Armoury Studios is a Canadian recording studio located in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Kitsilano Kitsilano ( ) is a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano, Kitsilano is located along the southern shore of English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay between Fairview, Vancou ...

neighbourhood.

History

The Armoury building was constructed, from the ground up, in 1990 by Canadian songwriter/producer

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

. Vallance collaborated with architect Howard Airey on the building's design. Ron Obvious studio designer, oversaw the technical and acoustical elements. The studio was purchased from Vallance in 1995 by friend and producer Bruce Fairbairn, who produced music there with such artists as

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, The Harvest, and the Atomic Fireballs before he died in 1999 during the mixing of

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' '' The Ladder''. Since 1999, the studio has been owned and privately operated by the Fairbairn family, serving a variety of local and international clients, including such artists as

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

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, Nothingface,

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and

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad (SYL) was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, '' Heavy as a Really Heavy ...

, among others.

Facilities

The studio features a Solid State Logic G+ Series 4072 mixing console with Total Recall and E Series "black knob" EQ as well as ten Neve 1081 Preamp/EQ's and eight Neve 1073 Preamp/EQ's. Also available to clients is a host of vintage outboard equipment and microphones from top manufacturers including

Neumann Neumann () is a German language, German surname, with its origins in the pre-7th-century (Old English) word ''wikt:neowe, neowe'' meaning "new", with ''wikt:mann, mann'', meaning man. The English form of the name is Newman. Von Neumann is a varian ...

and AKG among others. The studio facility and equipment was maintained by Technical Director John Vrtacic until his death in 2009. Other facilities include upper and lower lounges, stone fireplace, a kitchen and a patio with a barbecue and a view of the Burrard Inlet and North Shore mountains.

External links

*
Jim Vallance on the Armoury's construction
Recording studios in Canada Buildings and structures in Vancouver Music of Vancouver Commercial buildings completed in 1992 1996 establishments in British Columbia Kitsilano {{recording-studio-stub