The new $3 million Royal House Recording studio has been fully equipped with a treasure trove of gear from Vintage King Audio headquarters in Detroit.
Located nearby in the suburb of Royal Oak, the new studio was built from the ground up by Detroit native Roger Goodman, who relocated to his hometown after 15 years as a producer/engineer in Los Angeles.
During his productive tenure in Los Angeles, Goodman attended The Los Angeles Recording School and Full Sail University before embarking on his career as producer/engineer working out of top LA studios such as Record Plant, Larabee, and Paramount. Goodman produced and engineered a number of successful artists, including Lupe Fiasco, Lil Dicky, Dej Loaf, and Asher Roth, while garnering Grammy nominations.
“I’m a third generation Detroiter and after paying my dues in LA, I wanted to come home and really build a studio that could take us back to the good ol’ days of recording in the Motor City,” explained Goodman. “We’re in the same neighborhood as Eminem’s 54 Sound and my goal is to further reinvigorate the Detroit scene, which has been a major recording destination since the 40s.”
Royal House features a 48-channel SSL Duality SE console and monitoring with Barefoot Sound MM27, ATC SCM25A Pro, Genelec 1032, and Yamaha NS-10 speakers. Top processing gear includes Burl Audio B2 Bomber, Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, and Chandler EMI TG12413 Zener Limiter.
A large selection of microphones includes models from Royer, Coles, Sennheiser, Electro Voice, AKG, Neumann, Shure, Schoeps, and Sony. Choice outboard gear is available from Neve, API, Pultec, Maag Audio, Empirical Labs, DBX, Purple Audio and Retro Instruments.
“Vintage King is really at the top of their game,” says Goodman. “I worked with Jacob Schneider and he would come to the studio at the drop of a hat. They gave me lots of options from a list of boutique items to the necessary standard gear. Now we have everything from choice guitars and guitar amps, outboard gear, the SSL console, and they guided us with incredible input on how the whole network was to be set up. The studio is so user friendly and producer ready—just the way it should be.”