Just added: Madrid's Estudio Uno - Page 9 of 67

We are very pleased to welcome our first studio in the Spanish capital of Madrid to the Miloco directory, Estudio Uno. This beautiful three-studio facility is located on the outskirts of Madrid, combining traditional analogue recording techniques and modern digital technology.

The main room is Estudio A, a large live room with SSL control room attached. With its varied acoustics and ample space, Estudio A’s is the perfect place to record everything from orchestras to big bands and smaller projects. The control room is centred around an SSL 4048 E+G console, with an efficient recall system kept in top condition. Equipment is divided in six racks at the side of the room, with the left side featuring high quality preamps, and the three right racks combining compressors, EQs and effects. Monitoring is provided by Eastlake Focal Twin, Genelec, Yamaha and KRK.

Estudio B is smaller than Estudio A, with smaller live and control rooms and an incredible array of outboard and instruments. This is a great room that is perfect for any kind of recording, from drums to vocals and mixing. The control room is centred around a Sony MXP 3036 console, accompanied by excellent monitoring and hand-made wooden racks with renowned preamps, EQs and effects. Estudio B’s live room is defined by its dry sound, an absorbent room ideal for recording voice, percussion, and even piano, thanks to the Yamaha U3 upright piano in the room.

Estudio C is the smaller writing and production room with a moderate sized live room perfect for writing, recording and pre-production. With lots of natural light and an acoustically absorbent space it is ready to record anything from keyboards to guitars or string instruments and vocals. It also has two main consoles that can be used separately or together, allowing you to mix within both the analogue and digital domain. Highlights from the equipment list include pieces from Neve and Kahayan, along with the 10 preamps in the Chilton CM2console, as well as Lexicon PCM 70 and Yamaha SPX900 effects.

The staff at Estudio Uno are ready to bring out the sound and true artistic authenticity of each and every client that walks through the door. Their goal is to provide the best environment for all artists, and an atmosphere where music flows, with all the technical and human resources available to capture it.

New studios: Fever Recording Studio

The boutique space is an expansion of existing LA Miloco partner studio, Clear Lake Recording, located a short distance away in North Hollywood.

Owner Eric Milos has gone to great lengths to create a luxurious atmosphere within the state-of-the-art space, complete with comfortable private lounges and full-service amenities

Fever Recording is made up of one large live room and attached control room, four production rooms, each with their own vocal booths, and a spacious communal lounge. Studio 1’s lovely live room has been fitted out with hard wood floors and deep, natural tones that create a warm and inspiring ambience in which to create. The live room is large enough to house a full band setup including grand piano, drums, guitarist, bassist and vocalist. The ample space means that it’s also a great location for filming!

The attached control room is centred around a SSL 4000G desk, supported by an array of vintage and modern outboard and impeccable monitoring from the likes of Augspurger and Yamaha.

When it’s time to kick back and take a break, clients of Studio 1 can walk up the spiral staircase to their exclusive, private lounge.

The experienced team at Fever Recording are at the ready to cater to all projects, from independent artists to the heavy hitters of the music industry.

For a limited time only Fever Recording are offering new clients discounted rates on their first session. Get in touch with the Miloco bookings team to enquire about this special offer, and book your session!

Introducing Miloco’s United States Studio Directory

The Miloco Group is proud to welcome Jason Dragon as the Director of US Operations. Jason will introduce a wide expansion of Miloco Studios across the United States, adapting and developing the Miloco vision of studio partnerships throughout the 50 states.

The premiere US studios featured on our website will be expanding widely in the coming months.

If you don’t find your ideal studio on our website, please email our bookings team and we will connect you with Jason, who is our expert in the US studio market. He is available for all your recording needs.

Jason Dragon was in demand as a US composer and songwriter for years before relocating to the UK to work as an artist with a number of legendary producers.

After two years in London, Jason returned to the US to focus on songwriting, music production and artist development. Jason has also advised several music companies as a strategic consultant.

He has been working with music technology companies since the earliest days of digital music compression.

Jason attended the Psychology PhD Program at NYU. His experience in music, business, technology, and psychology informs his unique approach.

Welcome Dock Street Studios

At the risk of being biased to our own work, we are so pleased to welcome Dock Street Studios to the Miloco Studios directory. The newly built recording studio complex in East London was recently built by our Miloco Builds team, designed by Nick Whitaker (Abbey Road, Olympic Studios and more).

Situated near St Katherines Docks, about as close as you can get to central London in Zone 1, the complex is comprised of two pinpoint accurate control rooms, each with their own live room.

Studio 1 is the centerpiece of the Dock Street Studio complex. It has a large live room has the highest level of precision acoustic treatment and can easily house a full band for live recording, as well as separation for individual instrument recording or overdubbing.

The attached live room is home to a 1980 John Spencer upright piano, a wonderful Mk1 Fender Rhodes ’73, and a 1960’s Ludwig Hollywood drum kit. It has a large vocal booth and is afforded excellent separation by two sets of acoustic sliding doors. This can be used for full cabinet guitar amps, or multiple singers/instramentalists. The live and control rooms are connected by a large viewing window to allow for maximum commucation between the two rooms.

Studio 1’s control room has the largest amount of acoustic treatment, being purpose built around the Focal SM9 monitors, and with floating bass traps, absorbtion and reflection planels within the fabric walls, the room possesses an extaordinarily flat frequency response. These are combined with the Shadow Hills master compressor, Heritage Audio 1073s, BAE 10DCs, 1960’s EMI valve pre-amps and much more.

Studio 2 is a small writing studio suite with a live room, booth and air conditioned control room.The live room has full height diffusion panels and circular ceiling absorbtion panels giving the room a fantasic ‘live’ sound, while still allowing for a controllable recording enviroment. Meanwhile the fully fabric lined booth gives a perfect enviroment for clean vocal and amp recording.

The control room is a purpose built shape to accentuate the already exceptional accuracy of the ATC SCM25A monitors with a large feature diffusion panel at the. The gear in studio 2 includes a 500 series rack with API 512C pre-amps, Heritage Audio ’73 Jr. pre-amps, a Serpent bus compressor and UA 1176 compressors.

Both control rooms benefit from Hue lighting to set the mood, Focal SM9s (Studio 1) or ATC25s (Studio 2), and running the latest version of Pro-tools and Logic. Let’s not forget the chesterfield sofas to sink into while you listen to playback.

With a wide range of instruments, including an upright piano, a 73 Fender Rhodes, a 1960’s Ludwig Hollywood Drumkit, with collection of guitars as well as a selection of microphones and high-end outboard gear this really is the perfect place to make music.

And when you want to take a break from it all, the studio has a large lounge area with TV and an impressive vinyl collection, fully kitted out kitchen and the wealth of East London’s cafes, restaurants and pubs on its doorstep.

Just added, Italy’s The Garage

Another week, another new studio added to our global directory of studios. We are so pleased to welcome The Garage Studio, an incredible residential recording and mixing studio in the picturesque Tuscan countryside in Italy.

Located between the cities of Siena and Florence, The Garage sits on a 10 hectare property and is comprised of two 150 year old villas that owner, sound engineer and producer Fabrizio Vanni, has transformed into the studio complex it is today while retaining their original style and charm. Surrounded by olive groves, gardens, a private wood, pond and swimming pool,the whole atmosphere makes for an unforgettable recording escape.

The studio is made up of two live rooms, as well as the additional halls in the villas that can be used for recording, and a large (50 metres sq) control room centred around a beautiful Solid State Logic SL9000J 56 channel large format custom console with Ultimation® moving faders automation. Clients will also find a wide range of equipment including vintage synthesizers, drum machines and keyboards, a real paradise for vintage lovers.

The two live rooms about 25 square metres each, with one housing a beautiful baby grand Yamaha C3 piano and a comfortable leather sofa, and lit by natural light. The third live room is inside the villa: a 50 square metres hall with an elegant atmosphere that also provides an incredible acoustic sound and aesthetic result.

The on-site accommodation provides eight comfortable, well-appointed bedrooms, each with their own private bathroom (which can accommodate up to sixteen guests), a biliard room, a library room, three halls, and two kitchens.

Owner Fabrizio Vanni has over 35 years experience in the music industry, starting his own label and opening The Garage in 2013. He and The Garage team have gone to great lengths to provide a high quality and inspiring environment for clients to come and write, record and mix their projects.

Explore the full studio page for The Garage here. To enquire about rates and booking your session, please contact the bookings team at bookings@miloco.co.uk

Just added: Belgium’s Daft Studios

Help us welcome DAFT Studios, one of the finest residential recording studios Europe has to offer. Located just outside of Malmedy in the Ardennes region of Belgium, Daft Studios is a brand new studio build in a beautiful countryside setting.

The main studios is a high end, Neve 5088 equipped facility, consisting of one of the biggest live rooms in Europe, which can comfortably seat a symphony orchestra, but be tight enough to handle all other types of recording. . The room is impeccably designed, flooded in daylight and has a balcony gallery underneath the high ceilings. Attached is a large control room and four isolated booths.

At the heart of the studio is the new Neve 5088 Shelford edition console, completely designed by Mr Neve himself. It is equipped with 5051 and 5052 compressor and mic pre-amp modules, of which Rupert Neve claims to be the best pre-amps ever built.

Centered around the console you’ll find a great choice of outboard gear, ranging from vintage to state-of-the-art equipment. Daft also provide very large and high class microphone kit, from the vintage Neumann U67 to Neumann CMV563’s, AKG C12 microphones and Schoeps microphones.

All clients have the wealth of the studio’s backline at their fingertips, including a Hammond RT3, 2 Leslies, Fender Rhodes, Rickenbacker bass with Fender Bassman cabinet, a vintage Fender Telecaster, Fender Twin Reverb, Roland Jazz Chorus, Korg MS10, Korg VC10 vocoder, Korg Monopoly and many more.

As an added bonus the studio has a personal headphone monitoring system. Each musician can make their own headphone mix, which saves time and adds comfort for the musicians.

On top of the studio is the eight person artist accommodation, which is included in the studio rate. As you can see from the images no expense has been spared or detail overlooked to provide accommodation that is both comfortable and beautifully designed.

The penthouse apartment has four double bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen with all the mod cons, dining room, a lounge, outdoor terrace, sauna and swimming pool for artists to relax in. For some fresh air the surrounding woods are perfect for strolls in between takes. To make your stay even more hassle-free, catering can be arranged with the studio for an additional cost.

Daft Studios has absolutely everything you could want in a studio and recording experience with top of the line studios and equipment in a creative and beautiful environment.

Miloco nominated for 2017 PSN Awards

Moving away from its traditional home at Ministry Of Sound, this year the awards will take place on September 28th at London’s Steel Yard, and Miloco Studios is delighted to be the headline sponsor of the evening.

Other awards to be given on the night are the Sound Engineer Of The Year, Broadcast Team Of The Year, Best Marketing Initiative, Best Live Sound Production, and Best Installation Project categories, judged by a panel of pro audio business experts. The coveted Rising Star award will be announced on September 28th, chosen by PSN’s sister publication Audio Media International, in addition to the Grand Prix and Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Miloco is very fortunate to have won PSN accolades in previous years. In 2014 Miloco won the Grand Prix award, and in 2015 Miloco engineer Matt Wiggins won the Studio Engineer Of The Year award, with The Church engineer Riley MacIntyre winning the Rising Star award, both presented by mentor (and the man behind The Church) Paul Epworth.

Tickets are still available for the PSN Awards ceremony, for all details click here.

2017 Mercury Prize Nominations at Miloco

Last week the 2017 Hyundai Mercury prize nominations were announced, and we are so proud to have been involved in many of the albums shortlisted. Of the 12 albums up for the grand prize, five were recorded in our rooms or by our engineers.

Dinosaur – Together As One
Dinosaur spent a week in Livingston Studio 1 recording the entirety of their album Together As One. Using quite a simple technical set-up, in-house assistant Tom Archer says the recording involved much experimenting with pedals, synths and percussion. The studio lent itself to excellent separation, with Elliott’s grand piano, hammond organ and rhodes set-up in the main room, drums in the right-hand room, bass amp in the smaller booth and Laura in the far room.

The xx – I See You
Last year Miloco’s first ever studio, Hoxton’s The Square sadly closed its doors. The xx were one of the last acts to record within its walls when they took on the studio long term to work on I See You.

Stormy – Gang Signs And Prayer
The #1 album from Croydon native Stormzy, Gang Signs And Prayer, was released in February 2017. Miloco engineer Bryan Wilson was involved in the project, engineering across most of the album at an external facility.

This year’s award show will take place on September 14 at west London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. All nominated acts will perform on the night, culminating in the announcement of the grand prize at the end of the night.

Lightship95 available for long term let

Housed on a boat permanently moored at Trinity Buoy wharf in East London, the studio was purpose built on the ship in what was the engine room!

It has been meticulously designed and built from scratch to offer a superb recording space in a beautiful and inspiring setting. Formally a successful commercial studio, the space is now available to hire on a long term let basis without equipment. The studio furniture can remain if required, including absorbers, difusers, gobos, sofa and the piano.

The studio is currently available, for all enquiries please e-mail bookings@miloco.co.uk or call us on 0207 232 0008.

Miloco Football Tournament Match Report

With the booze behind the bar, the gazebo up and the DJ (special mention to Gordon Ellington for providing the vibes) spinning, the stage was set for the return of probably the finest football tournament in the World. With 15 minutes until kick off and only half of the teams arrived, things were looking a tad sketchy, but this being the music industry, everyone (well, almost everyone *cough* SB.TV *cough*) arrived just after they were supposed to.

After one or two last minute no-shows, the groups were hastily re-arranged at the last second, and battle commenced under a slightly gloomy Shepherds Bush sky. On pitch 1, the war of the reds (Miloco v Virgin EMI) proved to be every-so-slightly one-sided, as Miloco had clearly taken the selfless decision as hosts to throw their matches in favour of the opposition. Thanks to these frankly heroic tactics, a flattered Virgin ended up with a cool 12-1 victory.

Elsewhere on pitch 2, a rampant SRLV flexed their collective muscles against a slightly jaded Lawrence and the Machine, and stormed their way to another 12-1 victory

Not wanting to feel left out, a menacing Polydor team, kitted out in all-black, completed the hat-trick of first-round 12-1 victories, against a substitute-less Island Records side, who must take the best-dressed award for their beach-themed shirts.

Sadly for a significantly short of breath Island team, there was no let up, as they were straight back into action against a well-organised and pumped-up Natty & the Rebelship, who steam-rollered them 10-1. It was not looking good for Island.

Another dominant performance on pitch 2 saw QPRS sweep aside the Sweat Ent boys in a convincing 9-1 demolition, while back on pitch 1 Miloco carried on their valiant crusade of selflessness by guiding Polydor to an 11-1 victory.

It was straight back into the fray for Polydor as they ground out an impressive 3-1 victory against the mighty Natty & the Rebelship, maintaining their 100% record. Speaking of 100% records, Miloco completed their mission by laying down to an 8-1 defeat at the hands of Island despite their lack of subs, ending their day with a not-too-shabby goal difference of -28

Meanwhile, amongst the sea of one-sided drubbings, a thrilling encounter on pitch 2 between SRLV and QPRS (aka the Clash of the Acronyms, leading to much confusion amongst the refs), finished in a 4-4 draw, surely making it the ‘Match of the Day’ under the shadow of the old Television Centre.

After Polydor, SRLV, QPRS and Natty all handed out a couple more cans of whoop-ass, the group stages were done, leaving the quarter final fixtures to be decided. Due to drop-outs and no-shows, all-but-one team would progress through to the dizzying heights of the Miloco Cup Quarter Finals. On 0 points and -25 goal difference, Sweat Ent were heading home for an early bath, but they weren’t privy to Team Miloco’s master plan… Cue scenes of jubilation as they were informed that they would be going through by a mere 3 less conceded goals.

And so it commenced. Knock-out football. No time for games. Play time was over. Other sporting clichés. The scene was set for a mammoth grudge match between Virgin EMI and Polydor in the semis. All they had to do was win their respective quarter finals against SRLV and Lawrence and the Machine.

On pitch 3 it was not looking good for Polydor. 15 minutes played, 5 to go, and they were 2-1 down. Lawrence and the Machine were giving nothing away. With gritted teeth they ploughed on, soaking up the Polydor pressure like a horribly sweaty sponge. But finally, with mere seconds to go, they finally relented, conceding 3 heartbreaking late goals, sending Polydor through to the semis.

But how were Virgin EMI faring over on pitch 1? Shockingly, as it turned out, as they were trounced 8-0 by a rampant SRLV. These boys meant business.

Meanwhile on pitch 2, two undoubtedly strong sides were taking part in a battle royale, with tackles and goals flying in from both teams. In the end, however, Natty and co just proved too much for QPRS to handle, and they ended up with a convincing 7-3 victory. On pitch 4, Island looked to have been brought back from the dead as the cavalry arrived when they needed it most, their two latecomers giving them a whole two subs on the bench for their quarter final against Sweat Ent. While they put up a good fight, the unthinkable happened and Sweat Ent finally put some points on the board, with a hard-earned 7-4 win.

The semi-finals were upon us. 9 teams had been whittled down to 4. The prize-winners had been decided. But who would win what? For the champions, tracking heaven, as they would have the choice between a day in The Pool or Livingston Studio 1. For the runners-up, a day in the equally alluring Livingston Studio 2. Third place would be mixing some magic through the breath-taking Augspurgers in The Red Room, while fourth place would be relaxing in front of the Augspurgers’ little siblings in the Bridge next door. Everyone’s a winner!

So onto the games. On pitch 1 was a real heavyweight clash. The twinkle-toed magic of SRLV against the hard-hitting boys from Polydor. It was a real back-and-forth, with some fiesty tackles going in, and some absolute peaches being scored. But try as Polydor might, the intricate passing and dribbling of the STLV youngsters just proved to be too much for them, and SRLV sailed through to the final with a commanding 5-2 win.

Pitch 2 saw the ever-consistent Natty & the Rebelship taking on the late-blooming Sweat Ent. Try as Sweat may, they couldn’t stem the flow of goals from the boys in high-vis, who ended up winning the match at somewhat of a canter, with a scoreline of 6-2.

Anyone expecting a calm, good-natured game to decide on 3^rd place was sorely mistaken. This was a fierce battle from the outset. Tackles flying in, tempers soaring, goals not so much, this was less Ajax Total Football, and more ’88 Wimbledon Crazy Gang.

Things boiled over after the final whistle as cries of ‘ringer’ were heard from the Polydor team, accusations that were never founded nor denied. Anyway, with nothing to separate the two teams (in the heat of the moment, the actual score line was lost for only the hallowed Shepherds Bush turf to remember), it was down to penalties. The penalties were flying in, nets bulging, keepers floundering, crowds gasping, the drama was off the scale. Then up stepped the Polydor captain. You could tell something seemed off. The word ‘ringer’ still echoing round in his head perhaps? Maybe the delicious smell of the Nutkin Café barbeque had distracted him? Or maybe it was just the enormous pressure of the moment. We’ll never know.

But up he stepped, firing just left of the daunting presence of the Sweat keeper. The keeper guessed right, ball cannoning off his outstretched hand. Sweat had secured a podium finish, Polydor dejectedly accepting their fate and slinking away before they’d even accepted their runners-up medals.

And so, the main event. Ten years in the making. The biggest moment in any music industry professional’s footballing career. The final of the Miloco Cup. SRLV v Natty & the Rebelship. But no sooner than the game had kicked off, Natty was down. The captain, the leader, the talisman. Gasps rang around the theatre of dreams. A wayward SRLV boot had raked Natty’s Achilles Heel. Was it intentional? Sadly video replays haven’t been brought into the Miloco Cup yet (rumour has it they’re on the cards for 2018), but I could certainly see no malice from my vantage point at the bar.

After a couple of heart-in-mouth minutes, Natty finally got back to his feet and jogged it off. He was a different player though. The panache was gone. The turn of pace was diminished. And SRLV could smell blood. They pounced, and pounced again, scoring two in quick succession. The final whistle blew. SRLV had done it. Final score? In truth I don’t think anyone really knows (or remembered to write it down…), but what is for certain is that SRLV were champions.

And that’s how it went down. Thanks to everyone who made it a truly memorable day, and we hope you can make it back again next year to do battle again (and maybe SB.TV will make it this time!)

Check out the photo album on Flickr for all the action shots from the day, and if you haven’t already, please donate to our Just Giving page raising money for Martlets Hospice.