Our studio

OUR SERVICES CAN BE BROKEN DOWN INTO 6 CATAGORIES:

1.Recording

2.Editing

3.Mixing

4.Mastering

5.Mobile Recording

6.Education

1. RECORDING

At The Mews we offer a variety of ways for you to go about getting your performances on to tape (so to speak).

Production Projects

We have a serious arsenal of mic amps, line amps, microphones, keyboards, sound modules, samplers, instruments, turntables and toys. We have a very detailed and open sounding tracking room ideal for all your requirements. We have 2 mix+ protools rigs with 32 ins and outs, these can be split between rigs or used on just the one rig.

Bands

Our tracking room (120sq ft) is big enough to allow a band to set up in with eye contact whilst we lay down the drums. Guitars, bass and keyboards can simultaneously be DI’d allowing for headphone feeds individually tailored to each musician’s needs. This method allows for total separation of instruments in the processes that follow, giving absolute control over the individual sounds, allowing for detailed recording and editing of each musicians multiple takes, and getting the most out of their sound at the mix stage.

For those bands that want the live band feel spill and all, we have a number of carefully selected rooms in London which we use, each with excellent vibe, full PA and foldback. We take our comprehensive mobile recording rig and depending on client’s requirements can record band elements or the whole band.( It is prudent to point out that the better records we have made this way still rely on a fair amount of tracking – specifically vocals).

Once the core of the tracks has been put down we move back to The Mews where more detailed overdubs and vocals can be recorded, edited and mixed.

Classical

Please see our Mews Productions page.

2. EDITING

At The Mews our editing facilities cater for all genres of music, be they part of the process of making pop records or working to scores and picture for classical and film.

In pop music, editing is often an area that artists who approach us directly can be hesitant or unaware of. Editing has been done since the invention of tape, its method changed and increased at the advent of the multitrack and today its gone ballistic with Protools.

Artists approaching us directly should bear in mind that editing can be none existent, or, open ended, depending on budget and the constraint of time.

Good editing can move your project up a number gears. At The Mews we pride ourselves on maintaining the integrity of a performance under rigorous editing, suspending a state of disbelief through seamless and invisible work and an awful lot of experience.

3. MIXING

Our mixing environment is incredibly flexible. The air conditioned and acoustically controlled environment is focused on a 56 channel (112 input) Mackie 8 buss desk. There are two protools mix + rigs available with a total of 32 ins/outs between them. As well as all the expected plugins there is a plethora of outboard gear, guitar pedals, keyboards, backline amps, microphones, instruments and signal paths.

The patchbay is based on a standard SSL design and everything in the room is intelligently wired up so that your creativity is instantly flexible. There are also 32 tielines for extra gear and a comprehensive midi and digital patchbay.

As well as the protools rigs the control room features; 2 Dat machines, HHB cdr recorder, Studer ¼ inch and apple powerbook running Logic 7 , Protools 6.4 and broadband.

Monitoring is the midfield Quested VS2108’s and NS10m’s powered by a Beyer amp.

The room has been acoustically conditioned providing for an incredibly detailed bottom end and transparent stereo field.

The room is of course fully connected to the air conditioned tracking room via 32 mic lines, 2 headphone tie lines, 2 midi tie lines, 1 guitar tie line and 1 guitar amp tie line.

The acoustically controlled tracking room has in the past also doubled as a second programming room connected to the main control room via ties. This was the norm most notably on the Prodigy’s album.

4. MASTERING

At The Mews our acoustically conditioned control room makes an ideal mastering environment.

16 bit mastering can be done with our M5000 with MD2 software (usually only found in much more expensive mastering rooms), Protools, TLA valve classics EQ2, wavemechanics and Thermionic Culture Phoenix.

The room has 2x dat machines, HHB Cdr burner and Studer ¼ inch.

We can deliver Redbook CDR’s to you with all necessary subcodes and precision PQ points.

We can also arrange large and small run duplication with booklets and on Cd printing.

5. MOBILE RECORDING

Please see our Mews Productions page.

6. EDUCATION

Dave Clarke worked his way up from a teaboy at Sony’s Whitfield Street, learning the rigours of large studio discipline and etiquette as an assistant engineer working under Mike Ross Trevor. There he assisted the likes of Mark Stent, Flood, Nigel Godrich, Mike Hedges and Sean Murphy and went on to engineer the likes of The Spice Girls, American Pop Idol and Amy Winehouse. He single-handedly built and wired The Mews from scratch and within 5 years had attracted in artists of the calibre of Sade, Juliette Lewis and The Prodigy who recording and mixed their Grammy nominated album “Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned” there.

He is now producing and engineering über cool bands like Ladyfuzz, Larrikin Love, Olympus Mons, This Royal Youth and Out with Mummy.

His background makes Dave superbly placed to offer technical and industry-wise training to aspiring engineers/producers. His technical knowledge is second to none and his understanding of the music industry invaluable. At The Mews Dave offers one to one training in Protools, Audio Engineering and Production. Please contact us for further details.