With Pulse College receiving Leonardo funding for the second year running, Pulse news jumped on the opportunity to get the inside story on what it is like to be an intern in some of the UK’s most exclusive recording studios. Naomi Macleod was placed in the Idyllic Leeders Farm Studio and tells us all about her experiences of late nights, Hungarian metal and tea making!
I am Naomi Macleod and I was lucky to get the opportunity to work in the breathtaking Leeders Farm Studios in Wymondham as part of my Leonardo placement. Norfolk is about 2 hours north of London. I flew to Stansted airport on the 28th of March, very excited, if a little nervous!
Leeders Farm is in a tiny village about 20 minutes from Norwich city. It is a residential studio on 4 acres, and runs two Pro Tools HD-equipped recording studios, as well as a large instrument hire company. They often record to tape, and have more vintage gear than you could shake a mic stand at. Needless to say, upon arriving I was fairly awestruck by the studio -built within the various barns and gable ends of a farmhouse dating back to the 1600s. The whole place has an instantly friendly and welcoming vibe, with the gold records and signed posters providing just enough of a reminder that it's all still rock 'n' roll! Nick showed me around the house and studios, and introduced me to the engineers and clients. As I would be mainly assisting in Studio One for the two weeks, in which a month-long session had just begun, I left my luggage at the nearby B&B and got straight to work in studio. The band I was assisting for was a Hungarian metal band called Heavenblade. Lucky for me, they provided some interesting challenges, in terms of sound engineering, including a 28-piece drumkit, which I helped Owen, the engineer, mic up.
As the band's album was very much in the operatic metal style, the music was sufficiently complex that I got to witness and help out with hours upon hours of editing - I picked up more than a few quick tips in Pro Tools! After a day or two of tiredness, I finally settled in to the working hours. We would start most days at 10 or 11am, and finish between midnight and 2am. As time went on, I progressed from making tea for the band and engineer, to sitting at the desk operating the talkback, then to operating Pro Tools. It was great to see that the studio had built up a trust in me as an assistant in the space of a few days. At the end of the first week, I began staying in the studio's residential accommodation, in the lovely oak-frame farmhouse. This made the late hours a lot more bearable.
One of the main things I enjoyed learning all about was the workings of Studio One and Studio Two. Owen was more than happy to talk me through it all as he went along, which was great. As both studios are made up of large amounts of very old equipment, I was keen to see how certain compromises were worked around. It was great to build on what I'd learnt in college already, and use it to understand the quirks of this particular studio!
Needless to say, throughout the experience it was not all work no play; there were several band outings to the local pub, which provided pleasant relief from the sometimes stressful environment in the control room. By the end of the two weeks, I felt I had both built on my college learning to date, and learnt a lot of new things in terms of recording, production techniques, general creative dynamics, and the general workflow of a residential studio. Heavenblade and Owen, as well as the various engineers I assisted, were all a joy to work with -I really didn't want to leave, and I'm hoping to someday return there to work.
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