MUSIC
Music recording covers everything from solo singers performing with backing tracks to bands, with projects ranging from two or three song demos to complete album recordings.
As well as complete recording-to-CD master projects, we work with musicians using home recording set-ups, providing facilities to record, for example, drums or vocals which cannot be recorded at home. We're suppliers to two of the leading companies offering recording gift experiences, and gift sessions can also be booked directly from the studio.
Location recording includes choirs, solo piano, string quartets and other ensembles, as well as live gigs by bands and solo performers.
Microphones include Neumann U87, AKG414, Sennheiser E604, AKG D112 and Shure SM57. Outboard includes Lexicon, TC Electronics, TL Audio and Drawmer, with software plug-ins from Waves, iZotope, Antares Autotune, Melodyne, PSP and Valhalla, among others.
Instruments include Gibson, Fender, Takamine, Hofner and Epiphone guitars and basses, Korg and Yamaha keyboards, Marshall, Fender, Ampeg and Vox amps, and a Pearl drumkit.
SPEECH
Spoken word projects include TV, radio, podcasts, audio books and educational materials.
Recording is direct to hard disk, typically using an industry standard Neumann U87 microphone. The vocal booth is large enough to accommodate a number of speakers at once, while still being acoustically "dead".
Editing is "non-linear" - ie non-destructive - thus all edits can instantly be undone, and different versions created for comparison.
Related services include the creation of sound effects and ambient sounds, as well as music composition. The studio maintains a sound effects library, as well as a database of local voiceover artists.
We're set up for remote direction and recording using platforms such as Cleanfeed, Zoom, Riverside FM and Source-Connect.
For more information on audiobook recording please click here.
Clients include:
• BBC TV and Radio
• Steel Spyda - for National Geographic Channel and Channel 5 TV
• Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
• Acoustiguide - for Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Cambridge University Press
• Audiobooks for publishers including Penguin Random House, Hodder, Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, Hachette, Quarto and Brilliance
• Interscience TV company - for German broadcaster ZDF
• Hart McLeod/Lightbox - for Department of Education MYLO programme
BLOG
14 July 2026
The other week was looking at a screen which said "Zoom Interview Witches". Not quite as exciting as that sounds but interesting nonetheless -
a remote interview with Professor Malcom Gaskill for the BBC's "A History of the United States in 100 Objects".
23 March 2026
Currently working on a series of compositions with Dr Nick Baylis, who is repeatedly having to cart his Yamaha DGX-670 into the studio (it's a digital piano, not a motorcycle, but almost as cumbersome).
About to start recording what promises to be a very interesting audiobook - "Coastline" by Ben Robinson...
...To be followed by another one: "Blood Dawn" by Hans van der Ven.
Catherine Carr back in the studio - this time to record a Radio 4 series produced by Whistledown Productions - "About the Girls".
19 February 2026
Delighted to welcome back Professor Mary Beard - last in the studio about 15 years ago. This time recording the audiobook "Talking Classics".
8 February 2026
Another venture into ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement). The last time was with Ed Byrne for an animated film, on this occasion it was replacing dialogue recorded in unhelpful circumstances, for example on the back of a boat on the Thames, for a short film.
23 January 2026
Two audiobook recordings to kick off the year - "Who's the Favorite" by Catherine Carr (US publisher, hence the spelling)
and "The Drowned Siren" by Callisto Lodwick, read by Robyn Holdaway.
It was a second visit to the studio for Catherine, who recorded an episode of BBC Radio 4's "The Exchange" here back in 2022, and for Robyn, who recorded the book "Something Spectacular" in 2023.
3 November 2025
Recent projects:
Radiolab Podcast on Organoids (or "Brain Balls"): Radiolab.
Album for David Houghton: O Let The Heavens Sing.
Choral recordings for Cambridge University Library exhibition: Curious Cures: Curious Choir.
On the same day as "Curious Cures", rather more up-to-date medicine: BBC: Inside Health.
10 June 2025
Recording of audiobook "Endometriosis" by Jen Moore completed; currently recording "Neurodivergent" by Joe Harkness.
Also midway through recording the choir Mnatobi - sessions taking place in St Mary's church Fen Ditton, which, provided you take account of the clock chiming on the hour, is a lovely location in which to record.
Spent a morning at the home of YouTube star Frank Watkinson (1 million subscribers and counting...) recording a song to be used on a TV ad for McDonald's.
7 February 2025
Recording of Tony Juniper's new book "Just Earth" completed. Due to be published on 13th March.
6 January 2025
In December went to Downing College, Cambridge, to record Dr Frisbee Sheffield discussing Socrates for the BBC Radio 4's series "Human Intelligence". Asked to make it sound as if it was recorded "in a studio", rather than the rather echoey college room actually used. Achieved with a bit of acoustic treatment and software trickery.
Human Intelligence.
25 November 2024
Two recently recorded and edited audiobooks now published:
"Hubris - The Origins of Russia's War Against Ukraine", by Jonathan Haslam.
"The History of Medicine in Twelve Objects", by Carol Cooper.
Something a bit different - recording a hand pan with Sreeraj, which sounds rather like this:
Sreeraj (Handpan) Ft. DNA Creative
Currently working with Orphean Sprig and Thursday's Band on new recordings.
Recent audiobooks (click for a sample):
Helen Macdonald, "Vesper Flights"
Seb Falk, "The Light Ages"
Vanessa Frake, "The Governor"
Natalie Starkey, "Fire & Ice"
Nayanika Mahtani, "Across the Line"
Recently finished recording the audiobook of this: Mark Wormald, "The Catch".