
Originally
formed by Alan Smart for the development of high performance audio equipment.
He has worked in the professional audio industry for some 20 years since
starting as an assistant engineer in Wave Studios in London,
and then as an electronics engineer at Digital Audio Systems, who provided Sony
PCM mastering systems to UK
studios; manufactured Weber test tapes, and restored and extended several Neve
consoles and other equipment. Engineering at SSL's 'Huge' studios in Oxford led to a position
as commissioning and service engineer for SSL. His first assignment abroad was
to commission George Benson's SSL at Lahaina Sound in Hawaii, after which he
went on to either service or commission many of the rapidly expanding
collection of SSL Studios such as Virgin's Townhouse 1 and 2; Sarm West;
Wessex; Abbey Road; Air Studios and others. Experience with broadcast studios
came at the UK's BBC,
Denmark Radio, and Japan's
NHK, and travel for SSL included visiting Holland,
France, Germany, Denmark,
Italy, Japan, South Korea,
the West Indies and the USA.
This period involved solving the problems at each new installation, as SSL
moved to from around 25 console sales, to become a world standard .
Alan left
SSL to become chief engineer at Eddy Grant's Blue Wave Studios in Barbados,
where he engineered an album; singles and film music for Eddy Grant, working
with two Otari MTR90's and a Synclavier system. He took care of maintenance and
ran the studio for projects such as Sting's first solo project 'Dream of the
Blue Turtles'; and expanded the studio's facilities to allow for video sync and
midi distribution. During this time many artists visited Blue Wave including
the Thompson Twins, Bryan Ferry, Jon Anderson, and Mick Jagger.
Returning
to the UK
in 1984, freelance projects included work for many artists and studios. After
engineering various projects for Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, and others
(such as Joni Mitchell's 'Chalk Marks in a Rainstorm') at Peter Gabriel's
earlier studio, Ashcombe; he then became involved in the planning and
construction of Real World Studios. This involved 3 Studios, and numerous
custom electronic projects; such as modifying the main control room SSL to
allow status changing and metering in groups of 8 modules; and 64 split group
outputs. Alan also designed the 'ASM' system for Real World, increasing the
SSL's capacity from 5 to 9 automated cue sends per module. (This system was
later sold to several studios, Rhinoceros in Sydney amongst others). While working with
Real World, Alan designed and travelled with Gabriel's 'So' world tour stage
system, and more recently the 'Secret World' tour. The latter involved the
establishment of two complete music equipment systems, linked with custom built
midi-automated switching and level control, multicores, line drivers, and used
some 35 radio frequencies, and also involved extensive live recording of both
midi and audio; an offshoot of the tour which he followed through to help in
post production and mixing at Guillaume Tell in Paris.
The
challenges of spending years involved with touring have otherwise proven
avoidable; with the exception of Tears for Fear's 'Seeds of Love' tour, for
which he designed and built 48 channels of preamplifiers/splitters to allow the
isolation and on-line fault finding of all audio from the stage; as well as a
stage radio foldback system for the two principles, at a time when commercially
available systems were tested and found too unreliable to use.
Complete
studio designs have included a 56 channel SSL/ 96 tape track capable mitsubushi
equipped facility, Neptune's Kitchen, for
private use; studios for Jamiroquai and others, and custom electronic solutions
for projects such as Virgin's 144 microphone input Manor Mobile; the Manor
Studios, Matrix's Maison Rouge mix room facility and many others. In 1987, The
Engine Room began business custom building Studio equipment, and since then has
established a client list we hope will be enhanced by its evolution into Smart
Research into the future.
Currently
Smart Research have facilities in England
and Australia.
Partial
client list:
A & M
STUDIOS, USA.
ANDREW RICHARDSON, AUSTRALIA.
APOCALYPSE, AUSTRALIA. BACK BEACH RECORDING, AUSTRALIA.
BARNEY PERKINS, USA.
BATTERY STUDIOS, UK.
BLACK BARN, UK. BLUE WAVE STUDIOS, WEST INDIES. BRIAN NEW, UK. CHANNEL 7 TV, AUSTRALIA. CLAIRE BROTHERS,
USA. CROWDED HOUSE, AUSTRALIA.
D'ELIA WITTKOFSKI PRODUCTIONS, USA.
DAVE FROGGATT, AUSTRALIA.
DAVID TICKEL, USA.
dB PRODUCTIONS, AUSTRALIA.
dB SOUND, CHICAGO.
DUBBY ROAD, UK. EDDY GRANT, WEST
INDIES. EFFANEL MUSIC,
USA. EMI
STUDIOS 301, AUSTRALIA.
FARMYARD STUDIOS, UK.
FELIX KENDLE, UK.
FIREHOUSE PRODUCTIONS, USA.
GANGAJANG, AUSTRALIA. GARY BEERS,INXS., AUSTRALIA.
GERARD SMERICK, USA.
GIANT PRODUCTION CO., AUSTRALIA.
GREENHOUSE STUDIOS, UK.
IAN STANLEY, UK.
JACK JOSEPH PUIG, USA.
JACKSON BROWN, USA.
JACOBS STUDIO, UK.
JAMIROQUAI, UK. JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, UK. JIMMY BARNES, AUSTRALIA.
JOHN JONES, UK.
JOHN LEMON/BRITANNIA ROW, UK.
JOHN PAUL JONES, UK.
KARISMA, CANADA. KEITH MARLOWE, USA. KICK AM, AUSTRALIA. KYLE
LEHNINT, USA.
LARRABEE STUDIOS, USA.
MAISON ROUGE STUDIOS, UK.
MANHATTEN CENTRE STUDIOS, USA.MANOR MOBILE,
UK. MARK SPIKE STENT, UK.
MASSIVE ATTACK, UK. MASTER ROCK, UK.
MATRIX, UK. MAYFAIR STUDIOS, UK. METROPOLIS AUDIO, AUSTRALIA.
METROPOLIS STUDIOS, UK.
MUSICMATIC, SWEDEN. NEIL DORFMAN, USA. NEIL STREET
STUDIOS, SINGAPORE.
NELLY HOOPER, UK.
NEPTUNE'S KITCHEN, UK. OLYMPIC STUDIOS, UK. PAUL
KENDLE/ MUTE RECORDS, UK.
PETE KAY, USA. PETE WALSH,
UK. PETER FRAMPTON, USA. PETER GABRIEL, UK. REAL WORLD STUDIOS, UK. REVOLVER, NEW ZEALAND.
RHINOCEROS RECORDING, AUSTRALIA. ROCKFIELD STUDIOS, UK. ROLAND
ORZABAL, UK.
SCHNEE STUDIOS, USA.
SECRET SOUND STUDIOS, USA.
SILENCE RECORDS, SWEDEN.
SING SING STUDIOS, AUSTRALIA.
STEVE VIE, USA.
STUDIO MARCADET, FRANCE. SUNSET SOUND, USA.
SWANYARD STUDIOS, UK.
SWEET SILENCE, DENMARK.
TAVI MOTE, USA. TEARS FOR FEARS, UK. TERRY
BRITTEN, UK.
THE CHURCH STUDIOS, UK.
THE HIRE COMPANY, USA.
THE MANOR STUDIOS, UK.
THE TOWNHOUSE, UK.
TIM FERRIS/INXS., AUSTRALIA.
TIM FINN,PERISCOPE, AUSTRALIA. TOM LORD ALGE, USA. TONY BERG,
USA.
TURTLEROCK MASTERING, AUSTRALIA.
WARNE LIVESEY, UK. WHITE ROOM STUDIOS, USA. YORK ST.STUDIOS, NEW ZEALAND.