Mixing Studio & Music Recording South London
Here at The Coolest Recording Studio in South London – we got a “Cup Half Full” mentality – in keeping with most of our creative mindset.
Positive people make positive things – & unless one is working in Doom Stoner mix world – this is a good place to be!
A lot of engineers wonder why we keep so much analog recording & mixing equipment in the studio – are we just manic hoarders? – or is there actually a reason to have all this clunky, heavy, beautiful – oddly designed stuff around?
It’s for texture options in both recording & mix sessions – so for tonal variation we might pick one mic preamp or mixer / eq – for a specific instrument to give it a certain feel in the mix.
But mainly – it’s for the dopamine like fix & positive feel good factor that working with music in real time with knobs & sliders brings to a session – there’s nothing like overdriving the front end of a piece of analog equipment in real time – or sweeping an eq into a real hardware reverb or delay.
Even if you don’t get all that “out there” mixwise – it’s just superbly satisfying to have your music running through a mixer (or in our studio – mixers – we have 6!).
Our two Alice mixers are amazing – not only do they both have gorgeous (but different) transformers at the channel inputs which add Godlike Saturation to any audio run through them – they also have stupendously cool limiters at their outputs which glue music together like nothing else …. & which also saturate nicely!
Don’t get me wrong – we Love plugins – & we got a whole plethora of them goodies from a bunch of different software designers – but they are a completely different mindset to utilising hardware – the programmability in a mix session makes plugins more of a studio instrument. They can (& are) used in a completely utilitarian way – but it’s automating effects that brings out the best in digital software.
We do a lot of that !
Analog Mixing Desks
This is our 4 channel Valve Tube mixer – it was built as a microphone mixer but we found that the Huge transformers at each channel input handle pre recorded audio really well & saturate beautifully.
It does shelve at around 70 hz – but that’s fine for everything but electro & dub music.
And yes – that Is a valve equaliser set just above the cables – is makes everything you run through it sound like Motown from 1960!!
Our Glensound was built for Welsh BBC & is extra high end – the mic preamps are likened to vintage API pre’s & are audio Gold !
It’s also outstanding for running audio through – & gives that 3D’ness that expensive mix consoles impart. Just running your full session / mix or stems through this unit will immediately make them sound more professional & finished
Last but by no means least is our fabulous D&R Stylyx mixer – it does have an 80’s “feel” to it – but is a proper analog console from back in the day. The preamps are exceptional & we have modded them with vintage transformer inserts for added saturation, grit & steel. Also – the parametric equaliser (available on all channels) is beautiful & cleans up audio treat.
