Music Recording & Production at SHStudios

Recording Studio South London Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in South London - we get to do all kindsa fun stuff! Recording Studio Shazzle !  So ….. you’ve got the basis of your track recorded – drums, bass, guitar, keys maybe – & vocals – now it’s time to dress it up with a bit of tinsel & fairy lights! Most people these days head for the loops folder – especially in Logic as it’s easy as pie to drag & drop some pre made loop into the mix to liven it up a bit – or to cut in some flavour. However! – it’s always a good idea to question where you’re going with said track – do you really want it to sound generic & perhaps a bit boring? – Cause loops really can be a bit bland. Take Funkadelic – did they use loops? Course not – they were a powerhouse of creativity – as were all the jazz bands from time! Listen to On The Corner by Miles Davis – it’s completely nuts – out of time cowbell – clave all over the place – but Boy does it sound good! So...

south london recording studio London Recording Studio Life !!   Here at The Coolest recording Studio in South London - we got the creation craving! We just Have to make new, interesting & exciting recording & mixing devices for our excellent clients . Our most recent research has led us to develop a set of microphones (Coppermics - made out of copper!) the formats of which do not appear to be readily available on the market. You can of course get mics spec built - but boy does this cost a ton of moolah & takes ages - so .... we put our heads together & came up with This beauty - the Coppermic King ! Microphone - The King - for vocals - guitar - drums Coppermic The King All three capsules are identical in tone & volume - the centre mic picks up the centre image of the audio you're recording, and the left & right capsules pick up the stereo information. You should always eq the centre mic with a slight (1-3 db) boost at the fundament...

 Recording Studio London Life ! Here at the Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we do try to rise to every occasion, so when we have repeated requests to reinstall our amazing Soundcraft one inch \ eight track multi channel tape recorder - well - couldn't say no could we. So - here she is in all her full Analog Glory!! Recording studio tape recorder machine There are of course tape hire costs & machine maintenance costs  (£40.00 & £55.00 respectively) - but the beauty of the sound far outweighs any extra £Poundage. It sounds as gorgeous with any of our vintage tube microphone preamps as it does with our modern solid state units on all sound sources - drums / keys / guitars / bass / vocals - & we're now officially the biggest recording geeks in London Town! You can see the studio HERE :

Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we don't half like our sounds Au Naturel - I mean we got some beautiful outboard (& plugin) reverb & delay units - & they're amazing - but sometimes - specially on drums - you just want that hyper real sound of the drums in their recorded space - & for that - the best thing to do is set up a condenser or ribbon mic about 6 - 12 feet away - & compress the living crap out of it. Solid state compressors will be faster & more accurate that tube comps - but tube comps will add warmth & tasty distortion. compressors & a lexicon verb You won't need to mix too much of this track in with the close mics - but get it right at the recording stage - & boy will it take your audio to another dimension! ..... I mean literally! You can also use proper outboard 'verbs or delays to add space & richness to your mix - these are Our main outboard spatializers : tc & dy...

Here at the Coolest Recording Space in South London - we like to get sounds down right! It is easy to over eq audio at the recording stage - so always err on the side of caution - & use it judiciously !!!  ( Word !) There are a plethora of different types of hardware eq out there - & they all react uniquely to the audio you throw at them. Graphic equalisers are useful for cutting & boosting instrumentation - but Parametric equalisers are much more creative & music tools - so we tend to use these in our studio. This is a vintage solid state Orban stereo parametric - it's not as defined as modern units - but has a very sweet tone so great for adding weight to vocals & guitars - or for giving drum ambient / overhead mics a classic texture: orban   TC make some superb equipment from live gigging gear to high end studio verbs, eq's & preamps. This monster is so sharp it can cut the tiniest sliver of offending frequency from a troublesome...

Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we got a Whole Gamut - a Plethora - indeed a Bounteous selection of audio toys to bleep, blurp, click & whistle their way into whichever compostiton fancies a bit of extra shting !  Extra Toys - most definitely do not need to be expensive - but they do need to be interesting - here's a few we've used recently to embellish various musics. 1. Drum Synth   These are great - you can trigger them by either cv/gate, hitting the front face with a pencil or finger, or even better - from an audio source like a live snare or kick drum.  They are made by Rakit & are based on the electroharmonix drum synths from the 70's - which were the coolest of the bunch.  It's excellent for adding subs or modulation to a kick drum - noise to a snare - or indeed just playing along live to add odd rhythmic textures to a track.  Next up in a very odd looking thing we got from a £1.00 shop in peckham, Londo...

Here at The Coolest Recording Space in South London we like to get supercharged - which is why we're renown for turning All our knobs up to 11 !! Here's a few videos showing how tube compression affects the sound of the mics: 1 - The Behemoth: - lots of heavy duty transformer / valve compression - great on drums. 2 - The Vortexion - a tad more hi fi sounding - these were used by Joe Meek - The Who - & a whole bunch of cool engineers back in the day. Also great using a condenser mic for piano!   3 - Akai preamps - these came out of an Akai reel to reel tape machine - they sound nice & crunchy on drums - great on guitar (electric & acoustic) & great on percussion. We do have a large collection of vintage tube preamps at www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com - all have distinct supertasty flavours we use to capture a certain je-ne-sais-quoi - that magic element that makes a good recording sound Great. Sometimes - you just need some e...

  Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we got an amp & speaker addiction! - We like 'em BIG - we like 'em small - it's all about tone, the size of the sound, & the spread of the soundstage - whether you're after a perfectly placed guitar in the mix (listen to early Van Halen ) or a wall of sound ( Black Sabbath ) - this is the quickest & easiest way to track that something special. Also a great way to get that huge bass sound you always wanted - here's how: First :  - you're gonna need either a splitter pedal - or a Boss tuner (they have two outputs) guitar tuner splitter pedal  - one output goes to your regular amp - like this one: recording bass amplifier amp This will give you the meat of your tone - so for instance - if you were a jazz guitarist & liked a lot of clean heavy bottom in your guitar sound - you may well use a bass rig as your first amp - and a smaller guitar amp with a 10 or 8 inch sp...

Here at the Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we do like a big fat bootifull low end - as much as we like melodic mids & tingling highs - & while there are a gazillion mixing / production tricks to make the bass sit nice, pop out or groove summore - you always gotta start out with the basics - & get the badass tracked. First thing's first - get your bass player settled - doesn't matter if they're sitting or standing - they're gonna want to see the drummer - or at least the control room. Plug the bass into a DI ( Direct Injection ) box before any pedals or fx units they may be using - you want a good clean signal going to your recorder - you can use this as is to mix in with the mic'd up amp - you may want to process it with effects or software amp emulations - or indeed you may want to run it into a different amplifier and re record a different tone later down the line. Here's a pretty good quality di: You just plug into t...

Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in London Town - we get all kindsa musicians rolling through the door to conceptualise & make real their dreams & visions.  Here's how we deal with your live singer guitarist - your performance artiste - they may not have great recording technique - but they sure can turn the fire on - & that's what we got to capture. Generally sonorous, storytelling types like Joan Baez / Woody Guthrie   \ Leadbelly et al - these folks need to be in the zone - there's generally no overdubs or performances stitched together - they want it done live - they want it done proper! So - this time with Mr Ben Holland - we set up a dedicated vocal mic set approx 18 inches away from his mouth. Then we set up two identical ribbon microphones - one facing the head, & one facing the guitar body. Angled like this the top one should reject guitar noise, & the bottom one should reject vocal noise - done right it works beautifully. We ...

Modding Microphones for that Extra Shazzle!  Here at The Coolest Recording Studio In London Town - we like to tweak - until things are just that little bit extra - & that little bit better. Modifying microphones - why woudja? Well - ribbon microphones all have that lovely natural openness about them - but! They also all suffer (to greater or lesser degrees) from shell resonance - frequencies generated by the protective casing built around the ribbon. This is a ribbon mic we had built & modified by xaudia a few years back - it is made from a modern ribbon, a vintage reslo transformer, a piece of meccano & part of a light fitting - looks a little nuts - but sounds heavenly - & because it has no casing - there's zero shell resonance - so it gives a very pure image of what its' recording. Here's a better view of the transformer :     This is a dynamic mic made by Peavey - of all people - it's the one ...