Studio Focus: Sunshine Recorder
17 July 2014
Lee Cardan is floating between studios at the moment, and it’s not the greatest feeling. On the one hand, he’s got Sunshine Recorder up and running at the old Atlantis Sound location in Port Melbourne, but he’s also got the unenviable task of tearing down Eastern Bloc Studios in Hawthorn, his old gaff. He took over Eastern Bloc from Jonathan Burnside about four years ago, funnily enough, the tenant before Burnside happened to be Dave McCluney of Atlantis Sound.
A couple of years ago, Cardan had started to run into issues with the Hawthorn lease and contacted McCluney, knowing he’d faced similar problems with the owners. Then about a year and a half ago, McCluney rang Cardan to say he was intending to sell Atlantis’ Port Melbourne location. Small world.
After working through the numbers with accountants, brokers and lawyers, a deal was struck and, for a second time, Cardan has taken occupation of Atlantis Sound’s last resting place.
As part of the deal, the two engineers swapped consoles. Cardan had been presiding over a 42-channel MCI 500 console, and it worked out easier for the 64-channel AMS Calrec UA8000 to stay where it was in Port Melbourne. Everything else came with Cardan from Hawthorn, including vintage pairs of Teletronix LA2As and LA3As, two EMT140 stereo plate reverbs, the MCI two-inch 24-track tape machine, a vintage pair of Neumann U87s and a U47 FET, 1967 Ampeg B15 bass amplifier, a 1966 Vox AC30 and plenty more.
While Cardan misses the MCI board, he’s more than happy with the sound of the Calrec, and is particularly a fan of its build quality.
“Simple functionality was really missing on the MCI,” he explained. “Even just getting an insert on the stereo bus, you’d always have to take the stereo out and mult it so you could listen to what you were doing. I love that thing, it was awesome to work with, the top end was so clear and the bottom end was round, but you had to force it to do what you wanted. And it wasn’t built to last; each channel was one big card that would flap in the wind like a piece of paper. Even just having smaller modules, steel frames, bracing everywhere on the Calrec means you’re going to have less problems. The compressors are great on the Calrec, and you’ve got a parallel stereo bus, if you want, right on the console.”
With the move, and new name, has come a fresh perspective. A bit tired of solely renting a space to hired guns, or working long hours on projects he’s not sold on, Cardan turning Sunshine Recorder into a community experience. A community he wants to be a part of himself. He wants Sunshine Recorder to act as a label and management for artists that want to be a part of something more than just coming in to track drums for an EP.
Cardan: “When we find artists we want to work with, we invite them in. We might spend a week on one song just because we want to. A lot of people that record here know each other and play on each other’s stuff.”
For now, the external hires are paying the bills. And Cardan doesn’t want that to stop, but it is nice when there’s no sessions on to be able to leave mics set up and flesh out songs on a whim. There’s an astounding collection of quality instruments and effects on offer. And with three live rooms, there are plenty of spaces to get the sound you’re after. There’s also another production space with an adjoining live room, which Cardan is hoping to integrate as part of the bigger offer, and really have Sunshine Recorder running on all cylinders.
Sunshine Recorder:
12/339 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne VIC
0417 440 084 or www.sunshine-recorder.com
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