Tony Visconti's Good Earth studios were partially designed by the renowned producer phoning through his re-building plans from Canada — even though work was already underway on refurbishment.

It's a move he's never regretted, since buying the old Soho based Zodiac Studio and renaming it Good Earth in 1976.

'We had started the rebuilding,' he explained, 'and I was working on the Bad Reputation album with Thin Lizzy at the Toronto Sound Studio in Canada. The control room there was unique; it was on three levels, with the back level (where the sofa and spectators were) being the highest. The middle level, which had the desk, was about 18 inches lower, and much lower still was the front level with all of the multi track machines and stereo equipment. I really liked this arrangement, because the effect was that the spectators could see over the heads of the engineer and producer and really get involved.

'At the same time they couldn't see the equipment which was on the lowest level, and that removed many of the usual control room inhibitions.

'The way this had been laid out in Toronto wasn't quite right, but still it gave me the idea for what I wanted, and so I phoned London and told them to hold up what they were doing and to rebuild according to the three level design which I described over the telephone.

'When I came home from Canada this was how I found it. It has the desired effect: the equipment is out of the way — you don't see the multi tracks, you don't even know the tape's running. Psychologically that's good for people who bring their synthesisers into the control room, for example. They play their hearts out and they don't even know it's being recorded!

'One thing that didn't work at first, however, was the monitor design. Like a lot of people in those days, I just placed two monitors in the front corners, and for a few years I was used to that even though we had a nasty kind of live sound in the control room. I used to rationalise by saying that it was great and sounded like anyone's front room, but the fact is you're mixing an album for many different types of front room, and so ultimately the best way to have it is completely dead and flat.

'Having had two dry runs this is now the third control room that I've built here. I just gave into professionalism in the form of Turnkey. They liked the three level idea and so kept that intact, but what they did was to take out all of the right angles of the room so that there's now no way for the sound to be reflected and to bounce back and forth. It's also important to find the resident bass frequency of the room, and so Turnkey therefore put in a bass-trap on the back wall; a sheet of wood suspended by two chains, it only moves when the speakers give out a frequency which is too loud in the room.

'I can honestly say, now, that I am totally satisfied with the sound of this control room, and I am never going to tear it apart again.'

Comfortably furnished, and attractively decorated in a light blue colour — 'to remind us of daylight in this basement environment' — the 19 foot x 18 foot control room is finely finished with chrome framing the speakers. 'I wanted the front of the room to look a bit like a ghetto blaster!', explained Tony Visconti, showing he is not a slave to tradition.

The equipment contained inside is a fairly comprehensive representation of the new and the 'not so new'. Visconti has a keen eye for any technologically innovative item that comes on the market.

'If I see, or someone tells me about, a product that I think will definitely benefit the studio, then I'll buy it. I don't believe in sticking with a piece of equipment just for the sake of sentimentality, although I do have a few "antiquated" devices.'

The room used to house a Trident TSM desk — 'with EQ like a rusty razorblade... it hurt!' and was used to record the likes of Thin Lizzy and David Bowie. This was replaced by an SSL to comply with popular demand. Smoother than the TSM, and with all of the well-chronicled advantages presented by the computer, Visconti feels that any of the SSL's drawbacks regarding EQ are overcome by a mass of outboard gear.

'I still have a Trident equaliser that I was given on spec and allowed to keep, which is good for bass sounds; you can tune in to a specific frequency and go quite relentlessly on it. I've also got Audio & Design EQ; I've got its scamp rack which has a load of effects that are quite archaic but still very clean and very, very useful.

'Added to that I've got original Kepexes, and Gain Brains which I still use at least every two weeks on things like vocals when doing a group mix. It's an amazing limiter for controlling the level of a whole load of backing vocals or brass parts, if for example, I'm mixing to one track. As with the Delta Lab acoustic computer it's got a little brain in there that knows when you put a trumpet or bass or vocal in it. I get taken in by adverts for these devices. I like to believe that such things exist!

'All of the equipment in here stems out of personal choice and general reliability. We don't necessarily have all of the old favourites. We do have an AMS digital delay that goes up to 1.6 seconds, and I would have extended it had I not fallen in love with the Publison which I'm investing all of my money in.

'The Publison Infernal Machine will eventually become a 24 track digital studio, it is such an amazing machine! At present we've got 21 second stereo sampling on it and I'm buying all of the updates as they come out. They promise me that by the end of the year it will be five and a half minutes stereo sampling, with hard disk memory so you can actually do a single mix on it, take it down the road and cut straight onto disc. With its new software you can divide the 21 seconds infinitely, and assign certain samples to certain parts of the keyboard; effectively like the Fairlight. Plus, it also has digital delay and pitch change, like the AMS. And it's got around 60 usable reverb programs. So between that, the Lexicon and the Quantec, I've got about three hundred rooms at my fingertips!'

The L-shaped 582 square foot main studio has both a live end (parquet flooring) and a dead end (carpeting). Adjacent to this is a 14 foot x 10 foot isolation booth which offers three interchangeable wall surfaces: curtains, wood panelling or galvanised aluminium sheeting. The room, on the other hand, was unused and full of rubble during its Zodiac Studio days and even earlier when it was a film studio. When Visconti had it cleared out he discovered that there is a great live sound to the plaster walled room so he simply replaced the glass roof with a sliding wood panelled Rockwool insulated one.

'I know we're in the age of the synthesiser and the sampler,' Visconti continued, 'but judging by some of the work that I've been doing recently it is evident that we're getting back to real natural sounds and reverberation.

'There's nothing like a full drum kit in a big room, or a full string section. For all my programming experience I know that you simply cannot program certain things like a tremolo or whatever. Sometimes when I listen to real string players just warming up I know that we're at least 20 years away from achieving these sounds with samplers or synthesisers, and I just think that natural sounds and real people playing real instruments are going to be in again! That's why we'll never give up this live room; people love it, and come from all over to use it.'

Amongst those to have made use of the amenities offered by this conveniently situated and friendly studio are Tina Turner, Duran Duran, U2, Wham!, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Dead or Alive, Jim Diamond, Elaine Paige, The Stranglers, The Cult, The Blow Monkeys and The Moody Blues. Aside from Tony Visconti, anyone from Trevor Horn and Malcolm McLaren to Ken Scott and Bob Clearmountain has produced there. In this way the studio is self-supporting, but non-profit making.

'I would only make money from this studio if I sold it', revealed Visconti. 'It is not a source of income to me. I'm often a client in my own studio!

'The purpose of this place is to serve people and this is how the staff here operates. It is not somewhere for people to sit and admire and say "Wow! Look at all of those gadgets!" We've got the technology, but that side of things is played down. Everything has been designed for musicians to understand how to use. It is a place to make records, and the prices are simply based on that which is required for the place to turnover and keep in the black, and for new equipment to be purchased and to maintain that which is already here.

'There's a kind of magic formula about this place: I love the area for all of the bars and restaurants close by, and now I've completed this studio to my satisfaction I would never want to give it up!'