The beast in the east

The Middle East has become famous for offering the very best of the best, but developing a world-class recording sector is still on its list of accomplishments. However, if there’s one thing that those in this part of the world know how to do well, it’s making a statement.

LP.ME recently opened its doors up on the 30th floor of a high-rise in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lake Towers. Quite literally head and shoulders above the competition, the new studio space is packed full of a selection of world-class equipment that has long been a dream of LP.ME CEO Daniel Romanovskyi and the rest of the team behind the project.

“When we discussed the idea of building these dream studios and rooms, I always said that what we were making had to be either zero or 100%; either we made the very best and most exclusive studios in every possible way, or we should not even try,” says Romanovskyi. “I’m proud that we have managed to defy all odds and build what is arguably one of the best-sounding studios in the world.”

Something of this calibre hasn’t risen from the ground overnight. While a long-time ambition of the CEO, the slowdown in business activities around the pandemic afforded the opportunity to finally set wheels in motion. The desire to create the absolute best space possible infused all aspects of the design, not only in terms of equipment but down to the décor, where finishing touches convey a unique style.

The ambitious design drawn up by Kevin Boujikian, managing director of Dubai distributor Provision AVL, and Eddy Jazra, head of the audio department at LP.ME, would see all the 30th floor reconfigured to house three main recording suites – one flagship space purely for stereo production and the other two boasting full Dolby-certified Atmos capabilities. Linking the space together to create a production hub is a fleet of smaller DAW-based studios providing scaled-back equipment setups. The icing on the cake is an inhouse video production studio and team that provides bidirectional AV communication between any of the rooms, along with the ability to livestream production sessions.

Construction on LP.ME started in earnest in late 2021, battling challenges beyond anyone’s control such as supply and equipment shortages before culminating less than 16 months later in the completed studio. And when budget is secondary, attention can turn to the very best equipment solutions on the market. It wasn’t long before the CEO contacted Boujikian to enquire about Solid State Logic’s latest 48-channel Duality Fuse console for the main stereo room.

“It was the request for the Duality that kickstarted this entire project,” recalls Boujikian. “What started as one console quickly led to multiple rooms, a live room and a recording room, and things just kept progressing from there. The first phase of the project [everything on the left side of the elevator when you enter] comprised the stereo studio, four producer rooms plus a chillout area and offices. During phase two, plans quickly started growing to include a video department for inhouse production, and finally the third phase would be the two Dolby Atmos suites.”

While the budget was not the overall concern with this project, it wasn’t simply a case of buying the most expensive equipment on offer, Boujikian continues: “The goal is meeting world-class standards by integrating the very best equipment: legendary outboards and gear, everything class-A and the cream of the crop. This extended right down to the furniture, such as the Fendi table in the meeting room, which was delivered all the way from Italy, and was quite a struggle for 16 people to get up onto the 30th floor.”

That chance phone call quickly led to Boujikian taking on the role of project director for the entire studio build and becoming intimately involved in all aspects. “It happened organically as the project progressed,” furthers Boujikian. “Ultimately, we’ve been responsible for the complete project management of the construction, sourcing of all the outboard equipment, acoustics, cabling design, AV design, video design, lighting design, even furniture and interior design. The idea was to create one of the most exclusive and best studios in the MENA region, and so of course I was very excited to be a part of everything.”

There are a number of attributes that make LP.ME’s stereo room special. Front and centre is the pairing of the 48-channel Duality Fuse console with a quartet of PMC’s flagship QB1-XBDA monitors combined with a pair of PMC’s BST “Beast” subwoofers; a setup found in only a handful of studios around the globe, like Interscope and Netflix studios.

The Duality Fuse pairs with an Avid MTRX HD audio interface and Pro Tools HDX Core running Pro Tools HD off a 28-core Mac Pro workstation. Nearfield monitoring for a contrasting flavour comes from a pair of PMC Six active studio monitors. A Burl Audio B80 mothership brings analogue audio into the Dante domain in combination with an Antelope Audio Galaxy 64 providing Dante I/O for recording onto either a JoeCo BBR64­Dante recorder and Avid Nexis Pro 40TB storage system.

“It’s more than just a stereo room, it’s an experience,” says Jazra. “The sonic image is so clear you could spend hours in that room without your ears being bothered, even at high volume levels. The PMC Beast subs are limited at 15Hz but have the potential to go even lower. But our plan isn’t to cause an earthquake.”

A common theme throughout LP.ME is the sporadic appearance of iconic pieces of audio history, such as one of a very limited number of Sennheiser HE-1 Orpheus headphones decorating the corridors between the Atmos suites. While some are purely for show, the majority are fully functional and actively encouraged for use. In the main studio, this means a healthy selection of vintage outboard equipment on-hand: two original Fairchild 670s, four Urei 1176s and multiple 1178s, the full range of Tube Tech outboards as well as Universal Audio vintage LA-3A and LA-2A compressors. For the true audio purist there is even a choice of two analogue tape machines to track with – a rarely used Studer 24-channel multitrack tape recorder, which had been used to make safety copies for artists including Elvis Presley prior to being shipped out to Dubai, and a stereo two-channel Gold Edition Studer recorder. Similarly, the selection of microphones in the stereo studio are heavily influenced by vintage classics and include the likes of Neumann U87, M 149, TLM 170R and KM 184, AKG C12 Twin, Schoeps Colette Series and Sony C-800G models.

The two Atmos suites boast setups capable of catering to the ever-evolving world of immersive (spatial) audio productions. The largest boasts an 11.1.6 speaker configuration of three PMC BB6-XBDA speakers handling the LCR main speakers, eight CI40s for the rears and sides, and six CI65s for the ceiling-hung overheads. A pair of PMC BST subwoofers take over for low-end distribution.

The slightly smaller second suite is built around a 9.1.4 configuration of three PMC MB3-XBDAs and 10 CI65s paired with four PMC8-2 subwoofers. Control in each Atmos space revolves around Avid S6 M40 modular control surfaces that pair with Pro Tools via an Avid MTRX HD offering multiple mic-line feeds.

“Provision AVL approached us in 2021 and laid out the vision for the studios,” recalls Maurice Patist, head of sales, pro global studio products at PMC. “The attention to detail and the absolute desire to do it right allowed us to create the right combination of proper room design and acoustics, combined with the PMC monitoring systems to maximise the performance of the control rooms. Being able to build two high-performance Dolby Atmos control rooms around our BB6-XBD-A and MB3-XBD-A models was an incredible opportunity. You’ve got to get the rooms ‘right’ to allow the speakers to perform to its best and they certainly achieved that.”

While greatly stripped down from their bigger counterparts, the four producer rooms nevertheless offer impressive setups for their size. Here, PMC6 speakers take over main monitoring duties, with the largest producer room also housing a pair of PMC IB1S-AIIIs for contrast. Pro Tools Ultimate runs on Mac Studios with 27-inch Mac screens and 75-inch Samsung Frames and pair with Antelope Audio Galaxy interfaces that can be used in combination with outboard gear through the Switchcraft patchbays that connect with an SSL BUS+ and Neve 8816.

As you would expect for a studio of this pedigree, audio is fully interconnected via the Dante network, allowing engineers to pick their preferred space or even work in tandem on the same project concurrently from multiple suites. This is aided by the inhouse NewTek Tricaster TC2 Elite video production platform formed from 16 NewTek 4K PTZ cameras and a raft of Samsung 85-inch 8K screens and 75-inch 4K Frames spread throughout the studio. The inhouse video team can provide full-scale video production for short film and music clips, thanks to an impressive video arsenal led by an ARRI Mini LF cam.

With such a large investment, protection against the unexpected is an important consideration from the outset. Once again, LP.ME has taken the proactive approach. “We’ve embedded a double interlock pre-action system throughout into every room and corridor – which combines both gas and water. In the event that it is needed, gas is released to extinguish any potential source of heat early without harming the expensive equipment within. But in the event there is an actual fire and the system senses high temperatures, water is delivered instead. That was very new and not something we’d worked with before. One of the challenges was factoring in all the extra space it required, such as lowered ceilings to accommodate the pumps. We had to dedicate an entire room just to house the main system components, but the extra protection offered makes it fully worth it.”

Given that the world was emerging from a global pandemic in late 2021, the fact that LP.ME has risen from nothing in just over 12 months is testament to the hard work and dedication of all involved. “The equipment was being drip-fed over the course of 6–8 months,” recalls Boujikian. “One of the highlights for me was when Maurice Patist from PMC and Brian Pennington from Dolby Labs travelled over to inspect and commission the speakers as well as conduct a complete review of the audio design. These guys have worked on the world’s very best studios such as Abbey Road and Universal Studios, and they had nothing but praise for what we’d achieved.”

“For over 20 years I have been privileged to go around the world commissioning and calibrating many studios,” adds Patist. “Being involved in this ambitious project from the early stages of design and then being there to see and, more importantly, hear the final results has been an incredible experience. The commitment from the team and owner to building world-class studios in Dubai has given us two incredible performing Dolby Atmos mix studios combined with a stereo control room, with all the performance and gear an engineer can wish for. That, in our opinion, easily matches the very best.”

Primed to open its doors any day, the excitement of the LP.ME team is palpable. “Music has shaped cultures and societies throughout the world; it’s passed down from generation to generation within families and communities, from educational needs to cultural festivities,” explains Amna Ahmed, creative director at LP.ME. “It’s the one language everyone understands. And through this language, we at LP.ME envision uniting the world with peace, harmony, creativity, arts and culture. We have a number of very interesting initiatives in this regard planned for when the studio has opened.”