The Farm Stone Room Studio Reverb

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

Intuitive and flexible controls

Even if you’re not familiar with the award-winning line of T-RackS mixing and mastering plug-ins, you’ll find the controls in The Farm Stone Room easy to use, yet powerful and comprehensive. This single-panel plug-in contains the main tone-shaping elements of the original space and more.

The Mono Crush controls are unique to The Farm Stone Room, capturing the room in punchy and dirty mono using a vintage STC® 4021 “Ball & Biscuit.” An SSL® Listen Mic Compressor (LMC) was modeled and inserted in this section, which blended with the stereo Neumann® U87s room mics, gives you the amazing drum sound of tracks like Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” Genesis’ “Mama” and Peter Gabriel’s “Intruder.”

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.

These studios no longer exist and there are few, if any, similar stone drum tracking rooms left in the world. Fortunately, thanks to Genesis and the help of Dave Kerzner and Nick Davis, IK was invited to the Fisher Lane Farm to fully capture all of the elements of this rare and special space before it was closed.

Why get The Farm Stone Room?

For decades artists, producers and engineers have looked for ways to make drums sound MASSIVE. One of the most important elements to achieving great drum sounds are the sounds of rooms and room emulation reverbs. This is one reason IK’s Sunset Sound and FAME Studio Reverb plug-ins are so popular. Now, with The Farm Stone Room, it’s possible to achieve a drum room sound that you can only get from a well-designed stone room.

Whether you want to get a drum sound as big as top hits recorded in the ′80s or add another dimension of HUGE to drum sounds useful in all styles of modern music from rock to hip hop, nothing else can get you the big smashed drum sound of The Farm Stone Room.