LaMP Studio Composition Room
Film music composition and production facility in West France, near La Rochelle airport.
Combines vintage equipment with state-of-the-art digital facilities for the best of both worlds.
Unique Instruments for Your Film Score
Ondes Martenot model 6 ‘Concert’ (formerly owned by Barry Gray)
Hauntingly-beautiful, ethreal, natural sounds. This instrument featured in Maurice Jarre’s timelss score for David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962).
Korg PS-3300 (formerly owned by Klaus Schulze)
One of the rarest and biggest analogue synthesizers ever made. Only around 25 were ever produced. LaMP’s model is one of the first prototypes and has been fully restored. Described by Bob Moog as “the best synthesizer for fat sounds”.
Hammond M-101 organ with Leslie 145 tone generator
Valve instrument for warmth, colour and energy. The Leslie tone generator contains spinning speakers to animate and spatialize the sound.
Selmer Clavioline ‘Concert’ model
Valve instrument capable of characteristic ‘quacking’ sounds, but also able with its knee pedal to offer unique lyrical lines.
- La.M.P. Studio Equipment list
History
La.M.P. Studio began with a trip to the London Rock Shop in Camden, London in the 1980s for a synthesizer, soon supplemented with drum machine and ‘portastudio’ to make demos.
In the early 90s the studio expanded in Rickmansworth (SE England), with facilities to layer sounds and make orchestral music.
The studio moved to Hackney and thence to Barnet, North London, with bigger, faster computers. An interest in and love of older analogue synthesizers from the 1970s endured.
LaMP Studio Live Room
In 2013 the studio re-located to France, in an abandoned nursery school East of La Rochelle in South Vendée. The building dated from 1906, with a high-ceilinged classsroom, an oak floor and a warm acoustic, described by one visiting oboist as “a very nice atmosphere”.
A side room was adapted to become the composition cockpit. A 32-channel, British-designed Soundcraft DC2000 analogue mixing desk with flying faders was restored in Germany and installed for rich music mixes.
Soundcraft DC2000 32-channel analogue mixing desk
Today, tracks are recorded through two x Focusrite ISA428s or vintage valve Ferrograph pre-amps, for a glowing sound. There is a growing collection of high-quality vintage microphones including makes such as Oktava, Røde, Reslo and STC.
Software for making ‘spectral’ sound transformations in music is in its infancy. François likes to give time occasionally to incorporate sound morphing into music scores, in interesting new ways. This can melt music and sound together.
A friend in the studio is a restored, art deco, Gaveau upright cabinet piano from 1936.
Using vintage technology is fun, but a responsibility to maintain. Many composers have opted for a minimalist studio of desk, keyboard, computer, amp., speakers and DAW. At LaMP, we favour quality over convenience. Like film actors, each piece of hardware participates with its own character, for a score that scores.