Brighton Road Recording Studios is a brand new, high-end recording, mixing, production and mastering studio situated in the beautiful South Downs National Park, outside Brighton, West Sussex. Easily accessible from London and the SouthEast, the studio, which has been built within a large converted barn, officially opened in mid July and has been receiving a great response from the many clients who have already worked there.
Studio owners and co-managers Jake Skinner (previously of Cobbs Mill Studios) and Ali Gavan (previously of Transmission Studios) filled us in on the history of the new studios. Jake explained “Ali and I had previously been sharing a studio building just up the road from here. Our lease was coming to an end and our landlord informed us he was not planning to renew the lease due to renovation plans he had for the site. We decided to team up and pool our resources to jointly open something far bigger and better. When we saw the premises that is now Brighton Road come up for rent, we both knew it was the perfect place for our new studio. We put a lot of time and effort into designing and building the studio from the ground up and we are really proud of how it has turned out.
“The main recording space is our 400sq ft Live Room which features wood-clad walls, 15ft apex ceilings, and skylight windows for natural light. It is a fantastic sounding room for drums and acoustic instruments, and is spacious enough to track a full band live, or even a small to medium-sized choir. We also have several custom, moveable gobos to create the exact acoustic space we desire for any given instrument or voice.”
Adjacent to the main Live Room, via sliding glass doors, is a second recording space, the Isolation Room. At around 180sq ft, it is regularly used for tracking drums when a drier sound is required, or for recording guitar amps or other instruments during live recordings when separation from the instruments in the main Live Room is needed.
The Control Room is approximately the same size as the main Live Room, and also has high apex ceilings and natural light. Jake continued, “At the heart of the room is an all-valve TL Audio VTC 32 channel console, which delivers a lovely warm sound. We have 2 Mac Pro computers: one running Pro Tools HD3 through SSL converters, and the other running Logic Pro X through Antelope Audio converters.
For accurate and precise monitoring we use Dynaudio BM15As, Genelec 8030As, and Adam A7s, and our outboard collection includes several dbx160x compressors, a Drawmer 1960 compressor, Eventide and Lexicon effects processors, and several channels of external preamps to complement the tube preamps on the TL Audio console. We have over 40 microphones including a Neumann U87, a Neumann M149, Neumann TLM 102s, AKG 414s, Beyer M160s, Shure SM81s, AKG 451s, vintage Sennheiser 421s and a vintage AKG D12 to name just a few.
“We also have an extensive collection of instruments and backline including several vintage and modern drum kits and guitars, a Bechstein upright piano from the late 1800s, a Nord Stage 88, guitar amps including a Vox AC30, Fender Twin, Marshall JCM 900 and JTM 60 and Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, and plenty of other goodies. You can view our gear list here.”
Other facilities on offer at Brighton Road include a dedicated lounge/chillout room with a kitchenette, Wi-Fi, and plenty of free parking right outside. The studio is also easily accessible from the A23.
Both Ali and Jake are seasoned musicians as well as very experienced and versatile engineers who love to get involved with production. However, they are equally happy to take care of the technical side if outside producers are brought in or if the clients have a clear production direction already.
For further details or enquiries about bookings and rates, contact the studio via their listing here.
