Anyone have any recommendations for budget London recording studios?

I've had very bad experiences with sound engineers in London, most of them are greedy, lazy and have no ears for any kind of music apart from M-People. The kind that play you Phil Collins to show you how good their monitors are...

My new thing will need to demo at some stage and a good, friendly, cheap studio would be nice for a change.

Good, cheap studios in London are sadly scarce in my experience. I've used good/expensive ones and cheap and shitty ones. Also expensive and shitty ones.

There is one particular studio near Camden that I know well that people often use for hardcore/left-field stuff and that is often described as cheap and decent, but it really isn't. PM me if you can't guess which it is.

My advice (if you are into taking a risk, but a free one) is to contact the studio used for the City and Islington audio engineering courses (off Old Street) and see if you can't hook-up with somebody into your stuff. That where I studied for a while, and as part of people's courses they need tame bands as guinea-pigs.

Obviously some of the students are clueless idiots, and some are Phil Collins fans, but there are bound to be some into the kind've stuff you dig.

The gear there is 1000 times better than you'll find in a cheap commercial studio: SSL G-series desk, Studer 2", tons of great outboard stuff, bespoke acoustic studio-build etc.

Just an idea.

I cant personally recommend any but the music week directory is one of many things we use here for resourcing.

Champion Rabbit wrote:Just an idea.

A very good one. Cheers.

I'm not sure which Camden studio you are talking about, you mean it isn't cheap or isn't good or both?

Gramsci wrote:

Champion Rabbit wrote:Just an idea.

A very good one. Cheers.

I'm not sure which Camden studio you are talking about, you mean it isn't cheap or isn't good or both?

It's cheapish, but not good. The engineers aren't good either.

It has something of a name for itself, but it's entirely undeserved.

PMed you about name

The Fortress near Old Street is pretty cool.Some of the Neve switches are held in by paper clips but after you get over your initial annoyance you start thinking that its kind of charming. Good room, fair microphones, no one bothers you. Good MTR90, good MTR12, PTHD for those who do. For me its the best value room in London.

hollis wrote:The Fortress near Old Street is pretty cool.Some of the Neve switches are held in by paper clips but after you get over your initial annoyance you start thinking that its kind of charming. Good room, fair microphones, no one bothers you. Good MTR90, good MTR12, PTHD for those who do. For me its the best value room in London.

I've spoken to these guys, they were really cool on the phone. It wasn't that cheap, it seemed more like a place to record a self-release EP, rather than a demo for gigging.

Yeah, agreed.

We used Fortress a few times before it moved and it was very cool, but those were label-financed recordings; it certainly wasn't cheap and cheerful.

travel out a bit and try out this place www.thegranarystudio.co.uk. it's about an hour south of london.

rather tasty amek angela, mx80 2", and if you want digital then they've just got a dual g5, logic pro 7, and 2 moyu 192hd interface's. ns10's and krk 9000's (fucking sweet monitors), and a healthy mic collection.

i've not been as happy with anything i've ever recorded in any other studio, nor have i felt as comfy as i do there, regardless of price (and this place is very reasonable).


http://www.unlabel.net. there's a track by one of my old bands (not me playing) that was recorded at the granery about 3/4 years ago on the audio page. i know this sounds like an advert, but it's really not. this place is just awsome, even at twice the price.