The Angmering School Recording Studio Project ca. 1997
Jan Meering & Jonathan Hare

Aim:

1) to construct the microphones, mixing desk, amplifiers and meters needed to assemble a sound recording studio at the school.

2) to use the studio for recording local bands, poetry and drama classes as well as with other schools.

This project, which ranges from the arts through to science and engineering, was funded by an Royal Society-Esso partnership grant. All the equipment was designed, built and tested during ten workshop sessions at the Creative Science Centre at the University of Sussex.

Also see the following links for more information about the project:
Project Diary
Studio layout

(Click on any of the pictures below for a larger version - use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page.)

The electronics was made on printed circuit boards and these were designed, etched, built and tested by the group. The equipment cases were also cut, drilled and assembled by the sixth-formers to their own design.


The Design Team.

Teacher: Jan Meering
Sixth Form Students: Peter Akhurst, Tom Billinghurst, Sam Denny, Philip Machin, Jonathan Talbot-Weiss, Luke Woodham and Samantha Woodward.
CSC: Jonathan Hare, CPES, University of Sussex.

The studio was constructed in modules starting with the mixing desk then the microphones and distribution cables. Finally a VU meter assembly (for setting the signal levels into the tape recorder) was constructed along with a 10W stereo amp. Recording were initialy made on a fast track reel-to-reel tape recorder but Sony UK later donated a Sony Professional Walkman recorder (as used by the BBC for sound recording) to the project.

The Mixer - Where Art Meets Science
Two essentials of a mixing desk are the gain and pan controls. The gain sets the volume of the signals sent to the recorder so that, for example, no distortion occurs, whilst the pan control (panoramic position) sets the stereophonic left-right position of the sound that the listener hears. There are technical (scientific) reasons for the setting of the gain control whilst the setting of the pan control is more subjective (artistic). Art and science therefore play together at the mixing desk.


Some pictures of the project in action:


'Utopia' - The school band in rehearsal

We would like to thank the Royal Society-Esso Partnership Grant, Sony UK (for donation of Sony Professional Walkman Recorders) , all our friends in CPES at Sussex University and especially Phil Chitty (CPES Computer Workshop) for all the equipment, support and kindness during this project. The project continues ....



Dr Jonathan Hare, E-mail: jphcreativescience@gmail.com

NOTE: Although none of the experiments shown in this site represent a great hazard, neither the Creative Science Centre,
Jonathan Hare nor The University of Sussex can take responsiblity for your own experiments based on these web pages.

THE CREATIVE SCIENCE CENTRE

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