Johannesburg Location
Our first school in South Africa, Abbey Road Institute Johannesburg is based at Mastermax Studios in Midrand, Gauteng. We will be launching our first class in February 2020. The school is integrated into the Mastermax Studios building and offers our students a dedicated teaching space and bespoke studio space to work in 7 days a week. We’re proud to host our school in a dynamic studio environment which supports all areas of the course. You’ll work with top of the range, industry-standard equipment in our professional studios.
Overview of the space
Throughout the course you’ll have access to both our teaching and commercial studios at different stages, depending on the modules you’re working on. Our purpose-built facilities include a live recording space and professional-standard control room, two production rooms, a mixing room and a lecture room with individual workstations.
You will have access to the Institute’s studio both as part of the timetabled teaching as well as outside class time for independently managed recording, production and mixing. Every student has access to a powerful computer workstation available in the lab an hour before, during and an hour after class.
You can start your project in the studio and continue recording, editing and mixing on the classroom workstations or the production suites or mixing rooms. Abbey Road Institute Johannesburg students can be sure they are learning on the very best industry-standard equipment in the classroom and studio. Our studios feature a wide array of software and hardware allowing for various hybrid setups which are both practical and suitable for the modern-day audio production environment.
Practical time is allocated on an individual basis and fully supervised by our qualified staff. Practical sessions can be booked on a weekly or monthly basis during the operating hours of the Institute. There is no limit to the amount of practical time you can book during the course, subject only to availability.
Here is a list of the facilities and equipment available during the course.
CLASSROOM/LAB
All theory and classroom-based practical lectures take place in our Classroom/Lab. This room offers one powerful computer workstations for each student to use during and outside lecture time. Aside from following lecture activities, you can use these workstations to produce, edit, mix and even record. Each workstation offers a very wide selection of software together with a dedicated audio interface, MIDI controller and headphones. The Classroom/Lab also features a pair of Sonodyne SRP800 speakers for playback during lectures. Each workstation in this room includes:
- Apple 27” iMac
- Digigrid M – Audio Interface
- 25 Key MIDI controller
- Telefunken THP-29 Professional Studio Headphones
SOFTWARE
To allow complete freedom to move from one room to another seamlessly, we have ensured that every single computer workstation available to our students in the Classroom/Lab, Production Suites, Mixing Studio and Recording Studio is equipped with the same wide selection of industry standard audio software. Every single DAW on our campus provides:
- Avid Pro Tools
- Apple Logic Pro X
- Ableton Live (including Max for Live)
- Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate bundle
- Arturia V Collection (100 years of landmark keyboard instruments in one software package)
- Celemony Melodyne
- All UAD plug-ins (authentic analog hardware emulations)
- All Softube plug-ins
- All McDSP plug-ins
- Waves Abbey Road Collection plug-in bundle
- Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand Virtual Piano
- iZotope RX bundle
- Big Fish Audio Sample Libraries
PRODUCTION SUITE 1
From early on in the course, you will have access to our Production Suite. This room is designed to enable you to produce music and start recording from the very beginning providing an “in the box” setup with a vast selection of software and several controllers. The Production Suite allows recording within the same room to develop coaching and soft skills that are essential for a successful producer. The suite is equipped with:
- Apple 27” iMac
- Digigrid D – Audio Interface
- UAD Satellite OCTO – DSP Accelerator
- Sonodyne SRP500 – Active Speakers
- Roland – 88 keys fully weighted Master keyboard controller
- ROLI Seaboard Rise – MIDI controller
- Roland Electronic Drum Kit
MIXING STUDIO
This studio reflects the typical modern hybrid setup providing full integration between “in the box” resources and analogue outboard equipment. In this room, our students can produce, edit, record, mix and master their projects:
- Avid Control 24 Console – 16 Fader Modular Control Surface
- Avid 192 16x16IO – AD/DA Converter
- Apple Mac Pro with UAD-2 OCTO PCIe Card and Avid HD Native Thunderbolt Card
- Sonodyne SRP600 & Adam A3X – Active Speakers
- 500 Series – Chandler Geranium Preamp x2, API 512 Pre-amp x2, A-Design Preamp x2
- Roland XV5080 – 128voice synth module
- Roland Edirol PCR80 – 64key midi controller
- Heritage Audio MCM-20 – 20 Channel Rack mount Summing Mixer
- Furman LC6 – Stereo Compressor/Limiter
- SPL Vitalizer – Harmonic Distortion Unit
- KT Square One– 8ch Dynamics Processor
- Lexicon PCM80 & 90– FX Processor
The rooms above come with a small selection of microphones for “Control room recording”:
- MXL v67M
- 2x Rode Classic
- 2x MXL CR24-P
- Neat King Bee
- 2x AKG Perception 200
- Neumann KSM 105
- SE Electronics GM10
- 2x Shure SM58
RECORDING STUDIO
Our students have access to Mastermax Studio’s purpose-built recording studio. This studio provides a dedicated Control Room with a Neve Genysis 64Fader console and outboard equipment as well as a separate Live Room that offers variable acoustics together with a wide selection of microphones and backline equipment:
- Neve Genysis Console – 64 Channel
- AVID 192 I/O – AD/DA Converter
- Apple 27” iMac
- UAD Satellite OCTO – DSP Accelerator
- Tanoy Gold– Passive Speakers (Powered by 2x Mono Blocks)
- Adam Audio S3Xh – Active Speakers
- Sonodyne SRP500 – Active Speakers
- Yamaha Ns10 – Active Speakers
- 500 Series Compressors – 2x API 527, 2x SSL Dynamics, SSL Bus Compressor, OCL-500
- Summit TLA100 – Mono Compressor
- Symenrix – Stereo Compressor/Limiter
- Lexicon PCM 90 – FX Processor
- Ensonique DP4/+ – FX Processor
- Focusrite Red 3 – Dual Channel Compressor/Limiter
- 2x DBX FS900 – De-esser
- Hearback Personal monitoring system
- Yamaha G3 – Grand Piano
- Fender Deville – Guitar Amplifier
- Palmer Phat50 – Guitar Amplifier
- Marc Bass New York 804 – bass amplifier
- DW 6 piece recording drum kit
- Zildjian A Series Cymbals
- 2x Congas
- 20x Telefunken TPA Headphones
- Roland Phantom G8 88key workstation
Our Recording Studio Microphones:
- Neuman U87
- 4x MXLv67n’s
- 2x Telefunken M60
- 2x Rode NT5
- Neumann TLM102
- 3x MXL551
- 2x Shure SM57
- 2x MXLCR24’s
- 2x Shure Beta58’s
- 3x Telefunken M82
- Shure Beta 91A
- 2 x AKG Perception 100
- Royer R-121
- 4 x SE Electronics SE4
- 2x MXL R144
- 2x Bayer Dynimic TGx50
- Shure Super55
- Yamaha Sub-Kick Speaker Driver Microphone
- Telefunken M80
ADDITIONAL FLOATING EQUIPMENT
You can also access a great selection of equipment bookable from our technicians.
