrounds, though Russell notes that Scheiner prefers to monitor through KRK speakers. He adds that Studio B, which is being outfitted for surround production as part of its upgrade, also features ATC SCM-20 monitors.

"My biggest pet peeve in this business is that speakers sound like something," says Russell. "It’s like painting with colored glasses. With ATC, I found that they’re the only manufacturer that doesn’t lie to you: what you get out of it is what you put in. When you mix something on a speaker that’s dead flat and it sounds good there, it sounds good everywhere."