You may not know it, but hidden in the heart of Sydney is one of the best sound recording studios in the world. Trackdown has been in business for almost 40 years and in that time has seen some of the world’s best pass through its doors and recorded music for some of Hollywood’s greatest titles. But this is only possible thanks to the talented people behind it.
Elaine and Craig Beckett, a husband and wife team, have been running Trackdown for almost 20 years. They’ve worked with top talent, adapted to the evolving needs of the audio industry, and kept the studio not only alive, but thriving during a global pandemic.
Invited on a media tour of the studio space (located in Sydney’s entertainment district), Gizmodo Australia got a first-hand look at the world-class facilities and quality experience that Trackdown offers .
The centerpiece of the studio is a large scoring stage, large enough to house a full orchestra of over 100 musicians.
A lot of the recording gear around the stage is either Neumann or Sennheiser, which Elaine explains during our tour is a “customer request” because of the industry’s respect for both brands.
“It means there’s consistency when you’re doing projects around the world,” he explains. “It means they can put talent in any studio, anywhere in the world, and they’ll get a consistent recording product that delivers a seamless audio soundtrack. Brands allow us to collaborate with studios everywhere.”
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A global vision is something Trackdown Studios has become known for. Just scroll through the studio’s Instagram page to see the wide variety of major projects they’ve worked on.
During the tour, Elaine and Craig write down a list of names that Trackdown has been involved with, citing everything from local films to big Hollywood productions such as The Lego Movie, Mad Max: Fury Road and Mortal Kombat.
Global music artists such as Pavarotti, Aerosmith and Coldplay have recorded with Trackdown. It has even become the study of choice for some.
“We are well respected in the global industry, to the point that Michael Giacchino recorded his own personal music recording project about COVID with us, and I think that says a lot,” said Elaine.
“We’re attracting work because of the talent of the musicians, conductors and engineering team.”
Attached to the soundstage is a studio control room that is equipped with Avid and Pro Tools, ready to record and mix everything from foley to ADR. It’s also equipped with surround sound, allowing room engineers to get a real sense of the soundscape they’re recording.
As Trackdown’s Lead Sound Supervisor and CTO, this room is Craig’s home and he’s used it to record basically any instrument imaginable. A personal highlight for Craig was recording eight double basses for the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands soundtrack.
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Game projects are really something Trackdown is getting more of these days, having recently worked on World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch 2.
“We started doing video games about 15 years ago and then it was about 10% of our scoring work. Now it’s about 50% of the orchestral work we’re doing,” said Elaine.
“Games get big when it comes to orchestral recordings because it’s a big part of the user experience. They really respect this addition of music to the game.”
Elaine added that future audio preparation for her projects is another big focus for the Trackdown team.
“There’s always something to be said about future issues. Sometimes things do really well in the market and then 20 years later they’ll do a reissue and obviously we’ll prepare projects to have a life beyond their delivery if there’s room to do it,” he said.
The post-production industries have received a lot of attention this year after reports surfaced that VFX artists are constantly being exploited by big studios with heavy workloads and short deadlines.
Many major film studios outsource their post-production work to independent studios like Trackdown. But while Trackdown may fit into the post-production schedule, Craig and Elaine said they haven’t yet experienced any of those same issues when it comes to audio.
“Music has always had a quick turnaround for where we are in the pipeline, being right at the end, but it hasn’t changed in the 17 years I’ve been here. [There’s] no difference in expectations,” said Elaine.
“Generally, at this moment, our boss is the composer. We deliver what they want. They’re the studio,” Craig added. “The longest days we do can be 9 or 10 at night.”
Even this has continued during the challenges of the pandemic, during which the Trackdown studios were busier than ever.
“At one point there were three open orchestral studios in the world and we were one of them,” Elaine said.
This is largely due to the nature of recording that Trackdown has been able to do remotely for some time.
“We’ve been doing remote recording for 15 years, so we already had a lot of processes in place,” explained Elaine. “… We were able to keep a lot of players performing and doing what drives them for those two years.”
Here’s to another 40+ years for Trackdown.