Famous Rack

Sony Music Studios Tokyo

For the last 20 years, Sony Music Studios Tokyo has been recording some of Japan's biggest artists, and it has been doing so with a suite of vintage effects that would be in anyone's dream rack collection.

AMS RMX 16 Digital Reverberation System
Avalon Design AD2077 Mastering Equalizer
dbx 165A Compressor/Limiter
Drawmer 1960 Mic Pre/Compressor
Empirical Labs Distressor
Empirical Labs FATSO
EMT 140 Plate Reverb
Eventide DSP4000 Ultra-Harmonizer®
Eventide H3000 D/SE Ultra-Harmonizer®
Eventide Harmonizer® Orville Multi-Channel Effects System
Fairchild 670 Tube Limiter
GML Model 8200 Parametric Equalizer
GML Model 9500 Mastering Parametric Equalizer
Lexicon 480L Digital Effects System
Lexicon 960L Digital Effects System
Lexicon PCM 70 Digital Effects Processor
Manley Massive Passive Stereo Tube EQ
Manley Stereo Variable MU Limiter Compressor
Pultec EQP-1 Program Equalizer
Roland SDE-2000 Digital Delay
Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay
Roland SRV-2000 MIDI Digital Reverb
Roland SRV-3030 24bit Digital Reverb
Sony DPS-F7 Dynamic Filter Plus
Sony DRE 2000 Digital Reverberator
Sony DRE-S777 Sampling Digital Reverb
Sony MU-R201 Stereo Digital Reverb
Summit Audio TLA-100A Tube Leveling Amplifier
Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Amplifier
Teletronix LA-3A Leveling Amplifier
TUBE-TECH PE 1C Program Equalizer
Urei 1176 Limiting Amplifier
Yamaha REV5 Digital Reverberator
Yamaha REV7 Digital Reverberator
Yamaha SPX1000 Professional Multi-Effect Processor

Sony Music Studios Tokyo is conveniently located near Nogizaka station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda line, midway between Roppongi and Aoyama. The interior comprises five recording studios on the third underground floor, including two rooms where 30-40 person orchestras can be recorded, a 12-room suite of mastering studios on the second underground floor, and a suite of video editing and DVD/Blu-ray disc authoring studios on the first underground floor.

This configuration enables integrated production of the total creative package, from music to video. The studio lobby is on the third underground floor, but is filled with natural light from the above-ground atrium, giving visitors a feeling of welcome. In fact, the underground location of Sony Music Studios Tokyo is due largely to its obsession with sound quality.

One of the main features of the studios is their strong sound and vibration damping properties, which are difficult to achieve in conventional studios. The construction of Sony Music Studios Tokyo required digging to a depth of 30 meters and pouring large amounts of concrete to construct a foundation that floats on rubber.

The five studios that sit atop the foundation feature large custom monitors embedded directly inside the studio walls, which are themselves encased in 50 tons of concrete. With five studios, that makes a total of 250 tons of concrete just for the walls! The result reflects an obsession with sound that is unmatched by above-ground studios.

The list of digital and analogue effects on offer at Sony Music Studios Tokyo is truly breathtaking, and covers effects from the late 1950’s through to now. It should come as no surprise that their studio’s feature many of the classic Japanese effects we love, such as the Sony MU-R201, Sony DRE-2000, Yamaha REV5 and REV7 and many more.

Location: Tokyo, Japan