Studio B, Gazi
One room, built by the people who have to sit in it. This is what is in it, what it sounds like, and what it costs when we are not using it.
The room
A live room with a floated floor, broadband absorbers we built over two weekends and a ceiling high enough that six people around a table do not sound like six people in a box. It is not a dead room — dead rooms make everyone whisper.
There is one north-facing window. It costs us a little in noise floor on a bad day and it is the reason guests relax within ten minutes, which is worth more.
The kit
Nothing here is exotic. It is the same handful of microphones most people would pick, kept in good order and used by someone who knows them.
How we record
Every microphone gets its own track and every session records twice, on two devices, on separate power. We have lost one recording in ten years and it was a phone interview in 2017 that we still bring up when someone suggests skipping the backup.
Remote guests are recorded on their end as well as ours and the two are lined up in the edit, so a bad connection in Thessaloniki does not end up in your ears.
The room does about a third of the work. The other two thirds are a person who knows where the buttons are and a guest who has been offered coffee.Nikos Tzavaras, engineer
When we are not in it
Weekday mornings are usually free at two days notice. You get the room, an engineer who stays for the whole session and files the same day.
Good to know
Eight shows, recorded in person. Everything published here is also transcribed.