Genetic Studios (also known as Genetic Sound) was a recording studio in Streatley, England.

History

Genetic was established in 1980 by

Martin Rushent Martin Charles Rushent (11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011) was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and Buzzcocks. Early life Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His father ...

and

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on album ...

. The facility was built in a barn at Rushent's home in Streatley. Rushent decided to focus on

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

after working heavily with guitar-based

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

bands in the late 1970s – including

The Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independen ...

and

The Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have origina ...

. Rushent began the studio after seeing an advertisement for the Roland Micro Composer. He thought the device looked "pretty good", and bought a Roland Jupiter synth to go with it. Rushent purchased

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...

and

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

synthesisers (at £25,000 each) and an MCI console to use in the studio. He spent £35,000 on the studio's air conditioning system, and had a

Mitsubishi Electric , established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...

digital recorder costing £70,000. After the success of '' Dare'' in 1981, Rushent extended the studio to house a second

control room A control room or operations room is a central space where a large physical facility or physically dispersed service can be monitored and controlled. It is often part of a larger command center. Overview A control room's purpose is produc ...

and recording booth. The MCI desk was moved to the new rooms, and a

Solid State Logic Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...

(SSL) desk was bought to be used in the original studio. Rushent later said that the new desk "had the most advanced mix functions of any board available at the time, so everybody wanted to use it. What everybody missed was the fact that, in isview, the SSL may sound technically correct, but it's never sounded musically correct." He stated that he hated working on the SSL, and that it "ended up ruining hemain control room." Rushent sold his home and Genetic in 1989, and the studio continued to operate until the early 1990s. The complex was sold for £906,000 in 2000, then £1.5 million in a second sale 3 years later. The site was later demolished and in 2007 a planning application was submitted to

West Berkshire Council West Berkshire Council is the local authority of West Berkshire in Berkshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. West Berkshire is divided into 30 wards, electing 52 c ...

to build a £12 million luxury home, which was later built.

References

{{Coord, 51.5217, -1.1585, display=title Recording studios in England