The other O'Duffy has built up the Point from humble beginnings. Peter Gleadall is suitably impressed

A Belgravia address conjures up images of call girls, seedy detective novels, expensive residences, endless lines of people waiting for a bus or train or, worst of all, the scene of a dodgy musical. Point shares this location, but thankfully seems to avoid all of the above, and instead offers a tranquil hideaway.

The studio is owned by Alan O'Duffy, (brother of producer Paul) and now caters for a wide variety of acts, but had a slightly less auspicious start when the doors opened to the recording fraternity. Six years ago O'Duffy acquired the lease of 9 Eccleston Street and was then in business with Rupert Merton, who now owns the publishing company, Point Music. Then, it was the typical case of a newly started operation, lack of funding, slightly suspect gear and some less than professional acoustic treatment. The market covered was inevitably the budget one, but there was something about the place that started to attract custom. Business ticked over but was not of the sort to drive the bank manager into spasms of delight.

Two years ago, O'Duffy decided that he wanted to offer a professional class of recording and so major surgery on the premises and gear was undertaken. With the help of the usual sort of architects and acoustics experts, coupled with O'Duffy's knowledge, the studio was completely redesigned and re-equipped. A live area was incorporated, new vocal and separation booths built and the control room redesigned to give an altogether more sleek and modern appearance and sound. O'Duffy even went as far as personally supervising the whole rebuilding operation, being the quality control element if you like.

Out went the old desk and multitrack, to be replaced with the current system, comprising the popular Otari MTR 90 and an MCI 5036 36-channel desk, which together with the Tannoy monitoring forms the heart of the current studio. O'Duffy also saw the need for a room in which material could be programmed and sequenced, so a pre-production suite was also opened, conveniently situated just along the corridor from the main control room, more of which later.

Good gear is one thing, but it's the people who make or break a place of work. Something that's immediately obvious when stepping off Eccleston Street and into the studio complex is the attitude of the staff.

As producer Gavin Mackillop puts it: 'The Point's a nice place to record. We were doing some keyboards for the Shriekback LP and Barry (Andrews) was talking about using the Hammond, and before I knew it the tape op had gone out and miked it up so it was ready straight away, without me having to ask. That's a good attitude because in a lot of studios you get people who are quite willing to work, but they constantly need to be told what to do, you have to show some initiative.'

Initiative sometimes being the only gadget a lot of studios lack, and having worked in the Point myself, it certainly does come as a welcome change to discover that the current tape op/assistant engineer (Paul Apted) will deign to speak to you even though your last recordings may not have gone platinum overnight. An attitude problem he doesn't have. As studio manager Justin Sherry puts it: 'We try to keep away from the pompous attitude that pervades a lot of other major studios. Often the approach to clients leaves a lot to be desired, we operate very much as a family and try to look after the clients on a personal basis.'

An example being the complementary breakfasts they serve on request for those early morning starters, the willingness of the tape op to nip out for the bacon roll you have to have before inspiration can strike, not to mention the swift acquisition of that essential MIDI lead you forgot to pack. In the short time that Point have been truly professional, they seem to have found out what's needed to make a studio work well, both technically and personnel-wise, something many others haven't.

Entering the control room, you immediately notice the noise, or lack of, for the mastering and multitrack machines are located in their own machine room, along with any other noisy items like the power amps and associated fans, a nice touch which you appreciate after a long session. To the left of the desk is the vocal overdub booth which is small, but not claustrophobic, and is often used by inexperienced singers who can feel slightly intimidated by recording in the main studio area — the 'red light is on' syndrome.

Built into the desk are the most used effects and gadgets, including the AMS and Lexicon reverbs and the BEL BD-80, complete with a full 32 seconds of sampling at 15 kHz bandwidth, adequate for most applications when a quick spin-in is needed.

The main recording studio has the usual grand piano, drum isolation booths and what have you. Slightly more unusual in these days of sequencing and sampling is a lovely old Hammond organ, complete with Leslie cabinet. This is often pressed into use when those people more used to the antiseptic organ sound of a DX7 get to hear it, the squeaks and rattles and lovely old distortion it produces really can't be sampled or simulated.

Should you want to sample or sequence something, the aforementioned programming suite is the place to go. Tielined to the main studio, it's the ideal place to go to work out sounds, and programmes inexpensively before committing it to tape proper. Should you want to try out ideas on tape before booking the main studio, the Fostex B16 will prove more than adequate for that.

The main sampling keyboard here is the Emulator II, whose large sound library should cover most needs, while for sequencing, Point have the almost universal Steinberg Pro 24, running on the Atari computer. A handy thing here is that the Pro 24 software also provides massive disk-based sound and patch storage for the Yamaha TX 816 rack which lives here. The large KX 88 keyboard controller is used for data input, although for those fans of a smaller keyboard, the Mirage can easily be patched in to the MIDI system.

A 24-input Allan and Heath desk, which, together with the Rev 7 and SPX 90 and another BEL 80, again with a full 32 seconds of sampling, complete the programming suite. The daily rate here is a modest £225, which incidentally covers the cost of the resident engineer and programmer, Sarge O'Hara, who knows the machines inside out, warts and all.

Point's main market seems to be for singles and many bands' first albums, the Blow Monkeys being a good example. According to Justin Sherry this is because 'record companies seem to be blind to the fact that you don't have to use an SSL studio to record a hit album. They think that for a band's second album, it has to be done SSL, which is nonsense. For many bands, the first LP is a fairly daunting prospect so we make it as relaxed and informal as possible.'

As freelance engineer Johnny Milton puts it: 'It's really boring to talk about it, but in terms of quality and tape-hiss, it's as good as anywhere else. For drums and guitars the live room is really nice and also I've found that the control room isn't unnaturally dead like you find in some places, it's got a bit of life. Even though it's not an SSL room, I still find a lot of people who want to mix there'.

Like Aswad, who call The Point 'a real studio', partly due to the fact that the MCI desk is an identical model to the one Bob Marley used at Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica, (Point's MCI in fact came from Island records Fallout Shelter, on which many historic records were made). Like the Flying Pickets, who mix at Point because of 'the warmth of the sound', according to Sherry, who always says that one of the studio's main attributes is the marriage between the MCI and MTR 90 and Tannoy monitoring.

Another slightly unusual feature of The Point is that instead of having a couple of cynical house engineers who are really only working there until their deal comes through, they employ engineers on a freelance basis, and so do their best to match engineers to the project, ensuring that an HM session is engineered by a rock fan, not a funk fanatic. Regular engineers to be found at Point include Johnny Milton, Danny Hyde, Ian Caple, Fraser Henry and Justin Sherry.

The gear at Point is constantly being updated and they are ever on the lookout for a useful studio item, like the cheaper range of quality digital reverbs that are now widely available.

'We're in the market for as many digital reverbs as possible,' Sherry says, 'because each one has its uses and own unique sound, so we aim to offer as wide a variety as possible. Instead of buying one 224 XL we'd rather buy 4 PCM 70s.'

Like all studios they're keeping a watchful eye on the digital scene. When they do go digital, as all studios will eventually have to do, Point aim to offer both digital and analogue formats, for as Sherry notes, 'not many studios offer just the digital format, because you'll always get clients who'll want to record some things analogue, because it's the sound and also, you find that people just don't trust the technology because it's so new.'

It could be the location, the gear and the people, or the breakfasts and the pool and recreation room that brings a steady stream of satisfied customers to Belgravia. It's probably a combination of the lot.

For the A&R man who is aware of more than just the fashionable items of equipment, the Point offers all the things you'll need to record and mix a record, as a glance at the client list will show. It's not the most expensive studio in town, or the cheapest, it just works, nicely. Do you get The Point?