and , in addition to owning and operating his own studio for 12 years , also teaches at Metalworks Institute and does studio design consultation .
“ Jay was one of my students at Metalworks , where I taught a basic electronics class ,” Sairan explains , “ and I found he had answers to a lot of the things that were beyond my knowledge . I was never going to bullshit people if they had a question about how something works that I didn ’ t have an answer to . Jay had the answers to those questions , so one thing led to the next , we developed a friendship , and then started working together .”
Young ’ s background is in electrical engineering . Over the past 25 years , he has worked primarily on government-related projects . “ I got into audio basically as a hobby ,” Young says . “ But from the moment I saw some of these large format consoles , I realized they ’ re exactly the kind of thing I knew how to fix , wanted to fix , and would enjoy fixing .”
The pair started Mod My Gear roughly two years ago with an eye on providing full service audio production and custom gear design as well as repair and maintenance .
Sairan also had a personal connection to Subterranean Sound . “ The owner and I were friends since junior high school and played in bands together ,” he says . “ I put together my own room and installed an SSL there and he and I worked together there .”
They lost contact over time but later reconnected via Lake . Following the acquisition of the console , Sairan and Young were tapped to work on it in tandem with the head engineer . “ Anybody who owns vintage gear , there ’ s always going to be an element of trust , because it ’ s kind of like , you know , we ’ re playing with his baby ,” Sairan says .
Sairan and Lake describe the desk as “ the unicorn of vintage Neve consoles ” – one of only three of this design in existence . The other two are located at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver and at London ’ s Air Studios . The Montserrat , however , was the first of the three to be built .
“ The Montserrat Neve console is the console that all others are measured against as far as sonic capability ,” Sairan says , adding that Subterranean Sound is an ideal home for it given that Lake not only appreciates its history and pedigree , but is eminently qualified to use it to its full capacity .
While it ’ s hard to pin down everyone that recorded on the
LIVE ROOM
PHOTOS : COURTESY OF SUBTERRANEAN SOUND console over time , it was obviously used extensively by George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame . Other artists who used the board include The Police and Dire Straits , who recorded their iconic Brothers in Arms album on it .
Designed in 1977 and originally destined for Air Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat and Air London , the console ’ s status as a “ unicorn ” is underpinned by the fact that there ’ s a certain amount of mythology attached to it , Lake says . “ There are so many misleading and untrue facts about it online . Even on the A & M history site [ the studio that owned the console in the ‘ 80s ], it says they added a 12-channel bucket to it , which is untrue . The console shipped from the Neve factory as a 52-channel console , but it was only filled out to 40 channels .
“ From what I understand ,” he continues , “ George Martin went to Rupert Neve and said , ‘ I ’ d like you to build this console for Air Studios .’” He believes that Emerick and Martin worked closely with Neve in terms of specifying frequencies . “ What is known is that George Martin and Geoff Emerick wanted a Neve console , known for its big and ballsy low frequency range , to sound more open and clear like API or MCI consoles that were available during the early ‘ 70s .”
The restoration of the console is best characterized as part treasure hunt and part ridiculously complex puzzle , and it ’ s very much an ongoing process . All of the work has been done in Subterranean Sound since the console was installed roughly three years ago . “ We had it up and running and had bands in , but because it ’ s a semiprivate space , we haven ’ t really been advertising , so we ’ d have bands in and then I ’ d make a list of issues with the console and we ’ d have Jay in ,” Lake says .
“ At Metalworks , Jay took care of all the consoles ,” Sairan puts in , “ so he had a strong working knowledge of the Neve 80 Series , the predecessor to the Montserrat , and also SSL consoles .”
Hearing about the challenges the Montserrat presented and comments such as , “ You ’ ve never seen anything like this before ” piqued Young ’ s curiosity . “ Everyone kept saying , ‘ No matter what you know or what consoles you ’ ve dealt with , you ’ re going to encounter things you ’ ve never seen .’ I hear that quite a bit and didn ’ t believe it , but sure enough , while the main wiring was where it should be , the motherboards , anything to do with electronics , was completely outside of anything I ’ d seen before .”
Young ’ s best guess in terms of why ? “ When Rupert designed it , older 80 class Neves were available and , I guess , George Martin wanted
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