Performance space, packed with features and personality.
LIVE ROOM
Our live room forms the largest part of our unit. Dead Basic Studio is situated in a large repurposed cotton mill spanning three of the buildings internal archways. The architectural solidarity has lead to several benefits to us as music makers – large windows allow the passage of daylight throughout the studio, a rare benefit considering most rehearsal spaces or recording studios at our price point can usually only provide a windowless dungeon of despair.
Now that we’ve seen some vital sunlight and quashed the myth of the ”studio tan” we can close the windows and with the help of our acoustically isolating 1.5m thick walls and solid concrete floor, enjoy the peace and quiet of ideal recording and performing space – no more noisy neighbours!
The live room is equipped with a venue spec in house PA system for sound reinforcement in the room during rehearsals, pre-production sessions or live music video performance. Couple this with our stage grade lighting rig, with moving heads and colour washes or the lamp light of our adjustable height industrial style, remote downlighting you can set the atmosphere to get the perfect take.
We can’t ignore the elephant PIANO in the room for much longer – our beautiful sounding Danemann Medium Grand. Situated under our ceiling diffusers, or wheeled out into the live room to open the attack and brighten the tone, if offers a warmth and resonance unlike many other recording pianos. None of the brash or overly bright tones we might expect to see in a modern instruments, this vintage piano provides shimmering highs, full sounding midrange with definition all the way down to the low notes in the bass.
Moving across the internal wall that separates us from the control room you may have noticed our original Hammond TLM organ. A well loved example of the instrument, this model boasts a working in-built rotary speaker, comprehensive bass pedals and all the buttons and switches to get you those familiar Hammond sounds without lugging your prize B3 out of storage – who’s got the patience or funds for B3 these days anyway?
Opposite the control room window, giving great line of sight between all performers and the engineer at the controls, we come to the drum kit. Put simply a well captured drum kit in a great room forms the foundation to a great recording. With this in the forefront of our minds we can place our kit in multiple locations in the live room space to achieve your sonic goals.
Maybe we’re after those big thunderous rock drums, deep low toms, and a bass drum that has depth without becoming muddy – with the rooms natural ambience and tuned flutter echo we can achieve that – maybe chime in some more of that room sound by patching into one of our ceiling mounted microphones. You will only ever be a connection away from adding length and depth to your kit sound without excess wash from cymbals or hi hats, our high ceilings ensure with correct placement we can completely avoid phasing issues often posed in smaller spaces.
Don’t forget, the live room is ideal for tracking multiple instruments at the same time so if we need to screen some guitar amp away from our snare drum to prevent those wires rattling we can move our broadband diffusers and gobos to create a new environment around the kit. Tailor the attack or bleed to taste.
We try to make sure we have a wide selection of guitar amplifiers and bass rigs ready to go. With a collection of hand picked and classic valve amplifiers, cabs and solid state gems (check out our spec) acquired to ensure you can just plug in and get great tones immediately. Maybe a single close mic on a USA Fender Blues Junior for a saturated solo or an obnoxiously loud Marshall JCM with a ribbon mic five metres back to fatten out those chords in the chorus? We digress…
DRUM BOOTH
We get it. Not every record requires a kit sound that could burst ear drums. Maybe we’re after the dampened deadened sounds of yesteryear. Maybe your obnoxiously loud guitarist/string section/pianist/horn section need to kept out of those overheads. Maybe your drummer needs a shower. We don’t judge, just open a window when we take a break.
Lovingly crafted by long time friend of Dead Basic founders, Dave Morgan (The Physics House Band) to provide minimal reflections whilst retaining a crisp sonic character this booth provides an ideal alternative to our main live space. With aesthetic nods to Wes Anderson movies, leather bound books or a steam room – the pine panel work makes snare drums full and resonant and ceiling cloud diffusers soften over zealous cymbal bashers. Theres also a window into the live space to make hand gestures of encouragement between ensemble members clear and visible.
VOCAL BOOTH
Fire in the booth. Not here, sounds like a total health hazard. Isolate your vocal from nasty room resonance, cut that voiceover with the slick clarity of the professional. Close the door and draw the curtain whilst you zone in to find that lyric. This will sound better than that demo you made singing through an old pair of tights in your parents wardrobe.
Like a walk-in ambience vacuum, this space is also ideal for hand percussion overdubs, smaller guitar amplifiers or any sound that requires no natural reverb
ISO BOOTH
To the untrained eye, this small vestibule between our live room and reception area might seem like an unnecessary amount of doors to navigate when you’re desperate for coffee number 23 or creative-direction meeting 37 but it actually forms the perfect space to hide away more guitar cabinets.
Directly connected to our guitar amp head collection in the control room via the patch panel, you can crank up the amp to frankly dangerous levels, whilst monitoring safely via headphones in the live room or behind the main monitors in the control room. Put a pedal in front to cut overdubs, re-amp an old synth, shoot out mics and tones at volumes you used to reach in your dads garage exactly two minutes before he used to walk in and softly encourage you take up crochet instead.
CONTROL ROOM
The second largest floor space in our studio our control room offers an acoustically designed and treated listening experience. With our focus on being able to monitor comfortably and clearly, it could be easier to find the sweet spot.
Centred around a time-warp condition Mackie 32 – 8 bus analogue console, Focusrite ADA and a choice of studio monitors it is as short journey to get great results.
The Dead Basic ethos has always been to try and create the shortest journey between the sound in your head and the sound coming from the speakers. We have carefully selected a modest collection of consumer, pro-sumer and industry standard grade equipment to offer the ability for engineers of all skill levels to feel at home and capable of getting the result.
From the engineers seating position, within arms reach to left or right hand side you can access a choice selection of guitar amplifiers patched out to the iso booths elsewhere, select and create pedal chains, patch in vintage keyboards and synths or plug into hardware processing.
Behind the engineers position, and with enough space to allow a musician to record guide tracks or cut overdubs behind you without tripping over a pedalboard, there are two comfy leather sofas making it a perfect space for musicians to take a break with a coffee, repeatedly refresh emails, scroll instagram or plan world domination. We find that 99% of the time it quickly becomes the perfect viewers gallery to contribute to production of your project as a team – with an acoustic guitar always within reach it’s effortless to pause the take, work out a vocal harmony, chat over talk-back and drop back into recording without interrupting the work flow.
Our control room benefits from air extraction to prevent dust, heat from equipment or coffee steam ever becoming overwhelming and a variety of lighting options to create the right environment for the sonic experience.
RECEPTION/COFFEE BAR
Brew up, make a snack, take a call and buy some merch. More than somewhere to hang your coat or re-string your guitar, help yourself to complimentary teas and coffees, buy a snack from our small selection of shop stock or grab some picks and a 9v battery for that new pedal.
If you bring cakes we’ll clean the mugs.
Feel free to drop some flyers, your ‘zine or grab some stickers for your roadcases.