Meeting Topic: EMAC Recording Studio Tour
Moderator Name: Sy Potma
Speaker Name: Robert Nation- Owner/Producer/Engineer, Joe Vaughan- Owner/Engineer, Matt Grady-Engineer
Meeting Location: London, Ontario, Canada
The London Student Section was first given a general tour of the entire facility; downstairs or ground floor where offices, a lounge, an archive and kitchen area are located. Then upstairs where EMAC's main control room, studio floor, and editing suite are located. We were greeted by Rob Nation who is an owner, producer, and engineer; Joe Vaughan who is an owner, and engineer; and Matt Grady who is also an engineer at EMAC. Rob and Joe are also currently instructors/teachers at Fanshawe College in the Music Industry Arts Program. The London Student Section was then split into two groups; one group went with Joe Vaughan for a discussion on the studio floor, the other group stayed in the control with Rob Nation and Matt Grady. Rob began his presentation with the history of EMAC, and how the studio has grown over the years. Rob and Joe were both graduates of Fanshawe's Music Industry Arts Program in 1980. They were both extremely dedicated to engineering and opened a very small facility with a 16-channel console in 1980. Their first major renovation took place in 1985, with a new control room, larger console, and new monitors. Their business and client list grew over the years, and in 1990 they made the move to their present location, which was formerly a Salvation Army Church. Today they are running a 60 input Neve V3 in their main control room, and there collection of outboard signal processors features some of the top names in audio from Urei to Avalon to Empirical Labs. Rob and Matt then played us various samples of work that was done at EMAC which included voice over's by Christopher Plummer for the Pixar film Up, and a track from Dolores O'Riorden's newest album which was produced and engineered by a former partner at EMAC Dan Brodbeck. Dan has since received a Juno nomination for Recording Engineer of the Year at this year's ceremony for his work on the album.
Out on the studio floor we had a general discussion with Joe Vaughan about engineering philosophies, getting started in the industry, and the future of recording studios.
