Summerfield Studios

Summerfield Studios is a great facility for tracking and mixing. Covering approximately 120m² in total, the studio is divided into four main areas: a live room, control room, a drum/vocal room and a lounge zone. Owner Phil Croft has created a fantastic, creative vibe for bands and producers alike.

Summerfield's main live area is a spacious room boasting excellent acoustics, made possible by cleverly designed high mass floating rooms and a range of attractive acoustic panels with a beautiful Scandanavian pinewood floor and luxurious leather sofas to lounge on. Centre stage sits a pristine Yamaha C3 owned previously from new in 1983 by renown composer Alan Parker, and featured on many hit scores from TV & film including Minder, Van der Valk, Jaws and American Gothic, along with countless others. The range of quality backline includes a Sonor Designer kit and a lively Gretsch Renown limited edition drum kit alongside a healthy choice of guitars, amplifiers, pedals and keyboards.

South-facing windows let sunshine into the room all day long, however ambient light (a feature throughout the studio) helps create a darker, more atmospheric vibe if required. There is a direct line of sight between all the rooms, so bands can completely spread out and have great visual communication with the control room and booth.

At the heart of the studio is the control room, based around a special order SSL 4040G+ Console faithfully restored without the computer for simplicity and reliability. Accurate monitoring, which includes flush mounted Tannoy FSM main monitors, is supplemented by a good choice of amps, and the collection of Preamps, Compressors, EQ, and Reverbs include models by Neve, Avalon, Focusrite, Universal Audio, Eventide, Lexicon, SPL and Yamaha. A vast sofa lines the back of the room in the perfect listening position for everyone on the session. Leading off the control room is an overdub booth, echo chamber and machine room to keep control room noise to an absolute minimum. 5.1 Surround monitoring is now available.

On the other side of the control room, the drum/vocal booth is treated to produce a more controlled, 'dead' sound, great for intimate vocal recording. There is a second drum kit set up for recording in this space to create a 70's 'dry' sound as a contrast, allowing full control for post-production purposes. A large triple glazed window looks through to the control room making it a great room for voiceovers with visual monitoring for voice-to-picture networked throughout the studio.

A stylish lounge and kitchenette is available for clients to chill out in. It features a comfortable sofa, dining table and attractive, modern decor. The entire studio benefits from extensive air conditioning with filtered fresh air heat exchangers providing the comfort of room-air changes every 10 minutes.

Clients have the use of a large and private south-facing courtyard garden with outdoor furniture, lawns, patios and Mediterranean planters.