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Charlie Nash, engineer (left) and John Calafati, head engineer (right)

Urban Chain Studios

Who: John Calafati, Anthony Goldsbrough, Charlie Nash
What: Studio Owners, Engineers, Producers, Musicians
Where: Penge, South London
Gear: R20 Mic Pre, R22 Compressor

From the Front:

"We've been working with a lot of pop and R&B artists recently and they don't want any funny stuff on their vocals. For these kinds of demands, we like to use a U89 or U87 into our R20 and R22 to capture a really transparent recording. We just recorded the new Peter Andre album with this vocal chain. We really love the cleanliness of the R20 and the R22 is just fantastic at keeping hold of a singer's voice.

"The compressor reacts to the program material by itself—the voltages just talk to each other. This interaction results in very natural and musical compression. We've found it to work very smoothly and subtly on things like vocals, keys and strings—even on the full 10:1 setting! We also like to use the R20 on overheads or room mics, especially for drums and strings.

"For the price tag, these are two fantastic products. We salute you JDK!"

About Urban Chain Studios:

After meeting while working at the same Christmas function, John Calafati and Anthony Goldsbrough decided to join forces and open a recording studio. While Calafati had a background as a car sound system designer and a live engineer, Goldsbrough had recently been signed as a session guitarist and singer to Conehead UK. The two partners needed an engineer, so Calafati took a recommendation from a former tutor and brought on recent SAE London graduate Charlie Nash as Urban Chain Studios' resident engineer. Urban Chain Studios possesses two live rooms and a control room built around a Toft 32-channel ATB desk as well as an array of outboard equipment and microphones. Additionally, Urban Chain Studios will soon have two new producer suites that will "no doubt feature some more JDK gear."

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