Yngwie Builds His Dream Studio part I

How Studio 308 Began What follows is the Fan Club's 1994 interview after getting the grand tour of Yngwie's new facility. [Photo: © Malmsteen Fan Club] Yngwie's eyes begin to shine as he describes the setup. "I'm not compromising on anything. I'm putting in the Rolls Royce of machines--a 24-track, two-inch Studer tape drive. That's the heart of the studio. Having that piece of equipment means that whatever we record in my new studio can be taken anywhere else, no matter how elaborate the facility might be. The board [mixing console] is a Mackie 32.8, which is a 32 plus 48 input, and it's automated so I can do punch-ins and whatnot. Plus there's two digital 8-track machines, so in other words, you have 24 analog and 16 digital. That means you can mix and match, fly things in; for example, you can sing a chorus once and then fly it in. The outboard gear has Neve modules, where you have one fader, an EQ, and mic pre-amp all in one; then if you put in a rack of them, you have three channels of Neve modules. The sound you get when you put your vocal or guitar mic through it is so warm it's unbelievable." Designer for this state-of-the-art dream studio was John Arthur, whose father designed and built Miami's venerable Criteria Studios. Arthur made sure every detail was the best, from the floated floor with sand underneath to the soothing silver-gray and wine-red colors of the decor. Arthur "tuned" the recording rooms, making sure the sound was accurate and pure from every angle. For Yngwie, completion of his own studio was a huge investment, but one that will pay for itself with savings on the production of subsequent albums. "You get to a point in your career," Yngwie observes, "where it's almost a necessity--you're no longer at the mercy of other people's equipment and schedules and expenses. Eddie Van Halen's got his own studio, so does Steve Vai, and others. I feel like going out in the street and yelling, 'YES, I'm building my own studio! I've wanted to do this for fifteen years and now I've actually done it!' " to be continue....