At the beginning of 2008, Darius van Helfteren decided to move his mastering studio from his then home in Wisseloord Studios to a new, purpose-built facility in Amsterdam. The brief to the designer and team of specialist craftsmen was simple: build a no compromise, cost-no-object mastering studio to rival anything anywhere in the world!

Fast forward to 2009, and the results speak for themselves. Northward Acoustics in Brussels provided the designs for a 42 sq/m, totally floating room, isolated down to 10hz, and featuring a wealth of innovations in acoustic design and construction. The floating concrete floor actually covers 72sq/m, a testament to the amount of isolation and absorption deployed, and the studio was built using a staggering 30 tons of material. Highlights include a 1.8m deep bass trap at the back, totally silent airco and stainless steel front wall and outer coating for the studio. Of course, a climbing wall was included.

Darius van Helfteren (half Dutch, half Iranian but born and raised in London) has put the finishing touch on many top Dutch artists in many styles ranging from hiphop and jazz to dance and indie rock, as well as international artists such as Scorpions, AKON and Judas Priest.

“For the new studio we decided to put together several new Sequoia workstations. Although we had a choice of various components for our new PC systems, there was one area where there was simply no room for discussion: soundcards MUST be RME!“

“I’ve been working with RME hardware for more then 10 years, and have found it to be undoubtedly the best, most fully featured hardware with totally rock solid drivers. We’re using 3 AES32 soundcards as well as two ADI-4 DD format converters. Using RME hardware simply gives us one less thing to worry about!”

RME Equipment Used:

• HDSP AES-32 (x3)
• ADI-4 DD (x2)

More information: www.amsterdammastering.com