• London Recording Studios established 1979.
• Specially designed for live bands and voice over recording.
• Friendly relaxed atmosphere.
• 3 great recording rooms, with daylight.
• Yamaha grand piano, vintage Marshall, Hiwatt and Vox valve amps and cabinets.
• Mackie 24 track HDR recorder, Cubase and 2" analogue multitrack.
• Expanded D8B desk with total recall automation.
• Large control room plus separate "chill out" lounge with TV, video and kitchen.
• CD & DVD Duplication and inlay printing
• CD Mastering suite, printing and artwork design
• Transfer old tape formats to new (eg : 2" multitrack, DAT and 1/4" tape to CD/DVD, etc)
• Video transfer to DVD & DVD authoring

Why record at Golddust?
We know that when you come to record with us unless you leave with a recording you're happy with, you're not likely to come again. We're fortunate to have been working with bands and solo artists for nearly 30 years now, and we're very proud that some of the people we worked with in the beginning are still our clients. Some have even brought their own "childrens " bands to us who are now adults themselves - a second generation of musicians!

Lets be honest -with todays cheap technology and "studio in a suitcase" why come to a studio at all? It's certainly possible to achieve great results with some software and a home PC, and once you've bought it you have limitless time and no studio costs. That's a very attractive package.

So why haven't all studios gone the way of the dinosaurs? Well, for several reasons. Although you can go to a shop and buy engine parts, it doesn't make you a mechanic. Similarly, owning a fast PC, soundcard and suitable interface won't turn you into a sound engineer - you'll need time to work out how to use it properly and even then you'll probably become aware of its limitations very quickly. Then there's the question of the space needed to record a group of musicians comfortably, without even beginning to consider indefinable things like how to create the right "vibe" so everyone's comfortable, creative and can give of their best. How many hats can you wear at the same time? There aren't many musicians who excel at engineering, producing and playing all at the same time.

How we can help...
In a nutshell, we'll take care of the technical stuff so you can do what you do best - be creative. From the moment we first opened our doors in 1979 our "mission statement" has always been the same - to record your music and make it sound as good as possible.

This sounds simple, and although the recording equipment we use has evolved out of all recognition (from the 4 track tape recorder of 1979 to the virtually limitless digital tracks, total recall mixing desk and numerous plug-ins we use today) the philosophy remains the same - to provide a friendly, helpful environment where you and your music can flourish.

Although the studio equipment we use to achieve this is important (see list below) providing the right setting for you to relax and be creative in, is equally crucial. A large control room, daylight in every room, a comfortable chill out lounge, kitchen area and most important of all, decades of recording experience.

When recording a backing track musicians tend to be at their most comfortable when they all play together at the same time, in the same area, with that all important eye contact - just like at a live gig. That's when the magic happens, so that's how we built our main recording area - the drummer can be in a separate room behind glass doors for sound separation, but only a few feet away from the other players.

It's like being at a rehearsal, a less pressured situation, and it feels more natural and comfortable.

Of course, we can also offer complete acoustic isolation, if required. We have a variety of different rooms benefiting from various acoustic treatments, ranging from an (adjustable) very live "live" room to a much "deader" acoustic which is perfect for voice-overs and vocal recording.

Classical ensembles (like string quartets, etc) love using the live room. The most popular arrangement of players is usually having everyone in a circle, facing each other, where again crucial eye contact can be maintained.

Our Yamaha baby Grand piano, recently restrung and overhauled, records beautifully. It is tuned regularly but if you are recording a particularly "piano sensitive" piece you might want to consider having it tuned specially for your session. We can arrange for this to be done as closely as possible to your start time - please phone for details.

We also have a Yamaha fully weighted 88 note digital piano which can be used by itself or as a master midi keyboard.to control the many soft synths and keyboard sounds we use.

You may just need to add some overdubs to tracks you are already working on, such as live drums, loud guitars, a real piano etc. That's easy to do, and we can import your pre recorded tracks into our system, record the new instruments and then burn everything back down to DVD for you. Some of our customers who came here intending to just record some overdubs were so pleased with the recordings they achieved that they ended up finishing the whole project here with us instead.

As musicians ourselves we can offer (free!) access and use of a variety of vintage valve guitar amps and cabinets - Marshall, Hiwatt, Vox, Orange etc, all working and set up, ready to go. For guitarists who may never have had the opportunity to play through these before (after all, some of them are over 40 years old) it's often a revelation to stand in front of a "cranked up" Marshall for the first time.

If you're searching for that elusive guitar sound, it's simplicity itself to "mix and match" the various combinations available. 1964 Vox AC30 top boost head through a 1969 Marshall 4 x 12? No problem…

We still have our trusty 2" 24 track Soundcraft multitrack. It doesn't get as much use as it used to, but it's very handy for playing back previously recorded 2" tapes and transferring them onto newer digital formats and burning them to DVDs for archiving or re-mixing.

As we are constantly improving and upgrading our equipment and facilities it's possible that you may need something that that is not yet listed on our website - if so, please phone anyway to see if it is something we can help you with.