News

Inside A Recording Studio

• 3rd Feb 2011

The recording studio is the place where that great music we hear on stage becomes the album we will play over and over again. But exactly what goes on inside a studio?

I visited Glasgow Music Studios, the city’s newest facility, to find out. Lynne showed me around, explained the set up and patiently answered my many questions.

The Studios are in the middle of the city centre and offer both rehearsal and recording space to bands. There are three main rooms, all precision engineered and using state of the art technology.

Each has interchangeable acoustic panels that can be moved around to create the perfect balance for each band’s sound. It was all designed by an Italian company, who brought the pieces over and assembled it on site. This is the first facility in Scotland to use this new technology.

And each room comes complete with a drum kit, a range of top quality cabs and heads, and a variety of keyboards and guitars can be rented too.

The live room is where the recording is done, and it is linked to a high tech control room, where a digital workstation with enhanced Pro Tools software is used to mix and master the recordings.

Hans, one of three engineers who work at the Studios, gave me the low down.
“It’s best to use multi track recording,” he explained. “Each band member lays down their part on a separate track. It gives a better separation and we can apply effects or different processes to each to make them sound as good as we can.”

This process is very different from playing live and some bands can find it difficult at first. It is, of course, possible to record a band playing together, although Hans believes that the overall sound quality is never as good.

“It can be difficult at first because you are only playing to what’s in your headphones,” said Hans. “But most get used to the discipline involved fairly quickly.”

And it’s not just bands who use these excellent facilities.

“You get a lot of people who come in with their own backing tracks and record their vocal over it,” Hans told me. “We also do production and arrangement of songs for those who need it, as well as voice overs and radio commercials.”

The studios offer a number of different packages, covering rehearsal and recording time, with full details on the studio’s website. At £200 for a ten hour recording session it could be that a demo CD might just be more affordable than you thought.

Tuition is also offered in the Studios, covering everything from guitar and drums to saxophone and bagpipes. And you can learn about the production side of the music business too.

As well as the serous side of music, there are fun packages available too. You can come along with a few friends, record a couple of songs and take your very own CDs away with you.

And there are children’s recording parties too, with food and snacks provided, as well as the opportunity to record a song and design a cover for their CD.

I’m no expert on the recording process, but I learned a lot from my visit. The message I got is that you don’t need to be overly knowledgeable about the technical side as you can learn as you go.

Glasgow Music Studios offers great facilities, either for rehearsal or recording, in the middle of the city. And the staff are all very friendly and helpful too!

Check out the Studios' website link for further details.