Studio Untertrubach

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Aerial view of the Untertrubach studio

The Untertrubach studio was the first recording studio in Germany with digital sound recording and, in the 1980s, one of the most modern in Europe.

prehistory

The idea of ​​establishing a contemporary sound studio in the Franconian region came about in the early 1980s. While the Nuremberg Music Center was just being formed for the amateur segment of the regional music scene in the low-budget sector in Nuremberg , the members of the Holiday band decided in 1982 to create an opposite pole in the professional international field. For this, the abandoned was medium voltage - transformer station in Upper Franconia Untertrubach related. After some planning and structural work on the building itself, a capable sponsor was found . With an investment volume of around three million DM , which at that time corresponded to around 50 to 80 annual salaries for a young engineer, the British acoustic designer Andy Munro was commissioned to plan the room acoustics and interior fittings, and the most modern technology available in the world at that time was purchased and installed. The first test productions with digital multitracking and digital mastering were made with regional bands as early as 1982/3, when essential parts of the studio were still under construction and the music center did not yet have its own studio.

Buildings and rooms

Studio Untertrubach on aerial photo from the east (2020)
Slope-side access to recording room 3 (2019)

The building complex used consists of three interconnected buildings in Untertrubach in Upper Franconia , which are located on a 2100 m² site as an L-shaped ensemble directly on the southern bank of the Trubach below the St. Felicitas branch church . The main building and the central building come from the 1920s / 30s, when the public power supply reached the town. The south building, a former substation , was built in the late 1950s and was given up in this technical role in the 1970s. The studio has been integrated into the three existing buildings and divided into six main areas:

Recording room 1

Recording room 1 was built on the ground floor of the south building, occupies an area of ​​55 m² and has a line of sight to the control room and recording room 2. The equipment of this acoustically designed "Live Room" main studio included a. a. a Yamaha C6 concert grand piano , a vibraphone , a Fairlight CMI and many other musical instruments, synthesizers, various amplification systems, etc.

Recording room 2

Recording room 2, also located on the ground floor of the south building, measures 8.5 m² and was designed as a soloist or percussion booth with particularly "dry" acoustics. The original equipment included a Sonor signature drum kit, a Simmons electric drum kit and percussion instruments.

Recording room 3

The 136 m² large and five meter high recording room 3 was set up in 1984 on the upper floor of the south building. In addition to access from the control room, it also had its own driveway over a small bridge on the slope side from the street, so that bulky pieces of music could easily be brought in. A stage and technology were installed that enabled recordings under live concert conditions.

Control room and technical room

The 36 m² control room was also built in the south building on the mezzanine floor and was designed according to the live-end-dead-end principle. In addition to the access to the recording rooms and the lounge, it also had its own entrance on the garden side. There were u. a. an automated 48-channel mixer from the Solid State Logic Series 4048E with Total Recall, the Urei 813b studio monitors and pretty much everything on the periphery that the market offered at the time. A small technical room next to it housed everything that generated disturbing operating noises or excessive waste heat, for example the digital 24-track Sony PCM 3324 tape machine and the analog Studer A-80 24-track machine, which can be synchronized with each other and from the control room were remotely controllable. In the control room, mastering took place on two analog Studer A 80 tables with Dolby A on quarter-inch magnetic tape (“shoelaces”) and, for the first time, with the SONY PCM F1 on half-inch Betamax digital.

Lounge

The approximately 60 m² lounge of the studio was housed in the central building of the building complex and, in addition to a bar-like open kitchen, lounge and relaxation areas, also had its own sound technology with Klipsch monitors. A billiards and library niche have been set up for the occasional amusement. Two separate entrances to the courtyard and garden side ensured undisturbed use of the lounge for both the musicians and the staff during ongoing production operations.

Musicians' apartments

In the north building on the street side, accommodation and accommodation for musicians and guest technicians were created on almost 200 m² spread over two floors, supplemented by a sauna and a fitness room. This part of the building has its own street-side access as well as a direct passage to the lounge.

history

The first test productions with a few regional bands and producers took place during the construction phase in 1983. In addition to the studio founder and bassist Horst Hartmann (* 1959) and drummer Bobby Bachinger (* 1960) with in-house productions, the keyboardist Stephan Fischer (* 1952) and the guitarist Henry Signicio (* 1961) also appeared. At the beginning of 1984 Signicio established the connection to the English music scene and brought Marc Almond into the studio , among others . Signicio remained connected to the studio as a studio musician for many years.

Hartmann Digital

Even before the construction was completed, the pre-productions had already attracted some attention in the scene. Follow-up bookings followed quickly and under the name Hartmann Digital , a large number of top productions were created in short succession in the Untertrubach studio from 1984 to 1988. The ambitious investments paid off. Mainly artists came from the genre Neue Deutsche Welle , Nena, Trio, Humpe & Humpe, Palais Schaumburg or DAF.But international artists like Soft Cell, Visage, Chris Rea or the Electric Light Orchestra also knew the rural tranquility, the relaxed working atmosphere and the contemporary Appreciate technology. But the success also had disadvantages. Despite the seclusion of the production facility, fans occasionally came to see their stars from the opposite slope of the Trubach Valley . Despite the economic success, the always fully booked studio team was burnt out under the strain in 1988 and the studio was sold.

In 1989, Signicio, together with Klaus Kreuzeder and Steve Leistner, took over the neighboring, but at that time technically outdated recording studio Hiltpoltstein , and Fischer moved to Berlin. Bachinger first went to New York City and later for some time as a drummer with Meat Loaf .

Trubach Digital

In 1988 the studio was sold for one million German marks to Klaus Oestreicher (* 1956) and Claus-Peter Duus (* 1940), who came from the Colloseum-Studio of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra , and renamed Trubach Digital . Johannes M. Heuss and Frank Seyfarth came into the studio as technicians. In the following years, under the English studio management of Dennis Muirhead , the company switched first to the production of film music and later to ethnic and world music . It was published under the labels MARIPOSA and BLUE SUN , but the commercial successes fell sharply. Further changes of ownership followed and after this time a large part of the technical equipment was sold to other studios.

At the end of the 1990s Bachinger returned and in 1999 brought what was left of the Untertrubach studio into his sole possession. A large number of productions followed in the years 1999 to 2001 in the genre of tango and Latin music, with changed technology.

Usual Suspects in the Studio Lounge (2012)

Studio lounge

After unclear fatefulness in the 2000s, Bachinger opened the studio in the early 2010s as the Studio Lounge with a completely different concept. The lounge in the central building was rededicated as a catering business and the former large recording room 3 on the upper floor was redesigned as a professional live stage. In addition to operating the lounge as a daytime café, concerts and cabaret events were held on the weekends. With Bachinger, contemporary technology came back to the Untertrubach studio. A large number of events were recorded live, mostly digitally, and videos were always recorded synchronously from several camera perspectives. In 2014, both studio and live operations ended in Untertrubach.

Reuse

In the years 2014 to 2016 several attempts were made to auction the object, but the efforts were unsuccessful. In June 2016, the Forchheim finance broker Günter Roth bought the Untertrubach studio privately, with the option of reviving it partly in its original function and partly with various conversions, but probably did not start operations. It was put up for auction again in May 2019.

Discography

Hartmann Digital (selection)

Trubach Digital (selection)

  • 1991: Petrouchka / The Firebird , Igor Stravinsky, Orchester Symphonique Du Luxembourg, L. Maurice J. McElroy
  • 1991: Rhapsody in Blue; An American in Paris , Gershwin, London Festival Orchestra, L. Eric Rogers

Studio Lounge (selection)

  • 2014 Charles M. Mailer Live @ Studio Lounge
  • 2014 Hattler - Live Cuts II

literature

  • Trubach Digital - a recording studio takes off. Press report Nürnberger Nachrichten from 20/21. August 1988 by Johannes Köbler

Web links

Commons : Studio Untertrubach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c press report Nürnberger Nachrichten of 20/21. August 1988
  2. ↑ a b c press report Nordbayern.de from September 6, 2013
  3. ^ Power supply 1922/23
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Hartmann Digital (.pdf)
  5. ↑ a b c d e Trubach Digital (.pdf)
  6. ↑ a b Signicio
  7. ^ Jeff Lynne: Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After
  8. ↑ Currently the Trubach Digital website
  9. ↑ Production list 1999–2001
  10. ↑ Auction note 6/2014
  11. ↑ Press report in Franconia on sale 6/2016
  12. ↑ Auctions 9/2018
  13. ↑ Chris Rea - Dancing With Strangers
  14. ^ Charles M. Mailer Live @ Studio Lounge
  15. ^ Hattler - Live Cuts II

Coordinates: 49 ° 40 ′ 59.8 "  N , 11 ° 17 ′ 32.8"  E