New Zealand's pro-audio industry demands high standards. Joe Hosken found an Auckland-based studio that is setting the pace

'Down time doesn't exist here,' states Eldred Stebbing, Managing Director and driving force of Stebbing Recording Studios. 'We carry over $150,000 (NZ) worth of spares. We have our own lathes and everything from motors to ICs for all the pieces. And if we can't get hold of something quickly we make it ourselves.'

Only half a mile to the north of Auckland's famous bridge, Stebbing specialises in pop productions, jingle work for radio and TV commercials, voice overs, film work and various audio related projects. Of its kind it's the most successful in New Zealand.

Stebbing also produces 40 per cent of the domestic market's tapes from its tape duplication plant.

Diversification gives Stebbing a strong commercial lever in an industry which, although small in size, is still fiercely competitive. Unlike the UK or US, virtually all studio work is undertaken by people resident in New Zealand, so to survive in Godzone it has become imperative that the service offered by the handful of audio houses is of an impeccable standard. The 'human touch' is all important in ensuring that clients return.

With an astute eye cast on the local market, Eldred Stebbing sensed that the Sixties had seen the end of the 'singles boom' and so concentrated on the fast developing demand for advertisement production facilities. Stebbing now has clients which include media giants Saatchi and Saatchi and J Walter Thompson as well as numerous top NZ accounts.

Attracting well-known jingle experts such as Murray Grindlay (who has won two Cleo awards in New York for excellence in advertising) has ensured the studio's high profile.

Eldred Stebbing's experience in audio goes back 40 years. In the first studio in which he worked he built all the gear. Now, with his sons Vaughn and Robert, he has created a family concern that can offer a rare blend of technical knowledge and creative impetus.

The spirit of innovative DIY is seen throughout the complex. In each of the four studios existing equipment has been heavily customised, or in many cases built from scratch. Maintenance, including that on desks and tape machines, is carried out in-house, while patch bays, power amps, compressors, turntables and even a desk bear the Stebbing design motif.

The Stebbing audiophile approach is borne out of a great respect for excellence in recording where the need for academic understanding of sound is as important as creative flair or being able to spot a musical bandwagon.

All trained electronics engineers, the Stebbings ensure that any engineer working in their studio learns as much about theory as practice. Only when such an engineer has a detailed theoretical knowledge can he best use his creative skills says Stebbing.

Similarly the belief is that once a worker knows what he wants from a particular machine it should then be possible in many cases to adapt it to meet the required needs. Vaughn Stebbing recalls how some modifications have been made: 'All the original Ampex tape machines had low slew rate amplifiers. We changed them so that they were all high slew rate. And all our machines have constant back tension as we developed electronic or mechanical servos.'

First constructed in 1970 — and subsequently expanded in 1983 — from its exterior Stebbings looks like a large modern motel. Covering 15,000 square feet, the complex is clean and uncluttered. No area is wasted. Decor is unpretentious but never austere.

Pride of place on the ground floor is the 24-track Studio One, a large 50 foot x 30 foot hardwood-lined studio that can hold a choir with ease. Built on floating floors, Stebbing's design can cope with most types of audio work and goes out at around $120 (NZ) per hour. Situated around the studio walls are a mixture of microphones, old and new, including Neumann U67s and KM56s and Schoeps M221, a Yamaha honky tonk bar-room piano and an ARP2600 synthesiser, an instrument guaranteed to reduce ageing synthesists to tears of envy. A great bonus are the two isolation booths that nestle alongside the control room and face into the studio.

The studio features Stebbing-designed multiple input direct-feed boxes that isolate synths, for example, from the desk. Walls are hardwood, their dark texture creates an ambience of warmth and solidity, while the white poly ceiling looks like a throwback to a bygone era. Beneath the ceiling, ducts are formed for the air conditioning system to travel within the concrete.

No two rooms are linked. Each room has an individual run so resonances are almost non-existent.

The control room is situated at one end of the studio flanked by the isolation booths and is compact and simple. The choice of desk is one to be found in several US west coast studios — a Quad Eight Coronado with Compumix III. The computerisation along with its clean sound, soft EQ and accurate gains are the major reasons cited for the Stebbing choice: 'Compumix III,' says Vaughn, 'is a great time saver. You don't have to null anything. If you lay a vocal down and you return to it and want that vocal slightly increased the computer will automatically reset the faders, follow it through and increase the level without you having to go through it all again. And as the system is time-code based two different mixes can be reassembled together.'

Outboard equipment is pretty standard, the choice of monitors is JBL and the power amps are Stebbing originals. They enthuse over Applied Microsystem's CM250 synchroniser as one of the fastest and most accurate they have encountered. There is a constant dialogue with UK designer Steve Brown on modifications.

The Stebbing unit can be linked via interface to the 3M M79 and contains additional presets which are switched to 30ips and 15ips.

Smoking is banned from the control room, the Stebbings explaining that around $10,000 (NZ) worth of damage is done to sensitive tape heads and the like by the noxious nicotine fumes. Adequate rooms are provided for those addicted to the habit through a 400lb steel frame lead-linked door — both sound and smoke proof.

The tape machine is a 3M M79, while a Sony PCM-1630 digital mastering system is used here and in the cassette mastering and duplication suite on the first floor. Dolby ST is to be introduced in the near future, a cautious but considered response to the clamour over digital standardisation and its alternatives.

One novel option for the producer or artist is the inclusion of an AM transmitter which allows the studio user to broadcast a recently mixed piece of music to a radio receiver outside the building. Although this is possible only over short distances it does allow someone to hear music in a 'real' listening environment.

Nearby to its big brother is Studio Two, much smaller, but still boasting two isolation booths. The control room houses a Quad Eight Ventura desk, standard outboard effects and a customised BTX synchroniser system. Finished in hardwood and with a ceiling to match Studio One's, this 16-track set-up is flanked by an eight-track facility under construction. Intended for demo and voice-over work it is hoped it will attract Auckland's local talent looking for professional facilities without high prices.

The busiest, and most profitable studio according to Vaughn Stedding is Studio Four, a small, four-track dubbing suite that under normal circumstances is in operation for 14 hours a day.

Here, numerous TV, radio and advertising agencies bring their work for construction. Stebbing inventiveness is seen in the custom-built desk. A novel idea introduced by the brothers are its round knobs as opposed to the standard fader design.

These were introduced so that the user can return to the same level without having to lower his eyes to the panel. To return a fader to an identical position, so the theory goes, needs constant visual attention. Conversely, to return a knob to a certain predetermined level can be achieved by 'feel' alone, eyes can be kept on the client or video screen and the whole job completed at a faster rate.

The three-quarter-inch Scully Metrotech tape machines have been modified to enable fast, but soft, start up. Robert says these are the best around and while their rarity will no doubt preclude them being seen in many other studios, constant maintenance should ensure they remain operational for some time.

The Sansui turntables in this studio, as in the others, have been modified to allow sound effects and library music from records to be dropped directly on to multitrack or quarter inch. Accurate drop-ins are achieved by a Stebbing-designed muting and start-up process that mutes the music on record one second before the start up time (one second correspondent to one half turn of the record on the turntable).

It ensures that the mixing of a particular sound effect, for example, can be dropped directly on to a quarter-inch tape in a manner that is not only fast but avoids going through a generation on the multitrack. Stebbings four full-time engineers swear by the system. In Studio Two the turntable is computer controlled from the BTX synchronising system.

Studio Four is full of recording tools that started as design exercises. Eldred Stebbing laughs loudly as he recalls the small fortune he and his sons were offered to take their talents as maintenance and design experts to the west coast of America where down time is the death knell of so many studios.

He contents himself with the knowledge that companies such as Otari, 3M and Applied Microsystems are ready to incorporate his ideas and those of his sons.

Upstairs from these thriving studios is the cassette duplication operation capable of producing up to 25,000 copies per week for companies such as RCA, CBS and A&M.

Zodiac Records, the wholesale and marketing arm of the Stebbing operation, is also available to act as a production company for young New Zealand groups seeking deals with majors. And while local talent is plentiful worldwide, success for them has been limited. Only C & W singer Patsy Riggir sells more than 100,000 copies a year and she is one of the notable exceptions of a Kiwi achieving international fame.

Eldred Stebbing's attitude towards signing groups to record is akin to his professional attitude regarding equipment and staff. 'You have to have a similar approach in making music,' he reasons, 'whether as a musician or as a studio.

'Too many studios, even if they hear a dog bark, will rush out into the street to record it! Now, that really doesn't help anybody. They can't sell it. It's not a good way to make money.'

Making money is something the Stebbing empire has continued to do through a combination of the service it provides and the sheer hard work of the family and its employees. It has achieved a name for specialist diversification — doing only what it knows and doing it properly. With Vaughn and Robert ready to continue the Stebbing dynasty there's no reason to expect it to falter. For the moment though, Eldred Stebbing deserves the final word: 'We will not produce rubbish. So much is not finnesse. We will not be party to it.'