Studios around Nottingham?

[radiophonic]

Bit of a long shot, but I know there's a few Midlanders on this site. My band is looking to record 'properly' for the first time and I'm trying to locate a suitable studio - one that knows how to record bands (rather than voiceovers). We're not a straightforward guitar / bass / drums setup either. I'm not a local and this is the first band in the area I've played in, so I'm totally flying blind. Anyone got any experiences? I guess it wouldn't [i]have [/i]to be in Nottingham, but it would need to be an easy drive. The nearest I've recorded to here is Abbey Sound Services in Rugeley, but that was a long while ago and from the look of the site, bands aren't a strong focus any more (although I know the engineer is excellent). Any recommendations? Any warnings?!

[VTypeV4]

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1485769267' post='3226443']
Bit of a long shot, but I know there's a few Midlanders on this site. My band is looking to record 'properly' for the first time and I'm trying to locate a suitable studio - one that knows how to record bands (rather than voiceovers). We're not a straightforward guitar / bass / drums setup either. I'm not a local and this is the first band in the area I've played in, so I'm totally flying blind. Anyone got any experiences? I guess it wouldn't [i]have [/i]to be in Nottingham, but it would need to be an easy drive. The nearest I've recorded to here is [i][b]Abbey Sound Services in Rugeley[/b][/i], but that was a long while ago and from the look of the site, bands aren't a strong focus any more (although I know[i][b] the engineer is excellent[/b][/i]). Any recommendations? Any warnings?!
[/quote]

Is that Lee? If so, he's a top chap although I've not seen him for a while..

Shoot me PM with a bit info about your setup and I may be able to help..

Cheers, Matt

[radiophonic]

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1485779286' post='3226561']
Is that Lee? If so, he's a top chap although I've not seen him for a while..

Shoot me PM with a bit info about your setup and I may be able to help..

Cheers, Matt
[/quote]

It is Lee. I recorded there in 1987, when he was tracking to 1" 8-track. It's still the best sounding demo I've ever recorded, which is amazing given that it was a thrown together band and I'd only owned a bass for 6 months. I've got some Epic45 singles that he recorded ~2000 too. Great sounding records. I'll drop you a PM.

[PaulWarning]

we used Random (http://www.random-recordings.co.uk/) for our last album, Verbal Warning - Red Star Radio, it's on spotify if you want to have a listen, which by consensus turned out well, in fact we're booked in to record our next album there in a few weeks, very reasonable pricing as well, the one criticism I have is that it does seem to take him a long time to do the mixes, he also makes a decent fist of the final mastering as well which keeps costs down,
I would imagine BigRedX will be along shortly, he's had more experience than I have of recording studios

[BigRedX]

Only just seen this thread...

To the OP what is your band line-up in terms of instruments and how do you you want to record - all together in the same room or are you happy tracking the instruments one or two at a time?

If you want to record a whole band in one go then you really need to be looking at JT Soar, as they are one of the few places in Nottingham that have a live room big enough. My band recorded our album [url=https://terrortones.bandcamp.com]SnakeOil For Snakes[/url] there, mostly live with just vocal and theremin overdubs. The only other Nottingham studio that I know of with an equally big live room is First Love, but I haven't recorded there for several years now since the previous owner left so I don't know how good they are any more.

If you are happy to track one or two instruments at a time there's plenty you can try. The most important thing (as with any studio these days) is that you get on with the engineer. The problem is that these kinds of places open and close with alarming rapidity so most of the ones I would like to recommend no longer exist. You could try Pyrex who I've used recently and have been competent and friendly.

[b]AVOID[/b] Confetti. It's a great looking studio with a lot of excellent and impressive gear, but because it is attached to a teaching facility, most of the people engineering the session will be students so the quality is very variable. And IME the teachers aren't all that much better. I've had the misfortune to record there twice. After the disaster of the first session where almost nothing we did was usable and everything except the hi-hats and some bass guitar had to be either replaced with samples or re-recorded at home, I vowed never to use them again. However my band were asked to contribute a track to a compilation album and the record label who were paying for the studio time had struck a deal with Confetti so we had to record there. The engineers at the tracking session were inflexible about how they wanted to record the band so we were all in separate rooms on headphones. It shows in the "performance" which doesn't have the immediacy of our other recordings where we all played together in the same room at the same time. Also because the engineers were inexperienced we ran out of studio time before recording the vocals and trying to get back in for this an mixing was hard work. None of the mixes produced by Confetti were actually any good, so eventually we got them to give us the audio files and went to another studio to mix at our expense. Even then they somehow managed to loose some of the guitar overdubs, so the finished track didn't didn't sound as we had envisaged, but by then we'd run out of time and were holding up the production of the whole album. Like I said at the beginning. Avoid.

[radiophonic]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1485966791' post='3228111']
Only just seen this thread...

To the OP what is your band line-up in terms of instruments and how do you you want to record - all together in the same room or are you happy tracking the instruments one or two at a time?

If you want to record a whole band in one go then you really need to be looking at JT Soar, as they are one of the few places in Nottingham that have a live room big enough. My band recorded our album [url="https://terrortones.bandcamp.com"]SnakeOil For Snakes[/url] there, mostly live with just vocal and theremin overdubs. The only other Nottingham studio that I know of with an equally big live room is First Love, but I haven't recorded there for several years now since the previous owner left so I don't know how good they are any more.

If you are happy to track one or two instruments at a time there's plenty you can try. The most important thing (as with any studio these days) is that you get on with the engineer. The problem is that these kinds of places open and close with alarming rapidity so most of the ones I would like to recommend no longer exist. You could try Pyrex who I've used recently and have been competent and friendly.

[b]AVOID[/b] Confetti. It's a great looking studio with a lot of excellent and impressive gear, but because it is attached to a teaching facility, most of the people engineering the session will be students so the quality is very variable. And IME the teachers aren't all that much better. I've had the misfortune to record there twice. After the disaster of the first session where almost nothing we did was usable and everything except the hi-hats and some bass guitar had to be either replaced with samples or re-recorded at home, I vowed never to use them again. However my band were asked to contribute a track to a compilation album and the record label who were paying for the studio time had struck a deal with Confetti so we had to record there. The engineers at the tracking session were inflexible about how they wanted to record the band so we were all in separate rooms on headphones. It shows in the "performance" which doesn't have the immediacy of our other recordings where we all played together in the same room at the same time. Also because the engineers were inexperienced we ran out of studio time before recording the vocals and trying to get back in for this an mixing was hard work. None of the mixes produced by Confetti were actually any good, so eventually we got them to give us the audio files and went to another studio to mix at our expense. Even then they somehow managed to loose some of the guitar overdubs, so the finished track didn't didn't sound as we had envisaged, but by then we'd run out of time and were holding up the production of the whole album. Like I said at the beginning. Avoid.
[/quote]

Well thanks for that last bit. Sounds like a big no no. I've had similar bad experiences, but not in Nottingham!

Live would be ideal vibe-wise, provided the engineer was up to the job of balancing isolation and room sound. We're very much a live band but the prog tendencies of a couple of band members and having a couple of 'proper' musicians in the band means we'd need a fair amount of control due to the vagaries of guitar sound switching and people playing more than one instrument in the same song (violin + keys primarily). I'd imagined going live in one room as a group to get the basic dynamics right, keeping a bed track of percussion, bass and rhythm guitar and then building it up.

The line-up is Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keys (emulating Organ and Harpsichord mostly, plus a few wind instruments), Violin and percussion (no drum kit though).

[BigRedX]

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1486072243' post='3229099']
Well thanks for that last bit. Sounds like a big no no. I've had similar bad experiences, but not in Nottingham!

Live would be ideal vibe-wise, provided the engineer was up to the job of balancing isolation and room sound. We're very much a live band but the prog tendencies of a couple of band members and having a couple of 'proper' musicians in the band means we'd need a fair amount of control due to the vagaries of guitar sound switching and people playing more than one instrument in the same song (violin + keys primarily). I'd imagined going live in one room as a group to get the basic dynamics right, keeping a bed track of percussion, bass and rhythm guitar and then building it up.

The line-up is Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keys (emulating Organ and Harpsichord mostly, plus a few wind instruments), Violin and percussion (no drum kit though).
[/quote]

I that case I would suggest that you go and have a look at JT Soar and First Love studios, have a chat with the engineers and see which of them has the right attitude, vibe and is sympathetic to what you want to do.

Edited February 3, 2017 by BigRedX

[radiophonic]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1486083229' post='3229190']
I that case I would suggest that you go and have a look at JT Soar and First Love studios, have a chat with the engineers and see which of them has the right attitude, vibe and is sympathetic to what you want to do.
[/quote]

Cheers. The interwebz don't reveal too much about either gear-wise (mics in particular). JT Soar looks fairly basic, but this could be entirely wrong. First Love a little less so and his CV looks pretty good too. 'Creative live recording' sounds about right to me. I'll talk it over. Any idea what kind of ballpark rates we'd be talking. Don't want to waste the guy's time after all.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1486121645' post='3229375']
Cheers. The interwebz don't reveal too much about either gear-wise (mics in particular). JT Soar looks fairly basic, but this could be entirely wrong. First Love a little less so and his CV looks pretty good too. 'Creative live recording' sounds about right to me. I'll talk it over. Any idea what kind of ballpark rates we'd be talking. Don't want to waste the guy's time after all.
[/quote]Random charge £175 a day, but you can negotiate with him, depending on how many days you're booking, he's a nice guy as well (and his name is Guy)