IK Multimedia The Farm Stone Room

Four walls that rocked ′80s drum tracks

Phil Collins made history when he tracked the explosive drum sounds for the worldwide hit song “In the Air Tonight.” Awash in the unique reverb of the studio’s stone-walled drum room and crushed by compression, it has become perhaps the signature drum sound of the ′80s. Also used on Peter Gabriel’s “Intruder” and many other hits, the combination of heavy reverb and massive compression has been widely influential and instantly recognizable ever since.

Seeking to recapture that magic in their own studio, “Fisher Lane Farm” in the UK, the band Genesis enlisted the original engineer Hugh Padgham to build a drum room to the same specs as the one at Townhouse Studios where the iconic drum sound was produced. And while both rooms are sadly now gone, IK was given exclusive access to the Farm before it closed forever to preserve its distinctive sound in a brand-new plug-in.

The Farm Stone Room is here to give your drum tracks the sonic impact that only this type of rare stone live room can offer.

Key Features

• Faithful and exclusive reproduction of the iconic stone room at Genesis’ studio Fisher Lane Farm
• Two room reverb channels: Neumann® U87 pair (Stereo Room) and STC® 4021 “Ball and biscuit” (Mono Crush)
• SSL®-modelled EQ and dynamics to sculpt the sound in the same way as they did in the studio
• Analog-modelled “SSL® Listen Mic Compressor” on the mono crush signal delivers powerful sound to any drum track
• IK’s latest proprietary VRM™ technology delivers the most realistic sound spaces ever
• Customizable “Curtain Open” or “Curtain Closed” dampening for a bright or darker sound
• EQ, Pre-delay and expanded Decay Time controls
• Dry and Wet signal level controls with solo buttons
• Works as a single plug-in for any DAW or inside the T-RackS 5 suite

The story behind the sound
The Farm Stone Room plug-in not only represents an accurate recreation of the stone live room at Genesis’ studio, it’s also the closest you can get to the legendary Townhouse Studios drum room it was modeled after.

The stone walls of this relatively small-sized room give drums a huge sound, especially when run through the SSL® 4000G mixing console that producer/engineers Hugh Padgham and Nick Davis used at both Townhouse Studios and Fisher Lane Farm and faithfully reproduced here.