Professional Sound - February 2017 | Page 35

“ I must admit that I miss working in a large control room , so it was a real joy to visit Planet ' s Studio 2 and have a control room large enough for the bottom end to develop properly . I particularly like the main SOTA monitors and found them to offer the big sound I was looking for without the fatigue often associated with high SPLs . The room has a great array of outboard gear and the same SSL 4064 G + as I have in my own room , thus making Studio 2 my go-to room in Montreal !” -Tom Lord-Alge , Mix Engineer ( The Rolling Stones , Santana , Blink 182 ) o Booth # 1

W hen Professional Sound last spoke with Planet Studios owner Daniel Cinelli surrounding the facility ’ s 10 th anniversary in 2012 , Cinelli said : “ I set a goal for where I ’ d like the studio to be . I ’ m not there yet , but my obsession is with making this place great .”

That remains true to this day , as Cinelli believes continually making changes to keep Planet “ fresh and exciting ” is key to the studio ’ s success – not only as a viable business , but also as a place in which people take pleasure in making music .
So that begs the question , “ Is he there yet ?” The answer , unsurprisingly , is “ not really ” – and the recent renovation of Planet ’ s main mix-

Live Room

ing room , Studio 2 , is evidence of that .
“ Studio 2 has gone through probably five different renovations ,” Cinelli begins about the room ’ s history . “ It used to be our Pro Tools suite , then became a 5.1 suite . This is the third SSL console that ’ s been in there and the orientation of the room changed as well . When we talked in 2012 , it was a great mixing room with a fairly large iso booth for overdubs and that ’ s how it stayed for a couple of years .”
One of the forces driving the reno was the acquisition of a vintage Yamaha C7 grand piano from Montreal ’ s Studio Victor – now Planet ’ s second , which is older than their existing C7 and has , as Cinelli says , “ a lot of history .”
“ We were already making full records in Studio 2 because it sounded really good , and although there was just one iso booth and it was mainly considered a mix room , a lot of people were tracking full bands . I knew once I put that piano in there we were going to need more isolation booths and the timing was perfect ; the piano became available and adjacent to the mix room there was a production suite that housed one of our producer / engineers that was on a long term rental . That producer moved , so that space became available and that instigated the whole renovation .”
Basically , they expanded into a different part of the building , completely renovating and redesigning Planet ’ s second floor – a project that began late December 2015 and was essentially completed by Jan . 15 th the next year .
While Studio 2 is still Planet ’ s main mix room , it ’ s now a full-size studio with a large live room and two iso booths that can now be used more effectively to record albums from start to finish .
That , Cinelli explains , is a response to a change in the business . “ I find there ’ s a real comeback to artists wanting to be in the studio ,” he says , referring to longer album projects . “ Last year , partly because of the new studio , we were very busy . Obviously we ’ re grateful that artists choose to come to a studio like this when everybody ’ s got a home set-up or studio .”
Whether they ’ re coming in to record vocals , lay down bed tracks , or mix , having a space to host the process from start to finish has been a boon for business . “ It ’ s really a preference now , and there were clients and artists here last year that we never had before .” Among the highprofile clients who have come or returned to Planet to take advantage of the new room are Justin Bieber , Roch Voisine , Nikki Yanofsky , and Steve Hill , to name a few .
Although the studio has gone through many changes since Cinelli bought the building , the core business model still informs all renovations and upgrades . Planet now comprises three large dedicated recording spaces , a mastering suite inhabited by Richard Addison , a revered mastering engineer with over 30 years ’ experience , and a variety of smaller rental spaces for producers , engineers , and artists to work .
“ We ’ re actually in the process right now of building our newest rental studio in the building for another resident producer / engineer ,” he notes . In total , Planet Studios is comprised of its own three studios , Planet Mastering , and 10 rental studios .
As always , Cinelli constantly reinvests in the business . “ Whether it ’ s gear , renovations , the new piano , opportunities present themselves . That piano , it ’ s rare you ’ re going to get opportunities like that , so it ’ s hard not to reinvest . I ’ m still super-passionate about recording and about the studio . I love when the studios are busy and when I see familiar faces coming back . I ’ m always on the look out for ways to make the studio better . It ’ s a part of me .”
The timeline for the renovation of Studio 2 was , as Cinelli puts it , “ pretty crazy .” In all , they took two days off for Christmas and two days off for New Year ’ s . “ I knew we had a small time window to get this done . I wanted the piano to come in to a clean environment , not midway through the renovation .”
On Dec . 22 , 2015 , they started removing gear and tearing down the room . “ Essentially , we kept the back third of the control room – the back wall and the acoustic treatment in the back part of the room – and demolished the entire second floor .”
That included a bathroom , lounge space , the previously mentioned rental space , and a kitchen . “ We tore down the front wall of the control room and tore open the access to the machine room . It was a big demolition and Studio 2 was one of the first rooms I built here , so there were surprises . I didn ’ t remember how much we ’ d put into the construction at that time and the demolition didn ’ t seem to want to end .”
Once the space was opened up , however , it was clear that the plan to rebuild was a good one . Still , it was labour intensive and found Cinelli and company working from 8 a . m . to midnight each day .
The design of the space and the acoustic treatments inhabiting it were a product of the collaboration between Cinelli and Addison . “ I pretty much knew what I wanted to do well in advance ,” says the former . “ There were a few things we needed to work out because we installed SOTA main monitors in the studio , which was a big stress for me . Throughout all these years I ’ ve never installed main monitors in any room because I found from experience in other studios that it ’ s very hard to get it right and to get it to sound good . It ’ s the first thing everyone criticizes when they walk into a control room , so I put a lot of energy and time into designing that front wall to have the speakers properly installed and we went over and over the design until we felt it was right .
“ Surprisingly ,” Cinelli continues , “ even with everything bare , I put up the speakers and immediately , without any acoustic treatment , they sounded really good .” That , he says , was his test : “ I said , ‘ If I put them in there and they don ’ t sound to my liking , now ’ s the time to turn it all around and redesign the plan for that front wall .’”
A lot of thought went into that front wall , he continues , which features a 14 x 4-ft . glass window with sightlines between the control room , live space , and the two isolation booths .
The control room is roughly 400 sq . ft . and was shrunken somewhat from its previous footprint . Cinelli told Addison that his main concern was to make the room sound great and Addison came back with a plan that had a smaller control room . “ For me , that was a little strange at first ,” Cinelli admits , though he ’ s since grown accustomed to the new space .
That opens up onto the approximately 680-sq . ft . live room , which boasts 14- to 16-ft . ceilings . The 250-sq . ft . booth sits to the right of the control room with visual connections to the live and control rooms while the smaller

Patio

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