14/04/2006
QUESTEDS ARE BEST FOR WHITECHALK’S NEW TALENT
When it comes to designing a brand new studio for a new recording company that wants to attract ‘the best of the best’ new talent, the same naturally applies to the equipment that it should be furnished with. WhiteChalk Music was established in 2004 by Manchester United and England footballer Rio Ferdinand with business partner Courtney Richardson, and is specialising in bringing the ultimate in emerging young talent to a wider audience. Andy Parry of Electroacoustic System Specialists (ESS) was the man recently tasked with designing a studio fit for the very best of this new talent. But once the facility was kitted out, the owners chose monitors that Andy felt they wouldn’t, ultimately, be happy with. “You need monitors that will tell you the truth. You don’t want to hear any of the speaker’s own character,” Andy says. “If you’re putting a lacklustre mix in, you need to hear a lacklustre mix coming out, not have a speaker that flatters the sound, or adds components to the mix that aren’t going to tape.” Andy doesn’t just talk a good game. Having spent a lot of time working on his own loudspeaker designs, he found out the hard way which monitors will give him the candid sound that is so important. “I was moving towards doing my own range of monitors,” he says. “I had done two years of work on speaker systems, but when I found Quested I put it all in the bin. I couldn’t compete on the quality or price of Roger’s designs. I felt that if you can’t beat them....” He continues: “If I’m designing a studio and the client chooses a monitor I don’t think he’ll be happy with, I’ll usually get him to try the nearest equivalent Quested model. More often than not, the speakers sell themselves.” Thus, concerned at WhiteChalk’s choice of monitors, Andy ordered some Quested VS2108s on demo-loan and took them to the studio. “We took the other monitors down, put the VS2108s up and we did some listening tests,” he says. “There was no need for AB testing. The other monitors went straight back in the box.”