Our bespoke analogue studio utilises a growing collection of analogue gear from reel-to-reel tape machine, analogue compressor and EQ, a great Tascam mixing console, spring reverb chamber and a whole host of instruments, mainly piano and keyboards.
See the studio gear listed below
We have created a really simplified version of a full recording studio suitable for recording overdubs, adding analogue effects to individual tracks, creating a coherent room sound, creating vocal effects such as tape delay and generally bringing digitally recorded music into the realm of the vintage analogue era of bands like The Stones, The Animals, The Beatles, Velvet Underground and The Kinks.
Working mostly remotely on the tracks you send, either digitally, tape or cassette, we can produce high quality finish recordings ready for mastering. Mixing music is an art form which is sometimes sterilised in the digital format of a computerised DAW. Bringing digitally recorded music into the analogue realm allows for a more organic and nuanced sound with much more richness, depth and texture.
Our spring reverb unit can be used to add flavour and context to individual tracks within your song, such as guitar solos or choruses, or we can build a room sound to help glue your track together and give it a more realistic, professional and authentic production. So whether its the raw crashing reverb sound of ska and early dub artists like King Tubby, the long lush Abbey Road Studios reverb on albums like Piper At the Gates of Dawn, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Odyssey and Oracle, or simply a bespoke creation especially for your music you can be sure we’ll find the perfect application.
Using reel-to-reel is more than just a fancy nostalgic gimmick. Tape delay can enhance vocals and solos, add lushness to choruses and even bring a creative edge to drums and other instruments. The added saturation and analogue warmth can set your music apart from other records and bring out some hidden subtleties.
Mixing
The easiest way to work with your finished song is to send over your individual digital song elements and for me to mix and produce the track under some instruction form you in regards to panning, dominant elements, vocal effects and general song comparisons. The first thing is to get a static mix of your song or songs and once you’re happy with that we will then create the analogue effects needed to create your finished track. Remember tape isn’t an exact science and the finished track will have fluctuations in sonic qualities and the overall speed; it won’t be the exact length as the digital version. What it will have though is a unique high quality finish and subtle changes in everything feeling more glued together and all the parts sounding more like a “Record”
We generally prefer to work on a rough mix where you’ve got your song to a static and dry position ready for reverb and echo. This means we have a good idea of what you want in terms of instrument panning and loudness. All echo and reverb should be removed from your plugin chain on your DAW unless its a creative choice on a guitar amp or specific drum sound.
The Gear
We have an array of analogue gear that can be utilised to create that vintage sound. Each piece of equipment, every wire and connector, every power supply and console adds some tiny amount of distortion to the tracks. Good distortion! that’s where the warmth in vintage recordings comes from.
The vintage gear is kept fully serviced so that we can be confident of getting a professional analogue sound with consistent results. All our analogue gear is checked prior to each session so you can be certain of getting files that will make your final mix so much richer.
Included in our set up are;
1968 Revox A77 Quarter Inch Two Track
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1983 Tascam 38 Half Inch Eight Track
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1983 Tascam 32 Quarter Inch High Speed Two Track
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Marantz PMD 740 Four Track Cassette
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Tascam m30 Mixer
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Vermona VSR 3.2 Vintage Spring Reverb
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KT – 76 (UA1176 Compressor Clone)
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EQP – 76 (Pultec EQ Clone)
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