Music stars besiege ACI studios Lekki

Following its recent launch in Nigeria, American artiste, Keri Hilson, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Peter Okoye of P-Square, producer Young John, Praiz, Mike Aremu, Timaya, Kaffy, Falz, General Pype and Skales are among a host of music stars that have been visiting the ACI studios complex in Lekki Lagos.

The new music company in town seems to be re-inventing the sound of Nigerian music and putting a bit of organization with the establishment of world class recording, rehearsal and dance studios.

The music company at its unveiling signed two acts, winner of the 2014 edition of Nigerian Idol, Evelle and artiste, Buckwylla. While Evelle, has been up and doing with her career, Buckwylla has released several songs and done major collaborations in the past with acts like Olamide, Cartiar, among others.

Statistics on music label Instagram page, @aci234, shows that several popular entertainment personalities have endorsed the state of the art facilities and affirmed the studio as a world-class entertainment outfit and the first of its kind in Nigeria, a welcome development for the continuous development of the entertainment industry.

In one of the videos on the page, one of the P-Square twins, Peter Okoye stated that the ACI studio is where he records. Aside videos and pictures of him recording in the ACI studios, the singer also endorsed the recording studios with thumps up emojis on his own Instagram page when he shared a picture of him sitting in one of the ACI recording studios.

“Work mood…for quality sound and proper mix and mastering, ACI studio is the place to be and get it done. Trust me, tested and approved,” Peter posted.

For DJ Jimmy Jatt, “ACI studio is the best place to get the best productions. If you are looking around for the best sound production, ACI Studios is the best place to be, for analogue and digital and whatever formats you want to record. You will get the best result at ACI studios,” he said.

Dancehall act and self-acclaimed General Pype during his visit endorsed the studio with a brief song extolling the virtues of the facility. “The baddest sound and don’t know what you are waiting for. Me say, ACI has the baddest and fattest sound; I don’t know what thinking about…ACI studios is the realest, the truth, wicked sound. You don’t understand,” he said in Jamaican patois

South Africa artiste, Capso recorded a song at the studios when he was in Nigeria and shared his opinion. “ACI studio is one of the nicest and dopest studios to work. The vibe is fresh and the people are cool…Big ups to ACI for building this amazing space.”

Rapper Skales during his visit to the studio declared it as the number one studio, saying: “ACI studio is world class, world standard and number one.”

Some Nigerian producers including Mastercraft, DJ Coublon, Young John, and Fiokee among others have visited the studio and endorsed the state of the art set-up. For Young John, “ACI studio is a top notch for everything in production, mixing and mastering. That dope quality you are looking is right here at ACI studio.”

Investigation shows that the influx of music enthusiasts into the studio is as a result of the facilities and organisation. With three studios in place already — A, B, C and the fourth studio D in progress, it obvious, the label is in Nigeria for serious music business.

The CEO of the outfit, Wole Adeniyi explained that the fundamental philosophy behind the creation of the company was to provide a breeding ground for the best professionals in music and film technology.

“I’m so honoured, to spare head the creation of this entertainment destination, which is a dream come true for all of us at ACI. Our mission is to empower the creative minds in the continent of Africa. But to achieve these ends, we need more than philosophy. We need a training ground; we need facilities, equipment and then, a platform. Our hope is that ACI will provide that platform for our entertainment community.”

Adeniyi explained that Studio A is world class analogue studio with a 24 track SSL board that can easily double to a 48 track, NS10 monitors, Manley Ref Card, Neve 1073 Mic Pre, the TubeTech CL1B compressor, DW drums and highly graded backline.

“It also caters for commercial voiceovers, animations or movie soundtracks as well as scoring for movies. The studio also has a fully equipped live room, which can record a full live band with state of the art instruments. Studio B is a standard digital recording studio with a Nuemann U87 vocal microphone, Digi 003, MPC 5000, Allen and Health Mixer, Mac tower and some urbane Virtual Tech music creation studio tools.

“Studio C is the rehearsal room which caters for a 25+ piece band and dance companies simultaneously, while Studio D is currently being converted into an artistic room for training producers & songwriters with 8 fully functional work stations. The room will also double as a lecture room to offer master classes for those interested in the business side of music & entertainment.”