Modell 2160
AUDIO MEDIA-UK 3/2002
TIM GOODYER finds commitment to quality (and new kit) in one of Europe’s super-studios ... Galaxy
Why would you go to Belgium to master your CD? Neither a 'traditional' recording centre, nor one of the world's wonders, this is a question that Galaxy Studios' Kees de Kruyf has anticipated: "We have built a Formula 1 Audio car here and we've put a very good driver in it," he asserts. "We go 100 percent professionally into our work, otherwise why would you go to Belgium? It has to be better..."
The mastering facility is the latest addition to Galaxy, which first opened in 1982 and built its present complex in 1995. It offered the first fully-equipped 5.1 studio in Europe and now operates almost 80 rooms, including eight recording rooms and five control rooms.
Some two years and € 1.2m in the making, its 'better' mastering room is equipped to handle all surround formats through a custom SPL analogue mufti-channel console, a Sony Sonoma editor, Europe's first SADiE DSD mastering editor, ranks of dCS converters, and custom 5.1 Perreaux/EgglestonWorks monitoring. The project also ran over time and seriously over budget, a consideration de Kruyf accepts with few qualms: "That's what happens when you don't want to compromise," he reflects. "Either we do things or we don't – that's our philosophy. If it costs us pain financially, we have to suffer it," he concedes.
It's a sound philosophy if the investment pays off, but with the music business in decline and record companies notoriously reluctant to acknowledge the value of good mastering on this side of the Atlantic, is it misplaced? Part of the inspiration for the venture came from certain of Galaxy's recording clients being unhappy with mastering elsewhere, and with the facility open for business since early December, de Kruyf reckons the record companies are happy with both service and pricing.
"We are one of the seven or eight biggest studios in Europe and we have a lot of international clients, de Kruyf begins. "We have clients from Lauryn Hill and Mary J Blige to the Scorpions and Guano Apes. Before we had our own mastering rooms we were hearing complaints about mastering quality and also the attitude of some of the people in the mastering studios.
"More and more, people are convinced of the value of a mastering studio," he says. "It is the last opportunity to do anything before a DVD or SACD is pressed. During the last five years we've seen a real change in attitude towards mastering. We charge € 1250 for a ten-hour day for stereo and € 1550 for a ten-hour day for multi-channel work, and I haven't had any record company complain about the price."
