The studio was initially purpose-built in 1989, operating succesfully under the name 'Astra Audio' until 2002 in the picturesque village of Monks Horton, Kent. Every detail was taken care of during the recording studio's design stages, including the room ratios (contributing towards the fantastic sounding live room, booth and control room), floating floors, angled walls and ceilings, and strategically placed traps.
Anchor Baby Recording Company is set in it's own peaceful garden, overlooking one of the most picturesque areas of the Kent countryside, and consists of a large live room (4m x 5m), a large wood-panneled booth, huge control room (8m x 5m), machine room, lobby, kitchen and bathroom. All rooms in the studio have the option of being hooked up to the DDA analog console, giving clients a wide range of acoustic environments in which to record.
CONSOLE:
1988 DDA DMR12. This is a large format 88 input vintage analogue console with upgraded op amps and fantastic sounding mic pre's.
DIGITAL CONVERSION:
MOTU HD192 AD/DA Converters x 2
COMPRESSORS, EQ and FX:
EVENTIDE OMNIPRESSOR / UREI 1176 / DBX 163x / SHURE M63 VINTAGE EQ / DRAWMER 1960 / IGS AUDIO LA2 CLONE / YAMAHA REV5 / YAMAHA SPX90 / PIONEER SR60 (modded).
MIC PRE's:
EISEN AUDIO API 312 CLONE / GAP 1073 CLONE and 573 EQ/ RIGG 001 custom made 2 channel Neve style mic pre with Lundahl transformers / SHURE M67 vintage custom modded 4 channel mic pre, used to record Woodstock in 1969 / AUDIENT ASP008 8 channel mic pre.
COMPUTER:
Custom designed, water-cooled quad core PC, 32gb RAM. Running Cubase Pro9.5, with plugins from Waves, Slate Digital, Fabfilter, Soundtoys, Stillwell Audio, SSL, API, Abbey Road, Andrew Scheps and hundreds more.
DRUMS:
Gretsch Catalina Club Rock, 5 piece kit with mahogany shells. Sizes are 26" kick, 13" rack tom, 16" floor tom, 18" floor tom.
TAMA Starclassic, 5 piece kit with birch shells. Sizes are 22" kick, 10" rack tom, 12" rack, 14" floor tom.
TAMA Superstar. 5 piece kit. Sizes are 22" kick, 12" and 13" rack toms, 16" floor tom.
Various snares from Orange County Custom Drums, Pacific Custom Drums, Gretsch, Tama, Hollywood by Meazzi (vintage 1960's), Pearl Sensitone, Premier, Mapex Black Panther.
GUITAR/BASS AMPS:
(1988) Marshall JCM800 2205 50w valve head, with LF gain boost modification by Martin Kidd (Cornford and Victory amps designer).
(1993) Marshall JCM900 2500 SL-X 50w valve head
SKOG handwired JCM800 clone, 50w valve head
Laney GH50L 50w valve head
Cornford RK100 valve amp head (original prototype - serial no 0001)
(1969) Laney Supergroup 100w vintage valve amp head
(1973) Laney Klipp 100w vintage valve amp head
Peavey 6505 100w valve amp head
Peavey XXL solid state amp head
WEM Dominator III 15w 1970's valve guitar combo
Sound City L120 120w valve head with Partridge transformers
Selmer SV Treble n' Bass 50w valve head (1970's)
Selmer SV Treble n' Bass 100w valve head (1970's)
Fender Concert Rivera series 2x10 valve guitar combo (1983)
Fender Quad Reverb 4x12 valve guitar combo (1970's)
Vox AC30 2x12 guitar combo
1970's Selmer Futurama 3w transistor combo
2 x H/H IC100 guitar/bass amp heads. Same amp used by T.Rex, The Clash etc
(1975) Maine 100w transistor guitar/bass amp head
Cornford 4x12 speaker cab
Orange 2x12 speaker cab loaded with Celestion Vintage 30's
Fender Deluxe 1x12 speaker cab
Orange 8x10 guitar cab, late 70's.
(mid 1970's) Hiwatt 4x12 bass cab
Ampeg Heritage Series hand-wired valve bass head
Ampeg SVT 4 Pro, rackmounted bass head
Ampeg SVT200T vintage 1980's bass amp head
Orange 4x10 and 1x15 speaker cabs
Ampeg 1540HE 4x10/1x15 vintage bass cab
Ampeg 4x10 half cab
Leslie 825 speaker cab
KEYS:
Cresswell, Ball and Co upright piano.
HH P73 electric piano (1970's) - Rhodes style
Diamond 600 combo organ
MicroKorg
Hammond organ w/Leslie cab
M-Audio MIDI keyboard
***Plus dozens of various stompboxes and percussive instruments***
MONITORING:
EVENT ASP8 midfields
Yamaha NS10-M nearfields (mk1 1978) powered by a QUAD 303 amp.
MICROPHONES:
Condenser:
Neumann U87 (available on request)
AKG C414 B-ULS x 1
Aston Origin x 2
Octava MK012 x 2 matched pair
Octava MK419 x 1
SE Titan x 2
Rode NT5 x 4 (2 matched pairs)
Dynamic:
Shure SM7b x 2
Shure SM57 x 4
Shure Beta57 x 1
Shure SM58 x 5
Shure Beta 52 x 1
Electrovoice ND/468 x 2
Sontronics Halo x 1
Sennheiser e604 x 5
Sennheiser MD421 x 2
Sennheiser MD21 (1960's) x 1
Audix i5 x 1
Audix D6 x 1
Heil PR48 x 1
Other:
Beyerdynamic M160 ribbon mic
SE R1 ribbon mic
Shure Beta91 boundary mic
3 x Pye Tulip 1950's mics
Plus various other miscellaneous mics from Sony, Telefunken and Sanyo.
GUITARS/BASSES:
Gibson Les Paul Standard (1997)
Gibson SG Special - heavily customised with Bigsby trem &
Seymour Duncan P-rail pickups
PRS SE Custom 24
Fender Jazzmaster (Jap 2010)
Fender Telecaster (Jap 1989) fitted with Seymour Duncan Little 59 bridge pickup
Fender Telecaster '72 Custom (reissue) fitted with Kent Armstrong Hotrail bridge pickup
Fender Toronado (1998) - very rare
Jedson Les Paul (Jap 1974) - very rare
Kay Effector (late 70's) - very rare, with fully overhauled FX section and upgraded Tonerider pickups
Teisco SSL 4-L 1960's guitar with 4 x Goldfoil pickups
Danelectro Baritone guitar
Martin acoustic guitar
Fender Precision Bass (Roger Waters Signature) with Seymour Duncan SPB3 pickup
Fender Jaguar Bass w/SPB3 and SJB3 pickups
Fender Jazz Bass fitted with SPB3 and SJB3 pickups
Ibanez acoustic bass
Ovation acoustic bass
![AnchorBaby-62[1]](/communities/1/004/012/747/441//images/4633159904_466x349.jpg)