We take a tour inside one of the biggest recording facilities in India. Nisschal Zaveri talks about recording, production and more.
About ENZY Studios
ENZY is a state of the art recording and music production facility, located in the heart of Mumbai. It is a sound house which provides high quality environment for musicians to create magic along with state of the art acoustics and pristine sound. Founded by music composer Nisschal Zaveri, the studio has catered to more than 300 musicians and eminent personalities of the Indian Film Industry. Spanning over 5500 sq ft, it is one of the largest recording facilities in India. It has two studios, Studio A and Studio Y along with Isolation Room A and Y. The heart of the studio is the massive 900 sq ft Live Recording Theatre that sits between the two studios. In a short span of four years, this studio has emerged as a leading music production facility winning two IRAA Awards in consecutive years; Best Equipped Recording/Mixing Studio 2015, Studio of the Year 2016. Nisschal’s vision is to provide an international recording experience to his clients. The Studio is designed by Jerry Steckling from JSX Audio, California and the execution was done by Kapil Thirwani of Munro Acoustics, UK. ENZY’s equipment outfitting/ design and logistics for cabling was done by Westlake Pro, Hollywood. Design and system integration in Mumbai was executed by Robin Monterio and Remo Lobo. Nisschal, a music production graduate from Los Angeles, handpicked the equipment finding a right balance between Analogue and Digital.
How Nisschal organizes, plans, and prioritizes his work
He is a composer first, and his main focus has always been music. The studio was also created with an idea that he would use one room and the other room will be available for artists and other musicians to rent out. ENZY Studios has a great team; they have people who are responsible for studio bookings, planning and recordings.
The studio strives on excellence! They make sure that the setup is done before hand, and no client has to wait or spend extra money on setup. According to Nisschal, Recording studio business is a hospitality business, in a way, basic etiquette such as offering tea coffee or assisting people with parking and greeting them when they first enter are all equally important aspects for client satisfaction. All these factors add to the vision of providing a serene and hygienic environment to all the musicians.
Challenges faced by him while setting up the studio
According to him, challenges are often feared upon by many people. He looks at challenges as an opportunity to grow and improve. There are lots of challenges that come up every now and then, such as some equipment suddenly crashes or one odd day, the air-conditioning is not functioning. These are problems which are easily tackled by thinking ahead and pro-actively. There is always a way to overcome challenges. Initially, they had a big task of who will execute Jerry’s highly technical designs. Eventually found the right person in Kapil and it was only a matter of inquiring and asking people. It took a little research time but things were smoothly completed on time. As a musician, he says he faces many challenges on how to write a new melody. More than challenges, insecurities come in; there is a long wait for a song to click with directors and producers. Until then it’s a struggle period, one gets filled with emotions such as self doubt or frustration. The best way to overcome that is keep working, keep on working with perseverance, success will eventually come.
Equipment used
They have a wide variety of equipment in the studio and also have a big selection of microphones and in house instruments for clients to enjoy.
Digital Audio Workstation and Convertors
- Protools 10
- HDX2
Monitoring
- Dynaudio
- Adam s3v
- Avantone
Dynamic processors
- Distressor el8 x4
- 1176 x1
- Tubetech stereo compressor
Program Equalizers
Manley massive passive
Effects Processors
- Eventide 7600
- Lexicon PCM 90
Microphone Preamplifiers
- John hardy M1 x4
- Api 512 x2
- Great river x4
- Grace design x32
- Summit audio x2
- AEA ribbon pre x2
- Ssl xlogic x1
Microphones
- Microtech Gefell x3
- Pearlman tm1 x2
- Royer 121 x1
- Mojave ma300 x2
- Akg 414 x2
- Crown PZM x2
- Sm 57 x5
- Sm 58 x5
- Sm 7 x1
- Beta 52 x2
- Seinheisser 421 x2
- Seinheisser 441 x2
- Akg 420 x1
- Earthworks x3
In-house Instruments
- Motif XF-8 Keyboard
- Moog Voyager
- Korg SP500 keyboard
- Korg TR keyboard
- Meinl Percussion Cajon
- Tabla
- TC Electronics Bass Amplifier
- Roland JC-120 Guitar Amplifier
- Pearl Drum-set
- Manoj Sardar Harmonium
- A variety of Pedals and percussion instruments
10 Recording studio essential according to Nisschal Zaveri
- Comfortable studio environment
- Clean power supply to avoid hums and buzz
- Efficient and friendly staff
- Good bathroom
- Good coffee or green tea/ chai.
- Different kinds of adaptors, EP to TRS, RCA to XLR etc etc
- UPS in case power goes, enough to save your session and shut down.
- Lights for reading stands, (as some musicians require the reading light.)
- Good headphone monitoring.
- No threat of water leakage- especially important in Mumbai Monsoons
Suggestions on Headphones, cables, studio Monitors, DAW software, Mic, and Audio interface
He says “Sennheiser headphones are always reliable and studio friendly. We use them at ENZY. As a team building exercise, we had a workshop on how to solder wires and make cables. All the cables in the studio are handmade by me and the team. Everyone from the accountant to the receptionist knows how to fix and troubleshoot or make new cables if necessary”
They have Dynaudio and Adams as their in house monitors, and also have reference monitors Avantone. “The choice of monitors was my personal preference and also a suggestion which was given by Westlake pro according to the room size and specifications” says Nisschal. ENZY works on ProTools as its main DAW and also have an option for Cubase and logic but the recording are all done according to ProTools I/O.
Do’s and Don’ts while setting up a studio
-Must have passion/love for music
-Proper backups of all sessions is a must
-Proper acoustics room measurements are required
-Right team to carry out vision
-Proper designing team or a consultant is required
-Key is in the detail
-Air-conditioning, Proper HVAC systems so they don’t interfere with recording
-Machine room should also be air-conditioned
-Proper inventory of equipment, microphones, should be always maintained
ENZY has mix of analogue and digital equipment, using both mediums, and get the best of both worlds and ultimately the best final product. Some of the equipments are legendary vintage that are costly. But, there are many emulations and plug ins that are cheaper than the actual unit, like a 1176 emulation plug in. Nisschal strongly opposes the use of pirated softwares and plug-ins, and has made sure that each and every plug ins and softwares are 100% genuine. He says “As a part of the music industry we should join hands against piracy and do our bit even if it is buying songs”.
What you need to know about ENZY Studios
Some of their clients include, A R Rahman, Pritam Chakraborty, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Visha Shekhar, Amal Malik, Anu Malik, Rochak Kohli, Jeet Ganguli, Sivamani, Ranjit Barot, Space NAtives(Los Angeles), Ricky Kej(Winds of Samsara), New York University, Coke Studio, MTV, GIMA, Farhan Akhtar Band, and many more.
- Clients have access to 2 control rooms (2.1, 5.1 and 7.1), a 900q ft live recording theatre that can fit up to a 35-piece orchestra, and two additional ISO rooms (Isolation Rooms) which can collectively hold up to 65 musicians at the same time for one recording session. ENZY Studios also offers a private lounge, conference room and café-lounge
- They have over 22kms worth of cabling that runs in and around ENZY Studios.
- Recording facility in their bathroom to capture the natural reverb from the tiles. This also enables to actually take the microphone anywhere around the studio to record various sounds and various areas. This was a key added feature especially upon Nisschal’s request.
- Houses different properties for musicians such as Live with the Legends, Behind the Sessions at ENZY Studios, Independent Fridays, and more.
For more details, contact
Phone: +91 2242863699 | +91 8879685369 Website: www.enzystudios.com |
Email: [email protected] Facebook: www.facebook.com/enzystudios | Twitter: www.twitter.com/enzystudios
This studio tour was featured in our July 2017 issue: http://bit.ly/2uBo0Ar
