Choosing a Recording Studio

Recording Studio Stuff

Choosing a studio is mostly about matching the studio to the project. A room that is perfect for a rock band’s live tracking may be wrong for a one-person electronic record, and the other way round. This post is about how to compare studios against each other once you have a shortlist.

Much of it comes from David Mellor’s May 1996 Sound On Sound article, which interviews producer Stephen Street and studio owner Jerry Boys. The article is thirty years old. Its prices and equipment lists are out of date, and I do not quote them. The reasoning about how people choose is a different matter, and it holds up better than the gear lists. I also use Tom Flint’s 2016 report on a one-day band session and Wikipedia.

Start with the type of record

Mellor opens the article by saying an “unplugged” session needs a very different studio from a techno track full of MIDI. Boys makes a similar split between a MIDI-based record and a “musician”-based record: the latter needs a decent recording room with proper acoustics and a good selection of microphones, while the former may need more technology-type facilities. Some studios have a separate MIDI room.

A large mixing console in a control room with two people standing behind it and a computer screen

Image: The board in the Studio A control room at FAME Recording Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama by Ralph Daily, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Studios come in tiers

Mellor describes roughly three kinds of studio. At the lower end of the range he says you will find compromises that reduce the chance of a top-quality recording. In the middle he finds studios that were once very well set up but are now looking tired. His point about those is useful: as long as the equipment is well-maintained it doesn’t matter how knocked about it appears, and a slightly downmarket atmosphere can be less intimidating. At the top, he says, a good studio should feel like a five-star hotel with recording facilities instead of a pool.

Compare the console and the people, not just the brand

Mellor says the choice of studio is often governed by the equipment the producer or engineer recommends. Boys says most of the major manufacturers’ consoles sound fine these days, and that it comes down to ease of operation and whether the console has the facilities you want. He says the top-line consoles have sounds of their own and automation systems people are familiar with. I’d read that as a reason to ask the engineer what they are most comfortable with, rather than shop by logo. (That’s my own suggestion.)

Boys also makes a case for house engineers: they know the studio and how it works, and sometimes how it doesn’t.

Maintenance beats a long equipment list

Street’s priorities were a well-maintained desk, well-maintained machines and good-sounding speakers. Mellor says maintenance is vitally important. Equipment doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, so ask how the studio handles faults.

Look at the rooms and the geography

Street wanted the control room to sound right and wanted a good playing area for the band. Boys says geography matters. His studio’s distance from the record companies was a draw for some clients, who liked feeling locked away from the A&R department, and a drawback for others. For an independent artist the equivalent question is simpler: how far will people have to travel, and where will they stay?

Booking terms

Mellor describes several arrangements. It’s common to book by the day, and he says a day is around 14 hours. Alternatively there is a “lock-out” arrangement, with 24-hour access and equipment left set up, though time is wasted when people sleep. He says rates are often negotiable. Extras can include having a piano tuned, using unusual equipment, buying tape from the studio or paying a handling charge to bring your own.

Those are the arrangements of 1990s professional studios, and a small studio today may do things differently. Flint’s report adds one question that still applies: producer and studio manager George Apsion advises asking whether setup time is included in the day rate. He also says his one-day band sessions work best when the band decides in advance either to focus on one thing and do it well, or to do something rough and ready, like a well-recorded live session. He calls the attempt to get two or three songs finished in a day “binge recording”.

A long mixing console with two monitor speakers and black chairs in a dark-walled control room

Image: A 48-channel console in Studio A at Ardent Studios, Memphis by Katie from Memphis, TN, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Meet the person who will record you

This is my own suggestion. If you can, talk to the engineer before you book. It tells you whether you will work well together, and a good engineer will be happy to explain what they would do with your project. The sources show how much of a studio’s value is in its staff. Boys says house engineers are important and have become more so in recent years.

A short decision list

  1. Define the project: live band, MIDI-based, voice, or mixing only?
  2. Shortlist by type of room, not by gear list.
  3. Ask how the gear is maintained.
  4. Ask who will engineer your session.
  5. Read the booking terms: hours in a day, setup time, extras.
  6. Visit if you can. The series post Careers in Audio, and When to Book a Studio Instead of Recording at Home has more on deciding whether to book at all.

Sources