Power Station at BerkleeNYC, formerly known as Avatar Studios (1996–2017) and Power Station, is a recording studio at 441 West

53rd Street 53rd Street is a Midtown Manhattan, midtown cross street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, that runs adjacent to buildings such as the Citigroup Center, Citigroup building. It is 1.83 miles (2.94 km) ...

between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...

neighborhood in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City. The building contains 5 studio spaces: A, B, C, G, and E, as well as a black box theater.

History

The building was originally a Consolidated Edison power plant. In 1977, it was rebuilt as a recording studio by producer

Tony Bongiovi Anthony C. Bongiovi (born September 7, 1947) is an American record producer and recording engineer. He is the cousin of musician Jon Bon Jovi. Career Bongiovi has produced records by Gloria Gaynor, Talking Heads, Aerosmith ('' Classics Live''), ...

and his partner Bob Walters. The complex was renamed Avatar Studios (under the Avatar Entertainment Corporation) in May 1996. In 2017, the studios were renamed back to Power Station, by special arrangement with

Berklee Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

NYC. The studio reopened in 2020 after a full renovation, while maintaining the studio spaces. In 1995, Sonalysts, which had begun as an underwater acoustics research company, licensed the Power Station's design and naming rights from Bongiovi and Walters. The company built a perfect replica of the original Studio A in

Waterford, Connecticut Waterford is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. It is named after Waterford, Ireland. The population was 19,571 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed as a census-designated place (CDP) and had a population of 3,07 ...

, as a part of the new Power Station New England.

Musicians and bands

Major acts who have recorded there include the band

Power Station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

which was named after the studio itself. Sting's 2016 album '' 57th & 9th'' is named for the intersection he crossed every day to get to the studio. Other artists that have worked at the studio include

Equipment

Studio A is supported by a

Neve Electronics Neve Electronics was a manufacturer of music recording and broadcast mixing consoles and hardware. It was founded in 1961 by Rupert Neve, the man credited with creating the modern mixing console.

8088 console. Studio C is equipped with a Neve VR with Studios B and G having consoles made by

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 re ...

. The studio is also known for its extensive vintage

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

collection.

References

External links

*
Avatar website

Avatar Studios 30 Year Anniversary Party
{{Coord, 40, 45, 59, N, 73, 59, 22, W, source:kolossus-ptwiki, display=title Recording studios in Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan