Philosophy
The aim is to provide a relaxed environment to allow musicians to perform and interact with no fixed time limits for a session. Seating is comfortable – settees, chairs, tables, etc, as required. Lighting can be set from bright (good for setting up and dismantling) to a variety of low level adjustable. Real coffee/tea is on tap as are cold drinks.
Books make a very good sound absorber – the acoustics are very good – especially for lower level styles – vocals, folk, jazz, and lighter band setups.
Typical session: musicians arrive and set up, microphone and instrument levels set, monitoring adjusted, and then a couple of initial sound checks. Once underway basically the “tape is left running” (no tapes of course!). It can take a bit of adjustment to get into this way of working – a combination of song development, rehearsal, jamming and actually performing (in the knowledge that everything is captured and could end up in a definitive rendition). (Works best with good musicians!)
A few days after the session premixes are generally made available on line (in private areas) – the musicians can then listen to what worked (and what didn’t). Large elements of chance and low hit rates but when it comes together it really works and also then forms a basis for subsequent sessions.
Audio wiring is embedded within the setup allowing for reasonably rapid setup times and getouts. Technically the studio is configured for sixteen channel simultaneous recording (at 96K, 32bit floating) with a variety of DAWS. Headphone/in ear monitoring is up to eight channels individually mixable.

Mike Daw

(The use of the studio is by invitation only – it is not available to book in a normal commercial sense.)

History
The studio was set up in the book shop in 2014 (which opened 2002). Prior to that recordings were more usually carried out on an as required mobile basis. The book shop was identified as an ideal location – a basement with minimal neighbour issues (especially at evenings/weekends). It works as a fully functioning bookshop most days and runs in studio mode as required.
The original setup involved removing most of the fixed central shelving to give the option for a large open central space. This can be adjusted to the requirements of a recording and also for other events – live music events (with recording option), video shoots, readings, signings, author talks, etc. Can seat up to around twenty (or less with tables). A couple of clubs use the space – the Tabletop Gaming Club and the Creative Writing Group.