World Heart Beat Music Academy, which helps young people realize their musical potential without financial constraints, has opened a second location in southwest London that includes a recording studio outfitted with a Solid State Logic ORIGIN 32-channel analog mixing console.
The new commercial production facility, designed by U.K. architectural acoustics and studio firm Munro Acoustics, is intended to serve as an economic engine for the charitable organization, which was founded by artistic director Sahana Gero, a musician and music teacher, in 2009. Her brother, James Gero, the organization’s CEO, spearheaded the new World Heart Beat at Embassy Gardens, and was responsible for the new build, which also houses a 200-capacity concert hall that doubles as a live room for recording. The connectivity of the building, incorporating over 80 km of fiber optic, Cat-6a and analog cables, offers artists an array of opportunities.
In addition to offering a recording studio for hire, World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens also hosts a calendar of jazz, contemporary classical, folk and global music performances. It has a permanent, d&b Soundscape immersive sound system that provides new technology with which to experiment. In the first year more than 90 concerts and public performances are slated to take place.
The London Borough of Wandsworth and developers Eco-World Ballymore selected World Heart Beat from a field of more than 42 organizations as a “cultural anchor” for the Embassy Gardens residential and business development in Nine Elms, the largest regeneration zone in Europe, which surrounds the United States Embassy on the south bank of the River Thames. The organization has a 50-year lease on the 750-square-meter purpose-built facility at peppercorn rent.
The venue, recording studio, broadcasting suite and an on-site café together form a commercial arm of World Heart Beat, according to musician Nick Cohen, who first became involved with World Heart Beat during 2020, initially helping to set up live video streaming capabilities at the academy’s original learning space, which is about six kilometers (four miles) southwest of the Nine Elms location. Since then, Cohen has been directing World Heart Beat’s Digital Production and Young Artist Development program.
“When we show potential clients around, they see the Steinway D concert grand piano, straight from the Proms stage, and they see the auditorium, which is loaded up with technical equipment and fine acoustic wooden panels designed by world renowned designers, Sound Space Vision,” Cohen explains. “Then you take them into the studio and there’s the SSL ORIGIN, and people realize they’re in an incredible working environment.”
During the build, Gero adds, “I was adamant about having a recording studio that could be seen and enjoyed by top professional artists and studio engineers. Having no personal experience myself, I felt that Nick’s previous experience, with touring credits that include Eurythmics, Roy Ayers, Massive Attack and M-People, would be invaluable. I remember calling Nick at midnight asking about what desk I should get. He bluntly told me he was a musician first and foremost but did let it slip that, if he was getting a desk, SSL had a beautiful workflow.
“That was it; I took that as sold. When you spend so much on building a venue — and my vision was to build the best boutique venue in the country that was about young people leveling up — then every minute detail is so important to that vision. Personally, I couldn’t be happier with our choice of desk. The SSL with its custom-made furniture looks so beautiful and it works terrifically well, too.”
When helping choose a desk for the new studio, Cohen says, he wanted something that was hands-on and easy to operate and didn’t require the engineer to page through menus and submenus. An analog desk was also the most appropriate option for the types of music that World Heart Beat focuses on, he says. “A lot of the music that we do is from the acoustic world, so we’re dealing with classical piano recitals and a lot of jazz. ORIGIN fits in with that more organic workflow and really works well with the whole ethos of what we’re trying to do here.”
Jim Sorenson has been lead studio and live engineer and AV production assistant at World Heart Beat since early 2021, and previously worked for a time with noted producer Tony Visconti. “The way that ORIGIN is set out is a really natural way to engineer, for me. Especially the way that it’s been married to the patchbay and being able to start recording quickly. I find the workflow fantastic in comparison to a lot of the desks I’ve used before. The desk is very straightforward and literal, I would say, which makes working on it really quick,” he says.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the ORIGIN EQs,” continues Sorenson, who has worked on other SSL desks in the past. “I’m more into feeling and sweeping, and the response is nice and intuitive to that hands-on approach. You can use quite fine and delicate movements in the EQ section to be really crafty with the way you’re pulling stuff into Pro Tools. I often commit to printing straight from the EQs on the desk. I don’t know why I would load up an SSL emulation on the DAW when I’ve got 32 of the E series EQ right in front of me.”
