Studios 301 are committed to the health and well-being of our staff, partners and clients. In-line with Australian Government guidelines, we are able to offer selected services (subject to our strict guidelines). Find out more
Meg Mac, Barkaa, Delta Goodrem, Nick Littlemore, Lime Cordiale, A.GIRL, Jonathan Zwartz, RØDE Microphones, HP Boyz & Willstah, Terr Bite, Channel 7, The Necks with Tim Whitten, Hooligan Hefs, Masked Wolf and more…
2021 APRA Professional Development Awards (PDAs) Winner:Christopher Arnott pka “Friendless”
Dance/ Electronic
Congratulations to our long term tenant and Studios 301 producer Chris Arnott who recently won an APRA PDA in the dance/electronic music category.
We’re excited to announce that GRAMMY nominated and ARIA winning producer, engineer and mixer Adrian Breakspear is joining the Studios 301 roster of engineers. His credits include Gang of Youths, Boy and Bear, Delta Goodrem, Ricky Martin,Pharrell and more.
After the success of last year’s 3 day masterclass, Simon Cohen is back with another 3 day deep-dive into pop vocal recording, editing and production. Simon will guide you on an in-depth illustrative look at his vocal recording process live with a vocalist, take you through editing, mixing and producing a vocal, and share some of his secret techniques specifically for pop vocals.
Highlighted by his vocal work on Justin Bieber’s worldwide #1 smash hit “Love Yourself” and the recent success of Masked Wolf’s “Astronaut in the Ocean”, it’s Simon’s precise and detailed approach to vocal recordings which has made him a sought-after Grammy and ARIA nominated engineer for both Australian and international artists alike. His vocal production is further showcased working with artists including Lizzo, Troye Sivan, Black Eyed Peas, Illy, Jessica Mauboy, Thelma Plum, Genesis Owusu, Thundamentals, Joy, Jess Kent, Justice Crew, Coda Conduct, Paces, Nicole Millar and more.
Exciting times for Australian rapper Masked Wolf (aka Harry Michael) as he is sitting on one of the biggest tracks in the world right now with his song Astronaut in the Ocean.
The song recently hit #1 on the Shazam hip-hop charts, Top #10 on the Global Spotify Viral chart, #3 on the Global Shazam Top 200 chart, just cracked the official Top 40 on US Pop Radio and the buzz just keeps on building.
This is a pretty big deal for Australian hip-hop overall with Masked Wolf trailblazing his own path for Australian based rappers making waves overseas.
We had a quick catch-up with the Masked Wolf to get his comment on what it’s like to have one of the biggest tracks in the world right now and working with vocal producer Simon Cohen at Studios 301.
What he had to say on the buzz the song is getting:
“It’s insane… I’m just happy people are hearing my music all over the world and I can’t wait for them to hear what’s next.
I’ve been working with Simon for a few years now. It’s super important to me that my music is at the highest standard possible and to do that you need to work with the best. In my eyes one of the best vocal engineers in the world is Simon Cohen.”
We look forward to seeing what’s next for Masked Wolf and continuing to work with him on his upcoming music.
Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the Studios 301 team: Kristelle Morin. Kristelle joins Australia’s biggest roster of mastering engineers as the new Bookings Coordinator.
Kristelle joins us with over 15 years experience in the music industry as a DJ, Label Manager and Artist Manager. Her passion for music led her to London where she resided for 10 years, as a Label Manager for Tribe Records, an independent record label. Together with the label she created memorable party experiences hosting and spinning records for lovers of Afro & House music in cities like New York, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Sydney and Johannesburg.
We’re looking forward to having her be part of the family!
Abbey Road’s specialist music production school moves into Australia’s top recording studio.
David Drummond, Ron Haryanto, Professor Zbys Klich at Studios 301
In a huge coup for the Australian music industry, Abbey Road Institute Australia announces it will co-locate in Sydney with the nation’s largest and most prestigious recording studio, Studios 301, in 2021.
This move will unite titans of the music industry, bringing the best of British specialist music production schooling – developed in the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London – with the 2018 multi-million dollar revamp of the iconic Studios 301 in Sydney and its 90 year plus history as a leader in the Australian music industry.
Studios 301 boasts an industry-leading roster including Grammy, ARIA and Golden Guitar winning and nominated engineers such as Leon Zervos, Simon Cohen, Steve Smart, Guy Gray and more. In recent years the studio has been home to recordings from some of the world’s most iconic artists, from Cold Chisel, Tones & I, Delta Goodrem and Amy Shark to Elton John, Lizzo, Coldplay, Katy Perry and many more.
Chart-topping and multi ARIA Award-winning artist, Delta Goodrem, said
“I’ve been a long-time client and friend of Studios 301 and I love working at the studios and with the team and 301 community. “Abbey Road Institute students will, without a doubt, benefit from learning within the amazing facility and being part of the community as a whole. Many of my records and creations have come from this incredible environment. The team are the utmost professionals an artist could dream to be working and creating with.”
Abbey Road Institute offers an intensive and immersive education for aspiring music producers and engineers in a real-world working environment. The teaching is delivered in a hands-on apprenticeship style, which prepares graduates to enter the fast-paced music industry and create their own career success story.
Students at the Sydney campus of Abbey Road Institute will have the opportunity to learn in an iconic Australian recording, mixing and mastering facility engaged in and with the music community and industry network that students aspire to join on graduation. This will provide a wonderfully unique learning environment within the music industry, with high levels of placement expected.
Ron Haryanto,Studios 301 General Manager / Abbey Road Institute Sydney CEO, said
“This professional integration, unique in Australia, will offer Abbey Road Institute students access to one of the best recording studios in the world as an important part of their learning experience. Our team at Studios 301 will add another layer of perspective and music industry experience to their education. The teaching spaces will be located within our world-class facilities, with the Institute having their own dedicated studios, production and writing rooms and classroom, alongside our commercial spaces dedicated to our existing and growing client base. Studios 301’s dynamic array of specialised skills, recording experience, technical excellence and industry links will now be available to Australia’s up and coming talent to help them become the music producers and audio professionals of the future and that is a truly exciting partnership.”
Luca Barassi, CEO Abbey Road Institute – Global, based in London, said
“Locating Abbey Road Institute Sydney inside active commercial studios offers an experience where students get unparalleled insights into the real-world environment of recording studios and gain a head-start on a career in music production. We are delighted that the opportunity has been created to move our Australian Abbey Road Institute into the newly enhanced and cutting-edge facilities at Studios 301 in Sydney. This establishes a pioneering breakthrough in Australian audio education.”
Charlotte Rochecouste, Abbey Road Institute Melbourne Alumni
“Abbey Road Institute really helped me gain a strong foundation in audio, which led to an internship at Studios 301. The course accurately breaks down the subject of audio engineering/music production, making it digestible so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming or confusing. Audio is very hands-on, hence why being able to use the studios frequently helped me practice and improve my skills significantly. Now that the Institute is moving into Studios 301, future Abbey Road Institute students will be able to witness how a professional music studio operates and put their experience & knowledge into practice. It will set them up for the music industry and give them authentic and realistic expectations for their futures.”
Zak Baker – Abbey Road Institute London Alumni
“After completing my Advanced Diploma at Abbey Road Institute London, I was fortunate enough to intern at Studios 301 and experience the day to day excitement and challenges that come with working in one of the best studios in the world – and that hands on experience is invaluable in the recording industry.
Since completing my internship I have worked in many studios, and Studios 301 is still only one of a few studios that are at the same level as the likes of Abbey Road. Not only with its world beating microphone and gear selection but also the engineers, technicians and team that keep the studios running. Abbey Road Institute students being able to tap into the facilities, equipment and staff at Studios 301 is not an opportunity anyone serious about wanting to become an engineer should miss out on!”
Apply Now for 2021
Abbey Road Institute Sydney will be offering a one-year intensive Advanced Diploma in Music Industry which starts on 21 June 2021. Applications are open now. For detailed information on the course and how to apply visit the Institute’s website.
Congratulations to all the amazing artists who are nominated at this year’s ARIA Awards. This time around the list of artists includes Studios 301 clients such as Cold Chisel, Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian, Amy Shark, Alex the Astronaut, Mallrat, Illy, Casey Barnes, The McClymonts, The Jungle Giants and The Rubens.
According to a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Kylie Minogue almost ended up collaborating with Prince in the early ‘90s. She recounted the time when Prince was on tour in Australia and he sent her a cassette tape with a song called Baby Doll.
Said unreleased Baby Doll recording was tracked by Prince at Sydney’s iconic Studios 301 in 1992 during his Diamonds & Pearls tour.
A request we frequently receive at the studios is:
“Do you have a copy of my files? My laptop/hard drive died and I don’t have them anymore”.
With the rise of digital audio, computer and cloud-based data storage, we thought it may be helpful to provide some tips on good practice to keep your files safe and accessible for the long term.
It may be a tedious chore, but it is essential you back-up your important files. If the session files for your ground-breaking / genre-bending new music are only stored in one place, i.e. on your laptop, then you’re one tech disaster away from heartbreak. Hard drives have a relatively short lifespan; you should not expect them to last longer than 3 to 5 years, and sometimes much shorter than that. I’ve had drives fail that were mere months old. If you have your files only on the one hard drive that gives out, it can cost many thousands of dollars with a specialist to try and retrieve them.
A great and easy-to-remember concept for this is the “3-2-1 backup rule”, which you can read more about here. To surmise,
You want three copies of your files
On two different storage types
And one offsite backup
A practical example of this is to keep any important session files neatly organised on your computer, have a copy on an external hard drive, burn them to a DVD, and another copy in the cloud. That way you have more than covered the 3-2-1 rule and nothing short of armageddon will keep you from your files.
The next question then is, what should you keep? Well technically you can probably keep everything related to a session. Space is cheap these days so it may be worth holding onto all your files, i.e. the out-takes, the demos, the mixes, the masters. But then it’s also worthwhile considering future proofing your sessions. In 15+ years time it’s highly unlikely that you will be running the same system you are today, and if you try to open the project session you may find it incompatible, as plugins won’t load etc. It’s therefore good practice to render out the multitracks of your mixes into two sets of 32bit floating point WAV files, one set with plugins on and one set with them off, so if in the distant future you want to remix the tracks, you can recall all the elements with minimal fuss.
Key Takeaways:
Hard drives WILL fail so if you only have a single copy of important files you are setting yourself up for heartbreak.
Set aside an afternoon every few months to make sure your backups are up to date and remember to test them.
Be kind to your future self and assume your current projects won’t be compatible in the future so render as much as you can into WAV format.
Jack Prest was recently in Studio 1 working on the development of his (as yet untitled) new interdisciplinary performance project. The development came about through partnership with Studios 301 and with support from Create NSW via their projects grant.
The session featured a series of collaborations with Nicholas Meredith (Kcin/Spirit Level), Dave Rodriguez (Godtet/Sampa The Great), Ben Freeman (The Die Youngs), Jerrol Renaud (The Goods) and Claire Edwardes, Jason Noble and Freya Schack-Arnott from contemporary classical group Ensemble Offspring.
Jack put the players through a series of improvised tasks responding to various compositions, sonic sketches, ambient noises and field recordings.
Jack also recorded and collaborated with dancer Azzam Mohamed and visual artist Joe Wilson and Chanelle Collier further developing the interdisciplinary side of the project. Jack Garzonio was assistant engineer for the session.
This is the first project from a new Arts Initiative by Studios 301, keep an eye out for more projects over the coming year.
MusicNSW is back with the 2020 Levels program: a one-on-one audio engineering workshop for women, trans and non-binary applicants. Levels 2020 will be held at Studios 301 on Saturday, 27 June 2020 and you can apply at musicnsw.com
The hour-long workshops will be packed with personalised advice on producing and mixing your track, from world-class audio engineers Antonia Gauci(Will.I.Am, Kesha, DMA’s) and Georgia Collins (Birds of Tokyo, Body Type, Bachelor Pad).
It’s a perfect opportunity to take your sound to the next level. Come prepared with your track session and your questions loaded up, and make the most of this rare learning experience.
We are continuing to dig through the archives to bring you more tasty sounds from the Studio! This week, we’re bringing you a collection of Egyptian Clay Tabla recordings made in Studio 1. It features percussionist Tarek Sawires and was recorded by in-house engineer Jack Prest.
Jack had this to say about the recording:
“The RCA77DX is my go-to on percussion. It gives defined but soft transients and feels reminiscent of 1950’s records, which is my favourite vibe for percussion. I always mic at least a few feet back from the drum so you really capture the full sound of the instrument. For these recordings, I used 2 RCA’s – one in front and one behind the instrument, which I have panned slightly left and right to give the samples a nice 3D quality. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure we ran these through the AEA RPQ500 Ribbon preamps, which sound fantastic. If not, it would have been the Neve 88R Console we have in Studio 1. Other than that, these are raw and unprocessed, straight out of the Pro Tools session at 24bit 96kHz.”
You are free to use these samples in any of your recordings – something we will hope will encourage some creativity in these troubling times.
There has been a great deal of discussion about target loudness for streaming services recently, particularly in relation to Spotify. This can be problematic for the mastering process, so let’s break it down from a mastering perspective.
Spotify specifies it ‘volume normalises’ all music on the platform to -14 LUFS (measured by ReplayGain as an approximation of LUFS as specified by ITU 1770), so that users can have a consistent listening experience when jumping between songs on playlists. The function is turned on by default when installing the app. As a result, there’s growing speculation that Spotify-specific masters should be delivered at -14 LUFS.
Generally speaking, current masters in most music genres average around the -10 to -6 LUFS region. If you receive a master at say -9 LUFS, and visit a website like Loudness Penalty, you may worry that your track will be turned down when ingested to Spotify. The issue here is, it’s essentially moot whether Spotify or your mastering engineer turns down your track. However, if you do supply Spotify with a -14 level master, the song will be very quiet for subscribers with loudness normalisation disabled.
Much is made of the loudness wars however I’d argue that with the majority of modern music being made with compression in mind, having an incredibly dynamic master at -14 LUFS will likely sound abnormal by comparison. The most important thing with a master, is that it sounds good within itself.
As an example, take ‘Perfekt Dark’ by Lorn, an electronic artist who uses compression as a sound design technique. Listening to the track on Spotify, with loudness normalisation off, the track has a peak level of -0.1 as we would expect. With loudness normalisation on, the new peak level is -1.8, so the track has been turned down. One might conclude that you could potentially get an extra 1.7dB of range out of the dynamics, however this would require backing off compression/limiting to let peaks through, which may in turn change the tone of texture of the track. The compression is playing a role in keeping the percussion in balance with the synthesizers and bass within the track. If the mastering engineer was mastering to hit a target number instead of using his/her ears to make it sound nice and balanced, the overall mastering would perhaps not be as effective.
Key Takeaways:
Not everyone uses Spotify loudness normalisation
It’s a moving target. Spotify uses -14LUFS as it’s target number, but in the past it was -12, and that number may change again in the future. In fact, Spotify already have plans to change the way they measure -14 LUFS
It’s more important that a master sounds good within itself, than be compromised to hit a number. Let the music dictate how loud and how compressed it should be.
If your master gets turned down, well that’s OK. If it sounds good at a peak of -0.1 it will sound good if it peaks at -2
Following the old adage about life and lemons we are taking advantage of self-isolation by digging back through the archives for some great sounds to share with you. You are free to use these samples in any of your recordings – something we hope will encourage some creativity.
This first pack comes from the recording session for the first album by Sydney based new-jazz innovators Godtet. The session was engineered by Studios 301 in-house producer Jack Prest at our Mitchell Road facility in 2016.
Recorded in the drum booth of Studio 1 with the exposed rock wall for extra slap!
The gear used includes FET 47, Neve 1073 Pre-Amps, Shure SM-57 for the snare, and a pair of Neumann 87s smashing through an 1178 on the rooms. It features Sydney drummer Tully Ryan. We will be bringing you a bunch more sample packs in the coming weeks.
For the last few weeks, Studios 301 have been forced to limit recording sessions in an effort to monitor the health and well-being of our clients, staff and community and due to concerns relating to the COVID-19 outbreak.
As our extended community continues to adapt to the strict COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, we are now offering selected attended sessions with our engineers exclusively from one of Australia’s largest studio spaces, our Studio 1.
This includes strict limits to the number of people attending a session, attendees remaining 1.5 meters apart in line with social distancing measures, and that travel to the studio must not be by public transport. Strict cleaning must be carried out on surfaces and equipment, and any attendees must wash their hands on arrival to the studio and regularly throughout the day.
At Studios 301 we acknowledge the significant impact that COVID-19 has had, and will continue to have on the creative industries. During this unprecedented time we are acutely aware of the challenges that many of our engineers, producers, clients, music makers, artists and extended team are being faced with.
We’ve put our brains trust together to find ways that we can band together to help our immediate community in the first instance.
What we have come up with is a pay-it-forward initiative. We are starting this with our senior mix engineer/producer Simon Cohen (Justin Bieber, Lizzo, The Black Eyed Peas, Guy Sebastian, Thelma Plum, Starley & more).
The simple premise is this:
Anyone who books a full mix with Simon Cohen, we will provide an equivalent full mix as a pay forward to any nominated person.
Hi everyone,
it’s Simon Cohen here at Studios 301. We’ve had a great response to the online mixing launch and lots of people taking us up on our 30% off deal (use code: INTRO30).
But I feel like I can do more to help.
I’m aware that while some people are still fortunate enough to have a job there are plenty of musicians struggling to meet rent let alone splash out on their art.
That’s why I’ll be offering a chance to Pay It Forward.
The 30% offer still stands, but if you have the means to book a regular price mix, I’ll donate a free mix to the artist of your choice.
It could be your best friend, your favourite artist or someone you’ve never met.
Record label clients, you are welcome to get in on this too!
I’m not challenging everyone else to match this. I know that not everyone is in a position where this makes sense for them but I’d love to do my part for binding the music industry closer together and help everyone get world-class sounding music out onto the streaming platforms.
Book below to help out a struggling artist and feel free to share this page to anyone you think it could help – either here or overseas.
Congratulations to all of our nominated clients, engineers and winners at 2020 Queensland Music Awards which was held at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on March 3rd. The winners from the night included:
We brought in 2020 with a star-studded January, featuring a lineup of global hitmakers international artists.
Superstar vocalist and Grammy Award winning artist Lizzo recorded vocals and put final touches on a new single in Studio 1, which was engineered by our very own Simon Cohen.
Fellow FOMO festival artists also took up residency at 301 including A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Giggs and Rico Nasty engineered by Tom Garnett with Jess Des, not to mention The Black Eyed Peas who were locked out in Studio 2 for a week working on new material engineered by Simon Cohen.
Our favourite homegrown hero Delta Goodrem was in Studio 1 for a choir and piano recording, Genesis Owusu locked out Studio 3 working on a new album with Simon Cohen, Slowly Building Weapons were locked out in Studio 1 with Tim Carr engineering, Paris Jefferies laid down drum tracks in Studio 2 for The Avalanches which was engineered by Tom Garnett, and Vera Blue was recording in Studio 1 for the ICC T20 World Cup Opening Celebration, which will be a live performance at Sydney Olympic Park later this month.
January was the month of stellar albums at Studios 301 with Sensory Concerts recording in Studio 1, Scots College laying down a release with 60 piece orchestra and jazz ensemble, Sarah Thompson recorded a new chamber ensemble album, MONET recorded his EP and Chris Cody recorded his jazz octet album.
Further sessions included Carmen Reece and Samantha Jade, Boomchild, Touch Sensitive, Conrad Sewell, Emma Pask, Cone Of Confusion, The Kid Laroi, Electric Fields, L-FRESH The LION, “Remote Music”, The Voice TV Show, Whipped Cream, Tkay Maizda, HARTLEY and many more.
Masterclasses
International mixing legend Chris Lord-Alge held a full day Mixing Masterclass from Studio 1 to a sold out audience.
In December, Simon Cohen also held a 3 day Vocal Production and Mixing Masterclass which was a great success.
U2 Conference – Australia Edition 2019 in Studio 1 (Flickr album)
Mastering
Leon Zervos mastered new music for Mongtaine, Billy Porter (USA), Peking Duk, Birds Of Tokyo, Illy,Delta Goodrem, The Jungle Giants,Diana Rouvas, Andy Bull, Essie Holt, Stan Walker (NZ), sleepmakeswaves, Human Nature,Sahara Beck, Dawn Avenue (Mexico), Jordan Astra and Ivey.
Steve Smart mastered releases for Mia Rodriguez, Rob Hirst & Jay O’Shea, God Bess (Indonesia), Deaf Preachers (France), The Bamboos, Approachable Members of Your Local Community, The Buoys, Leanne Tennant, WHARVES, and Radio Molotov (Nigeria).
Ben Feggans has been mastering projects for Nick Cunningham, Green Buzzard, biblemami, Eves Karydas, The Two Romans, Venice Queens, and Johniepee.
Andrew Edgson has mastered tracks for Catcall, Merpire, DJ Koze (Germany), The Lulu Raes and Dom Youdan.
Harvey O’Sullivan has worked on releases for The Tin Knees, RISSA and Norse.
During his recent trip to Australia to be a keynote speaker at the Australian Music Week, renowned US music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz visited the studios and recorded an episode of his podcast for “The Lefsetz Letter” with legendary Aussie rocker Peter Garrett.
It was great to see Bob excited about the Studio 1 space and the entire facility. He has some very kind things to say which he followed up on in his newsletter. Come back anytime!!!
They don’t make studios like this anymore, with multiple rooms, even mastering. I get excited in places like this, this is the epicenter, this is where the music is made.
They had a museum of old equipment, an original Mitsubishi digital tape machine, never mind a bunch of Studers. Guitars even. They took me to every room, which I dug. Then we got to the big studio, the one that can fit orchestras, and in the control room, which was larger than most studios themselves, stood Peter Garrett.
