Studio

Recent clients

Have a listen to what our clients say about how we work. Recent recording, writing and production projects have included:

Writing, performance, arrangement and co-production for stems re-mixed at Shonk Studio, Oxford for Owen Paul's

'My Favourite Waste of Time 30th Anniversary' re-working of Owen's 1986 smash hit track.

Recording stems for inclusion with Stonebridge's remix of the latest Owen Paul club hit track 'Amazing'

Writing, recording and production on 7 tracks for Tony Myles (The Poets) Eurovision entries 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Stems for remixing by Shonk Studios for Airstar's album 'Retrospect'

Studio environment

At Start Recording we always aim to create a relaxed, informal and creative environment so that you can immediately feel at home. In this way you can get on with your best work performing and talking through your ideas to help you to get the right sounds and approach for your project.

Engineer

With over 35 years in the music industry as a guitarist, bassist, keyboard player, singer, songwriter, performer, band member and leader, session musician, producer, arranger and engineer, Prod at Start Recording has a wealth of experience and ideas to help your music come to life. If necessary we can also help you with sourcing session singers, drummers and musicians to help find the right 'vibe' and approach for your project.

Equipment

The centrepiece of the studio is a Solid State Logic (SSL) Nucleus controller enabling full hands-on control and recall of your mix in Logic Pro X. Our signal path utilises SSL's Superanalogue preamps, SSL Dynamics and EQ stereo channel strips, class-leading Focusrite A/D D/A conversion, 8 channel summing by Dangerous Music, and SSL bus compression and EQ. Outboard gear includes FET and valve compressors and valve EQ.

Process

At Start Recording our process is relatively simple - listen to what you'd like to achieve , suggest ideas where required, map out your arrangements, get great tones and record them.

From there we can help you balance these and sweeten them to provide a string and cohesive mix ready for mastering and release.

So that you can easily restore your session and re-mix later, to give you ears a break, Logic Pro X and the SSL Nucleus retain all your settings and we always note down the settings for each song on your outboard compressors, EQs etc.

Instruments

We use Cornell, Vox, Fender, Matamp and Blackstar guitar amplification. Bass amplification is via SansAmp and Orange DI, and Genz Benz. Guitars and basses by Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Kronbauer and Warwick. Room treatment is by Blue Frog Audio. Monitoring is through Adam and Avantone speakers. Microphones are by SE, Rode and Aston.

We use Sonarworks room correction software. Keyboard midi control is via Native Instruments Komplete Suite and Controllers. SSL, Waves, Soundtoys and Lexicon plugins and a host of other software.

Collaborative working

At Start Recording we aim to help you find the best solution for your musical needs. As a result there may be occasions where we can't provide everything you want in-house, but we can certainly collaborate with our friends and colleagues in other studios to help you attain what you need.

For example if you need a particularly loud drum kit recording, we can have a chat with our friends John at Shonk or Nick at Evolution Studios in Oxford. If you want the best mastering, we use Tim at Turan Audio. We want to help you to get the best sound you can using the most appropriate people and gear.