Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Vince's studio 37B next to his house Ammonite-
From Wonderland to the World Beyond
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Just found this photo on Facebook I've never seen before of Studio 37 b sadly it's as Vince was moving out.
A little bit more history of the address,before Vince built Ammonite it was the home of former rock drummer Keith Moon of The Who. He lived in a house called 'Tara' seen here outside & in.
A little bit more history of the address,before Vince built Ammonite it was the home of former rock drummer Keith Moon of The Who. He lived in a house called 'Tara' seen here outside & in.
From Wonderland to the World Beyond
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Erasure4Rum retreat there!! I'll bring the New Coke! (thanks to "Stranger Things 3"!!) 
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Vince's equipment individually photographed in the Dome.
From Wonderland to the World Beyond
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Yea, thanks for the pics! I've always felt that he and this studio were made for each other. It just looks so cool! Hopefully he has a bit more elbow room now that he's on this side of the pond, though 
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
Not far from my new apartment in Brooklyn! Maybe it's time I seek out the legend!!mrblue wrote: Tue Jun 25, 2019 6:41 pm Yea, thanks for the pics! I've always felt that he and this studio were made for each other. It just looks so cool! Hopefully he has a bit more elbow room now that he's on this side of the pond, though
Re: Vince’s Studio Chertsey 37B
This was a post I shared in another synth group a few years ago, but I thought I’d share it here too as I’m sure some of you will find it interesting.
These photos are of Vince Clarke's studio that was built for him in the early nineties in the beautiful area of Chertsey in Surrey, UK.
My father was the architect who designed the interior and exterior of the studio. My father’s friend, John Newton, was the architect who designed Vince's house which was adjacent to the studio. The house was also quite a marvel of engineering, built from concrete and copper, designed to resemble an ammonite fossil.
The project started in early 1991, and the build finished around late 1993. Vince was adamant that he wanted a round studio, with elements of spaceship to it! So my dad designed what looks a bit like a futuristic igloo!
To build the two domes, 2 enormous 'balloons' made of a special material were inflated and then sprayed with concrete. When the concrete set the 2 inflatables were removed - similar to how you would make a Papier Mâché mask.
Of the two domes that you can see, the larger one was the main room that housed all the synths and the control station. The smaller dome was the entrance, toilet and stairs that led down to the storage basement.
The main room that housed all the synths was incredible (as you would expect!) There were shelves that went round the interior walls for all the vintage synths to sit on. In the center was the circular control station that had a custom built Neve desk set into it, as well as the sequencers, BBC computer and oscilloscope. There was also a custom built patch bay that used pegs, as opposed to leads, which fed to patch panels located next to the synths. This was so that Vince could patch between synths without having to have cables trailing across the room.
The centre control desk was designed so that it looked like it was hovering when you walked into the studio. At one point Vince wanted to a have a 'beam me up' style tube to get in and out of the control station area, but my dad talked him out of it because it would have been impractical!
The sequencer station consisted of a BBC computer, a couple of Roland MC4s and an ARP sequencer. His master keyboard was a Casio CZ101 (gotta love those mini keys!)
For monitoring there was a pair of Yamaha NS10s and a set of main monitors (that I think he had custom built) powered by valve amps.
Circular rooms are notoriously bad for acoustics, so the acoustical engineers had to build these special fins that were suspended from the ceiling to manage the awkward acoustics (you can see them in the interior photo).
Vince also had this amazing step sequencer next to his System 100m and system 700 that was built for him by a friend. The basement also had masses of equipment in there!
He had so much kit in there the place was literally overflowing with synths. I remember he even had synths set up on the entrance area coffee table!
He recorded all the Erasure albums there from ‘94 until the early 00s. I recently saw a Grand Designs episode and saw that the current owner has now turned the studio into a library, which looks pretty cool!
These photos are of Vince Clarke's studio that was built for him in the early nineties in the beautiful area of Chertsey in Surrey, UK.
My father was the architect who designed the interior and exterior of the studio. My father’s friend, John Newton, was the architect who designed Vince's house which was adjacent to the studio. The house was also quite a marvel of engineering, built from concrete and copper, designed to resemble an ammonite fossil.
The project started in early 1991, and the build finished around late 1993. Vince was adamant that he wanted a round studio, with elements of spaceship to it! So my dad designed what looks a bit like a futuristic igloo!
To build the two domes, 2 enormous 'balloons' made of a special material were inflated and then sprayed with concrete. When the concrete set the 2 inflatables were removed - similar to how you would make a Papier Mâché mask.
Of the two domes that you can see, the larger one was the main room that housed all the synths and the control station. The smaller dome was the entrance, toilet and stairs that led down to the storage basement.
The main room that housed all the synths was incredible (as you would expect!) There were shelves that went round the interior walls for all the vintage synths to sit on. In the center was the circular control station that had a custom built Neve desk set into it, as well as the sequencers, BBC computer and oscilloscope. There was also a custom built patch bay that used pegs, as opposed to leads, which fed to patch panels located next to the synths. This was so that Vince could patch between synths without having to have cables trailing across the room.
The centre control desk was designed so that it looked like it was hovering when you walked into the studio. At one point Vince wanted to a have a 'beam me up' style tube to get in and out of the control station area, but my dad talked him out of it because it would have been impractical!
The sequencer station consisted of a BBC computer, a couple of Roland MC4s and an ARP sequencer. His master keyboard was a Casio CZ101 (gotta love those mini keys!)
For monitoring there was a pair of Yamaha NS10s and a set of main monitors (that I think he had custom built) powered by valve amps.
Circular rooms are notoriously bad for acoustics, so the acoustical engineers had to build these special fins that were suspended from the ceiling to manage the awkward acoustics (you can see them in the interior photo).
Vince also had this amazing step sequencer next to his System 100m and system 700 that was built for him by a friend. The basement also had masses of equipment in there!
He had so much kit in there the place was literally overflowing with synths. I remember he even had synths set up on the entrance area coffee table!
He recorded all the Erasure albums there from ‘94 until the early 00s. I recently saw a Grand Designs episode and saw that the current owner has now turned the studio into a library, which looks pretty cool!
From Wonderland to the World Beyond