Approach
For our approach in recording sound for film, games and installations - click here
We can record live or multitrack - or a mixture of both. We can work to a click or not, it’s up to you - the format of the sessions are lead by you, not us. Each project is recorded with the primary focus of getting the best performance possible.
We would expect to record and mix a 3 or 4 track EP in 2 to 3 days as long as the band is well rehearsed and the line up is relatively simple. However, if we are able to work over a longer period we can experiment with hardware like tape echos, drums machines and synths.
As the live room and control room are quite large we often start a session by recording the drums and bass in the live room - both players wear headphones and the bass is DI’d and then later re-amped back into the live room. The other band members play in the control room so that we capture the live feel of the band, but have complete separation of instruments allowing us much greater freedom during the mix.
Software
The main DAWs we use are Pro Tools HD, Ableton Live 10 Suite, Adobe Audition and Logic Pro X. Our head engineer Sam is a certified 210M Pro Tools Operator and delivers lecturers using Pro Tools and Ableton. We use hundreds of different plugins including Native Instruments Komplete, Waves, Fab Filter, Altiverb, iZotope Suites and Valhalla DSP.
As well as all the above software that you’d expect to find at a studio we also use lots of more experimental audio manipulation tools - software like AudioMulch, SPEAR, SoundHack, Density, PaulStretch, The Mangle and Cecilla5
At the end of a project as well as your completed tracks, you will also get the stems for each track - meaning you will have the kick drum, snare, bass, synths, guitars vocals etc. all as individual files so that you can remix or edit your tracks later if you want to.
Hardware
The studio runs on a Mac with a 2.4 GHz intel core i9 processor and 32 GB of RAM meaning we are able to record and monitor lots of tracks at the same time with very low latency. We can use up to 16 simultaneous inputs via a Saffire Pro 40 and OctoPre MkII. We use reel to reels and cassette for effects and to add texture to tracks and drum machines, synths and many effect units and other assorted strange bit and bobs for making unusual sounds. We also have a collection of over 1000 library records which we can dig through to find elements to add to tracks.
We also have all the mics you would expect to find at a recording studio such as Shure SM7b, SM57s and SM58s, Rodes NT1 (the Australian one not the crappy remake) a stereo pair of NT5s, AKG D112, and 414s and many other strange (and some home made) mics. The live room also has a pair of Audio Technica ES933 condensers hanging from the ceiling so with can switch between a close and more distant sound for the drum overheads - this can be a really good way to open up a mix in a chorus and tighten it up during verses.
Examples of Work
As you can hear in the examples below, we work across all genres of music from folk, reggae, blues and post punk to hip hop, house music and electro acoustic compositions.
Pricing
£200 a day (£150 unemployed / low waged) for recording and mixing - either 9am to 5pm or 10am to 6pm
call or email for availability.