Portable Location Mobile Recording Studio
Our portable recording studio rig has 20 channels of mastering grade converters (Antelope) – so we can capture high quality audio in any space – a church – a school hall – your front room or garage – or indeed outside in the fields, woods or on the beach! (we hire a silent generator). So if you fancy recording your track or lp somewhere very special and inspirational – we can do that for you.
We have a large selection of microphones (ribbon, tube, condensers and dynamics) and preamps (everything from vintage tube pre’s to superclean modern solid state units). Shown above in the rack we have the fabulous Line Audio 8mp – 8 high quality channels of neutral preamp that sound excellent on every sound source. Below that is our CLM DB400s set of 4 mic pre’s – based on a Neve design but cleaner as they are transformerless – these are very fast, high quality preamps we use for vocals, acoustic / classical instruments and drum overheads. Below that are our Yamaha MLA7 pre’s which are not expensive – but they do sound lovely and punch way above their price range – these are great for character and colour. At the very top we have the mastering grade Antelope Zen Studio 20 channel DA/AD converters – which capture crystal clear audio for us at any location, and right at the bottom we have our Chilton headphone amplifier for high quality headphone monitoring.
Big Bear Audio MP1 – about as transparent a mic preamp as you can get (it’s up there with the best of them) – so for efforlessly clear vocals – this is our go to preamp. It works flawlessly with any mic – so we can use everything from dynamics to condensers to tube mics or our vintage ribbons and Still capture beautiful vintage toned vocals – it’s a wonder! We run the MP1 into our HRK CP554 compressor – usually with gentle settings just to catch any peaks – though you can drive this lovely comp into near distortion if that’s your goal! What we use for high end voice reel / voice over work.
For something a little more Characterful we have our Neve clone made by the wonderful Phoenix Audio. You can push this mic preamp into harmonic distortion – which may not sound too great by itsself – but in a mix adds a ton of energy to a vocal. The harmonic saturation is so good we use it to mix through. This guy shines on vocals, guitars, classical instruments and drum overheads.
Our HRK CP554 diode bridge compressor is one of our very favourite (and Most portable) compressors. It goes from gentle transient control all the way to near distortion growl – so is good for transparent vocal tracking to room mic destruction – and all points in between! We bring this in our 500 series rack if a bit of extra special is in order (which is mostly always). You want care and attention to detail – that’s what we do! #mobilerecording #portablerecording #locationrecording
Our Amazing JJ Electronics API 512 dual mic pre’s are our go to for drums, guitars and especially vocals – Especially Rock Vocals!! Everything we record through these sounds beautiful, punchy and crystal clear, and the lovely transformers add some beautiful analog saturation to warm up the signal. These guys sound sublime on any sound source – and a Lotta folks say they’re better than the originals!
Mobile Studio Microphones
Shown above are a few of our microphones – there are no hidden charges or extra rental fees wth us – just one simple agreed price (see below for pricing). On the left is our Peavey 520i mic – we have 5 of these outstanding mics which we use for horns, kick drum and bass guitar. Next to that is our Bang and Olufsen BM6 Ribbon mic (which the Royers are based on) – beautiful as an ambient mic on any sound source and an exceptional vocal mic. We keep three of these amazing mics. Next is our pair of Reslo ribbon mics. These are phenomenal on guitars and also as percussion ambients / overheads. We use them a lot with dynamic mics to add natural ambience to a sound source. In the centre is the superb Beyer M88 – one of the very best dynamic microphones out there, and also splendid on guitars and bass. You can find our full gear list below – we chat with the client about what the prospective recording will need and come tooled up accordingly!
Mobile Recording Studio Prices
Prices vary according to where we are travelling to and the complexity of the session. We are based in London but will travel as far as Europe if needed. For a full band setup within the confines of London we charge £320 for a 7 hour day – the client pays any parking fees, and the 7 hours begin when we arrive at the venue. For easier less complex sessions we charge less – (call us to discuss – 07538 150710). Podcasts / conferences are also catered for.
Mobile Portable Voice over Voice reel Recording
If you want us to come to you for voice over or voice reel capture – we charge a base £30 per hour with a 3 hour minimum. We’ll bring high quality microphones, stands and mic shields to make sure you sound your very best – right in the comfort of your own home.
Live Band Mobile Location Recording
Finding an interesting location to record in not only puts you in an interesting space to capture your music – it also starts a story which you can build on for social media / blogging and as a secondary story to the music itsself ….. how the music was made! Thus generating interest in your upcoming release. Worth its weight in gold! Here’s a before and after video to show you what we can do!
Track 1 was recorded live in a country house room at the same time the video was being shot. We managed to isolate all the instruments enough that the audio bleed was dealable with at mixtime – as you can hear in the final mix.
Sounds like a record!
We used hypercardioide microphones to isolate the guitars and bass from the other sound sources and ran them into some tasty analog mic preamps.
Track 2. We recorded the drums in the drummers garage – which sounds like a sound engineers horror story – but with good mic placement we captured the power and tone needed for the recording …as you can hear – it kicks like a mule!
Our amazing HRK EQ522 modules are 500 series & racked in a portable case so we can bring them along to any recording session. They bring clarity, depth and warmth to any audio source we run through them. They put the sparkle on bass, drums, guitars and of course vocals – plus they are also amazing at adding life to any pre existing dull digital files. You can perk up a mix or master just with a few tweaks on these chaps! For voice over work we use these on just about every session – it’s not the natural clarity they add to voices but the beautiful deepness that gives authority to any actors voice. If you know – you know!
Our amazing Harrison eq’s. We mainly use these for mixing as they Only bring good magic to any production. You can get quite surgical with these guys – but we mainly employ them for gentle broad stroke work to sweeten mixes etc – but! At recording time they can sweeten up any sound source from vocals to orchestras to drums, and are superb at notching out problem frequencies – especially in venues (like churches or halls) that are a bit resonant.
We bring them along in our 500 series rack to make sure your mobile recording is tip top and mix ready!
BBC Glensound Compressor Limiter
These are some of our favourite limiters / compressors – they’re modded from vintage BBC Glensound headphone amplifiers that had limiters built in to protect users from volume spikes – but we rewired them and now they can be used for gentle compression all the way up to distorto mania using the Increase Level key. They superb for adding energy to audio signals and for creative sound shaping. They are such high gain that they can also be used as microphone preamps!