The Void Within London Recording Studios
There are hundreds of recording studios in London, but finding the right one for your project presents a problem due to the ‘all or nothing’ nature of the industry. With the explosion of home based set ups, many of the larger studios can not afford to continue so we are left with void, studios that are either well established larger establishments such as Abby Road and Metropolis or home set ups.
The problem for the everyday musician trying to get a high quality recording with an experienced engineer is obvious, either pay top whack for the larger studios, or risk working from a home set up and potentially come away with something you wouldn’t play to the dog!
A London based company called Apple Beam Studios is bridging the gap by building a small group of professionals who have excellent quality residential or small commercial set-ups. The focus is on the engineers themselves as Apple Beam believe, “experienced engineers combined with talented producers are what create professional results for musicians”
As well as affordable rates, they have a range of services that work well for today’s musicians such as their ‘one-stop-shop’ music video production, which offers high quality video directors for you music, something that until now has cost bands thousands of pounds to do.
Apple Beam producer Darren comments, “we are growing, but at a slow manageable speed. Our aim is to keep things consistent and to a high standard, making sure the engineers and producers are working to their own strengths. Whether you are into Hip Hop, House, Rock or Techno, the Apple Beam engineer will specialise in that particular genre”
So I guess that is the key, a ‘team’ studio environment. Could this be the answer to the ‘recording studio void’ problem? Maybe we will see more of this, groups of producers creating an alliance so as to provide better quality at lower costs. A syndicate like this can advertise more effectively and use one another’s main skills for particular sessions, instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
It used to be that a song was created by a team of people from lyricists to engineers and arrangers. Might we be seeing a modern day version of this with four or five producers working together to create a modern studio businesses?
What’s for sure is that the home studio is here to stay, and what is more important than ever for those thinking of recording is to hear examples of producers work before you pay. Make sure the songs they play you were produced within the number of hours you can afford as many producers will spend a week on a song and say, ‘this is what I can do for you’ . . . sure, if you can afford a week, but then you may as well have gone to Abby Road!