Vintage King Outfits Flóki Studios In Iceland With API 2448 Console And AVID MTRX Series Interfaces 

Named after a Norwegian Viking who, legend has it, followed the path of a raven to discover Iceland thousands of years ago, Flóki Studios is a one-of-a-kind space at the edge of the Arctic circle, designed for artists to explore their creativity away from the distractions of everyday life. 

Flóki Studios Director Wade Koeman and his team enlisted the services of Vintage King to help outfit this ambitious studio with world-class gear, and from what he tells us, it was an exciting and fulfilling experience. Read on to find out about the challenges of setting up a studio in a remote location, how VK helped with gear selection and installation, and the charming tradition they’ve established to keep studio sessions running smoothly.

What was the vision for Flóki Studios?

We’re part of a larger company called Eleven Experience, which is a series of high-end boutique hotels all over the world, one of those being Deplar Farm in Iceland, which was opened in 2017 and is 20 minutes from where the studio currently is now. We have a love for all things music in the company, and thought, “There’s this amazing spot in Iceland, so wouldn't it be a cool place to have a recording studio where people could get away?” 

We wanted to provide a space for artists, musicians, bands, and producers to leave the noise of the normal world behind and come out to this beautiful location, surrounded by unbelievable nature, and have a place that is a world-class studio where music of all levels can be made.

Iceland also has a very rich history of music, so it’s a great place for a recording studio.

Absolutely! That is something we found in doing this venture. Iceland is so small—there are roughly 350,000 people in the entire country—and even within that tiny number, there's such a robust music scene. It's very strong, it’s very healthy and they’re producing some great work. Laufey, who is Icelandic and American, just won a Grammy.  

It's also a very welcoming musical community—we’re outsiders, we’re Americans coming here to do this thing and we've been met with nothing but open arms. Everyone is positive, wanting to help, wanting to collaborate and bring more music to Iceland.

Tell us about some of the artists that have come through the studio.

We kicked things off in 2021 with The New Mastersounds, and then we had George Porter Jr, Robert Walter (who tours with Roger Waters), Portugal. The Man, Greensky Bluegrass, Joe Russo of JRAD, and Oteil Burbridge of Dead & Company. We’ve also had a number of Icelandic artists come in, like Ásgier and Arny Margret, so there's been quite a range of music, and different artists from all over the world. 

What inspired you to make your recent upgrades?

When we built the studio, it was on a very tight timeline. We gave ourselves a three-month window from the time the concept became official, the budgets were approved etc. After talking to David Fisk at Vintage King and setting things up, we had about three months to get everything going. At the time, due to COVID, there were some supply chain issues—that was the reality—and initially, we had the Apogee Symphony 24-channel I/O, which was great; it linked up perfectly with the API 2448 console.

Now, two years in, we've had a number of clients that said, “This is a wonderful place, we totally were able to make our record, but it would be great if we could have a little bit more capability and some more digital I/O.” To be able to monitor a bigger session and have high-quality preamps going in, that was really the impetus of it—to just give everybody more options and more functionality, with more channels.

What drew you to the API 2448 console?    

We went back and forth initially—there was talk of going for a vintage Neve, a larger SSL etc.  There are obviously a number of great consoles and they all have their own character, they all have their pros and cons, but API started to stand out as a very reliable option. Part of it is about where we are in Iceland… we're very remote, so it's not like you can just walk down the street and get new components if something happens. [Laughs] So we quickly decided to not go the vintage route, because you just know that stuff's going to happen and things do need regular routine maintenance and things like that. For example, when we need to get our piano tuned and there's one piano tuner in Iceland, he has to fly north and it can be a very expensive process. I mean, I don't think there's a vintage Neve specialist in the country, so that would be a thing. [Laughs] So we got in touch with API, and they were like, “Hey, we have this 2448, it's ready to go.” It was fresh off the line essentially, the timing worked, and I've come to really love it.  

What are some of your favorite features of the API?

It's got the nice, transparent API sound; a good low end, punchy mids—I just love the sound. We've done a lot of our projects through tape, so the API works really well in that setting because you can use the small fader and large fader in combination and be able to track at the right levels and get the saturation that you want, but then monitor and mix in real-time analog while still getting a backup to the DAW. 

The flow of the API channel strip is really great, it’s really conducive to our studio, and it's just a great sounding board. We haven't done anything to customize it; we've kind of kept it as is. Of course, everybody has a different way of working with it—from myself to all the different engineers that come in—but it's a workhorse, it does a lot, and it sounds great. We've had nothing but a great experience with the 2448.

How are you using the Avid MTRX Series interfaces and control surfaces in your workflow?

As we were thinking about updating the interface and adding more channels, there was talk amongst ourselves of what we wanted to go with, because there are a number of fantastic options out there. But for myself and a lot of the engineers that come in regularly, Pro Tools is our go-to, so having that Avid connection is important; I think it helps the workflow. 

The sound of the MTRX units, with the pristine A/D converters, is pretty transparent and that's what we wanted because we have so many ways to add color going in at our studio—whether you're doing tape and then into the box, or you're utilizing any of the outboard gear… we have a lot of ways to color it. So we wanted something that was as transparent as possible, which I think the MTRXs do well. 

Also, having the HDX connectivity is a great upgrade for us. For those engineers that are running plug-ins while they're tracking, having that zero latency option is fantastic, and it was something we were lacking before. You can get it down pretty low with the Apogee in certain ways, and some people don't notice it, but others definitely do and now we don't have that problem. 

We are also looking to potentially integrate our headphone system more with these new units using the Dante Virtual Soundcard and running it that way; we don't have that capability yet, but we're getting there. That's one of our next moves—to upgrade that fully so that we have a lot more flexibility with the headphones. 

So it’s about the flexibility, more channels, a more transparent sound, and having it be Avid because Pro Tools is our go-to. So far they've been great—they sound great, they’re easy to work with and manipulate as needed; it's easy to change routing and work seamlessly right into our patchbay, so we're good to go. We love them!

What was it like working with David Fisk to select the gear for the studio?

David was fantastic! We came to him with this crazy timeline and said, “We need to build, top to bottom.” We had nothing; at the time we had a C3 organ that's still there, and it's a wonderful-sounding organ, but that was it. Internally, we had come up with everything we thought we needed to build this studio from the ground up—consoles, monitors, speakers, headphones, the outboard gear, the backline… we had the whole thing as a theoretical list. Then we went to David and said, “We need to do this and get it shipped to Iceland in about two and a half months because we have a deadline and we have The New Mastersounds already scheduled to come record and be our first artist.”   

And being in the midst of COVID, a lot of decisions had to be made on the fly. At this point I can't even remember it all; it was kind of a blur, it was so crazy. [Laughs] We were on the phone with David probably two or three times a day at times, talking about what was available and when it could get to either Vintage King for Cedric Yee to do his part, or where it could go to Burbank to get on the rocket cargo pallets. It was a very fun and intense process, and David was awesome the whole time—he just rolled with all the punches. It was very positive, no one ever got stressed, and it was like, “Let’s just get this done”. And we got it done! 

We got there and literally met the semi-truck with everything within 15 minutes of getting into the country, after this whole crazy process of doing it all remotely from the States up until that point.

We've continued to stay in touch with David since then—he helped me with the MTRX units—he’s a reliable guy and when we're in need of stuff, he's the guy we call. 

It must have been quite a challenge to get the gear together and ship it to this remote location in Iceland.

Yeah, it was crazy! There were definitely some moments of wondering, “Are we going to be able to do this?” But then it all worked; it was pretty wild. Our interior construction crew had been building the floors, the acoustic treatment, the isolation booths, running XLR connectivity etc. so that when we arrived, we could just plug things in. So we showed up and then literally 15 minutes later, the semi arrived with everything on it except for the tape machines, which got delayed and got there two days later. Then the band arrived and they literally helped us take off the door and put the tape machine in the studio and get it installed. It was a wild process but we made it happen, and Vintage King was definitely instrumental in that, for sure.

What was it like working with Cedric Yee and Vintage King during the installation?

Cedric was great! We had decided, because of the remote nature of the studio and because of the timeline, that there wasn’t enough time to get everything ordered, shipped, fully assembled, built, routed and wired up at the studio. So David said, “What if we got road cases so that we could ship it all in racks, ready to go?” That's where Cedric came in and we started talking about our outboard plan and how that integrates into the patchbay, and just all the different components, so that was a super fun process. 

We had to measure and make sure that the cabling runs would make sense, but we weren't in the room—he was in Michigan, we were in Colorado—but he was great. We worked together to come up with the patchbay layout, the outboard gear layouts, and then he was able to get it all soldered and wired and get all of our P90 connectors labeled and ready. So we got it all in road cases with the patchbay plan and it was as simple as making the P90 connections, wherever it was labeled, double check the plan, and it was good. I think out of however many connections that he had to solder and physically make, there was only one that was a little bit loose that we had to just quickly tighten. That's a testament to his thoroughness and attention to detail because there was really nothing that was a surprise in a bad way.

It was a unique process for VK and for us to do it that way, but it worked and we were able to go right away and have this amazing studio and this amazing first experience, which then set the tone for all of our subsequent sessions. It’s just been a very fun and positive journey thus far. 

Of course, things can go wrong, gear can fail… you know, the studio gremlins come up. [Laughs] In Iceland it’s the elves. 50% of the country believes in them; so we say ‘studio elves’ instead of gremlins, but that stuff has been very limited for us. We've gotten a lot of compliments saying that stuff works, that it's easy and there's no waiting or downtime because we're trying to fix some piece of gear or figure something out. I think that’s a testament to how we started—getting off on the right foot, even though it was through this crazy experience of doing it all remotely and then shipping it all out on a tight timeline. 

The studio is named after a Viking—maybe he's keeping the studio elves at bay.

Well, in Iceland, the trick with the studio elves is that we make an offering to them at the beginning of a session—and we do this at every session that I'm a part of. We make an offering of a liquor called brennevín, which is a local alcohol that some people really like and some people don't, but the elves really like it and it's the most local thing we could do. We also make a miniature charcuterie board with some chocolate, meats, cheeses, and little snacks, and we put it in a sort of hidden spot because they're very shy—they might mess with you, but they're shy about it—so you have to do this offering. I know it sounds a little woo woo or whatever, but it kind of helps make things run smoothly! So that's what we do—we talk about the elves, we acknowledge them, give them a little offering, and then the sessions go smoothly. 

What are some of your favorite pieces of outboard gear?

We were able to come in and have a great budget so that allowed for some really fun stuff. There’s some of the standard stuff that we have—I love the Chandler Limited RS124 compressors, those get used all the time; the Pultec EQs are great; I love the Mercury tube amps; the Neve pres; the Distressors… all of those things are used constantly and it's part of our sound. Those are common pieces of gear for people—they know them and love them, and it’s great for people to see them in physical form as opposed to just maybe a plug-in they’ve been using for a long time.  

I think we're pretty happy with our outboard selection. It’s a good mix and we're always thinking about the pieces of gear that we either couldn't get back when we started, or that would just be a nice fun addition, but I think we're covered pretty well for the majority of what people want to do with their recording.

Which microphones do you find yourself using most often? 

Obviously, every session is different; everything has a different need and different application, so we get out a lot of microphones! I love the Coles 4038s—they’re great on overheads, but we've also done strings with them and they sound fantastic. 

Then there’s the standard Shure SM57 on a guitar amp, so that's a go-to, with maybe a Royer combination a lot of the time for guitar. I love the Josephson e22S mics on the toms; I've gone back and forth with the Earthworks recently, but I'm really liking the Josephsons at the moment. 

Some of the projects for the Flóki Studios label are centered around that funk/jam/soul vibe, so the Leslie gets used a lot in that capacity, and for that it’s two 57s, left and right top, and then a Sennheiser 421 on the bottom and that's all we need. Very tried and true method.

For vocals it's always different, since everybody's voice is different and unique, so we try things out and see what sounds the best for that person and that moment.

Do you have a go-to signal chain for recording, or do you use something different every time?

It is different, but for something like bass DI, nine times out of ten it’s: bass DI, Pultec EQ, Distressor, API—that's a great chain that is very consistent. Other than that, the variables are so many—you add a new person playing an instrument with its own variables, and all of a sudden you've got a lot of variables that have never existed before.

Also, everybody's different—we've had engineers that come through and they're very detailed about how they want everything set, well before even getting in the room, which is great. For me, personally, I like to do it more organically with the session as it's happening and see what works.  

Tell us about the monitors that you’re using.

We have the ATC SCM25As as our main monitors, along with the ATC SCM0.1 sub. And then we have the Avantone Pro CLA-10s that are kind of our B monitors, for reference. Some people have used those for the entire session and they love it, but I primarily use the ATCs. Everybody loves them, they sound great, and work really well with the room so we're very happy with them.

How do you feel about plug-ins?

I love them. When I’m at Flóki, I don't use them that much—we kind of have what we need but otherwise, like here in Colorado, I've got my home studio and I don't have all of the wonderful outboard gear here at home so I use the UAD stuff which I love, a lot of the Waves stuff is great, and I'll use the API channel strip—the capabilities of what plug-ins can do has progressed so far!

For Flóki, I kind of stay out of them, especially when we're going straight to tape. It's a nice change of pace to just stay out of the box as much as possible, use what we have and do things the analog way.

Is that about the essence of the place?

Oh totally! People definitely will use plug-ins and part of upgrading to the MTRX units was the ability to then have those be integrated while tracking with zero latency. But for me, being the Director of Flóki and the label and having the company ethos in mind, it is about the essence of Flóki—we just love analog sound. 

One of the things we did with the console is that we built it at a higher level than most studios, so the most comfortable way to be in there is to be standing if you’re tracking a band. I love it because you're not just sitting and looking into a computer screen, with tunnel vision. You're in the moment in the room; especially with the tape, which is so interactive—it's a physical process. You're moving back and forth from the console to the tape controller and it’s a lot of physical movement, which I really love. So with that being part of the essence of it, I don't need the plug-ins. 

But again, the studio is fully functional so if you want to do everything in the box, you certainly can, and people do, because it’s about whatever is best for the session and the people working on it. We’re always trying to expand and allow anyone to create in whatever way they want.  

What is a typical day in the studio like for you?

It’s so remote—there's nothing around and it’s right on the water. There are some houses, so in the summer there are a few local neighbors and a little bit of activity. In the winter, we are the only people there, so it's a very quiet experience and always very refreshing. You arrive at the studio, get out of the car, and if it's not wind and snow blowing 45 miles an hour, it's generally very peaceful.

I've been there during the winter solstice—the shortest day of the year—where I think the sun came up at about 11:30 in the morning and set at about 2:30 in the afternoon and that kind of has an effect on how everybody feels. When it's dark all day long, that changes the mood and the vibe of the studio. And then I've been here for the summer solstice where the sun never sets—it just kind of goes right on the ocean, you can watch it, and then it just goes right back up the other side. Those sessions tend to go very long because before you know it, it's 1 in the morning and you've been working since 10 in the morning, but the light has been the same all day so your body doesn't know when to stop.

There are no distractions—I mean, we have full cell service, so it's not like we're completely cut off from the world—but you know, no one comes and knocks on the door and there are no real interruptions so you can really get into these grooves where the creativity is really, really flowing.

So for me, it's just about trying to find a way to capture that and keep that essence available to everybody so they can be free to do what they're trying to accomplish artistically.

I always like to get there a little bit ahead of everybody else if I'm engineering, because I love to be able to have that time to get my thoughts together, have some coffee, and start outlining what we’re planning to do for the day, while knowing that could very likely go out the door based on what needs to happen in the moment. Wherever the inspiration strikes, let's follow that, even though it may take us out of our planned agenda. So it’s about trying to set up the studio, the space, and the energy to allow for that creativity to really flow.

Are you working on any exciting projects right now that you're able to talk about?  

We are working on some things that I probably can't talk about yet because I don't want to speak before they're fully there, but we are doing a couple of projects that we tracked at Flóki that are now going to be released. There's one called ‘Higher Education’, which is a super cool collaboration that we did with a Jamaican reggae band out of Boston primarily, and then in conjunction with engineers in Jamaica. We've recorded some vocal tracks there, and some at Flóki so it's been this really cool collaboration of these two islands that are totally different. 

We also did a very cool project with a group of Icelandic musicians who are all very well-known in their own right. It was a jazz record so we had Peter Erskine who toured with the Weather Report for years, and Matt Garrison, who is a fantastic bass player out of New York—his dad was Jimmy Garrison, who was Coltrane's bass player—so he's got a very deep history there. It was a very cool, all-improvised, two-day session. We’ve taken eight and a half hours of purely improvised music and whittled it down now to about album length so that's exciting. 

There’s more to come, but some of it is not all the way there, so I don't want to say yet. We've been moving in the right direction with raising awareness about the studio, so people are excited to come from all over the world and it's been a very fun journey so far.

If you’re interested in purchasing an API 2448 console or any of the other gear mentioned in this blog, contact a Vintage King Audio Consultant via email or by phone at 866.644.0160.

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API 2448 24-Channel Recording and Mixing Console with Automation

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