Tell us about space

At Aura studios we have three stages:

a) Stereo recording and mix stage with a booth for live recordings and voice overs.

b) Dolby 7.1.4 Atmos surround mix suite and a composing suite with a compact booth.

c) ADR/ Voice dub and foley stages: at the ground floor , with two control rooms and two booths.

Take us through the process of setting it up

The studio design was conceptualised with an idea to maintain symmetry in terms of acoustical design. The music production and stereo suite was started in 2010 and then the surround mix suite in 2013. The Voice dub and foley sound design suite was launched last year 2020. 

Mr. Manoj (Sound Engineer and Studio Architect) of spectral synthesis, built the stereo suite and the surround mix suite. Mr.Roman ravi did the Dub and foley suite.

What are some of the studio essentials you would recommend?

Main essentials for any studio should be a good team of sound engineers as you need to have a good set of ears for good judgement of sound. Apart from that, good set of monitors, preamps and mics to achieve utmost precision related to sound.

What equipment do you use?

The different equipment that we have in our studio as:

Focal twin be 6 monitors 

Focal sub 6 sub woofers

Focal Cms series surround monitors

SLS cinema sub woofer ( surround mix suite )

Apogee/ Avid MTRX interfaces / Avid Omni HD native interface

C 24 and Euphonix artist mix series control surfaces 

Preamps:

a) UNIVERSAL AUDIO 2-610 silver face 

b) Audient and Art pro multichannel preamps 

Micophones:

Nuemann/ Akg C414 / Studio projects (SP) / Sennheiser K416 / Avantone Cv12 / SE 4400 / Ashton Starlight / AKG drum mic bundle / Shure Dynamic mics along with small diaphragm microphones.

Pieces of gear you cannot live without

For the studio obviously you can’t operate without the monitors. Prime thing is to take care and maintain the monitors so that it doesn’t disrupt the workflow. So my Focal monitors are the ones without which it’s hard to operate.

Describe your typical work day in the studio.

Everyday is a new experience and a challenge. It’s usually not the same routine as we get to meet and work with different clients for different needs. As we have all the departments pertaining to audio and sound production under one roof, it helps in the efficiency and consistency to supervise the workflow and also to give hassle free solutions. We have our own team of sound engineers taking care of their respective departments and hence the process flow is streamlined.

Take us through some of your most significant releases from your studio and why it is special?

It’s hard to point out only one project or title. We have worked over 600 films ,several indie bands and contents. I could point out two instances which are special ones. Music Production process of SPIRIT of chennai song. I got an opportunity to compose and record 33 singers and 20 plus live musicians.

We had all the singers together during the recording sessions and it was a great experience to track and conduct some of the legends like SPB, Shankar Mahadevan , Hariharan ji to the current singers etc.  Another most memorable session was with Maestro Ilayaraja visiting us for a mixing session, where we had a wonderful experience sharing his works and concepts.

What’s your next buy for the studio?

We have upgraded the studio with the latest technology, be it software or hardware.  We are planning to integrate all the three studio workplace through Dante connectivity. That’s something which we are in the process and would be incorporated soon.

Tips to aspiring owners of studios

It’s always good to have a clarity on the sound you would want to deliver.it’s a competitive industry and it’s important to make choices ( Acoustics, sound aesthetics, equipments, hardware and DAW) to reproduce the right sound without any compromises.

I would suggest that the choices are made based on the functionalities an equipment can offer. We are in a digital lossless era and we are heading towards it so it’s important to have a hybrid setup ( Analog and digital integration) for future needs and adapt accordingly.

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