• Recording • Mixing • Mastering • Rehearsals •

A really cool studio with loads of attitude, great microphones, excellent acoustics and monitors - Highly recommended!

- Reuben Humphries (Captain, Charlie Simpson)
Recorded at Half-ton

Captain

Out Of Range

Recording

We aim to perfectly bridge the gap between bank-breaking, major recording studios and your home recording set-up. We've carefully combined knowledgeable and helpful Engineers, great sounding rooms, top quality microphones and some of the best analogue outboard equipment available. We use the latest digital audio workstations: Pro Tools 12 and Ableton Live 9. Our recording clients get a high quality recording experience, expert guidance (if required) and fantastic value for money.

We work with a wide variety of clients, from full-blown album and EP projects, with record label backing, through to young bands or singer-songwriters entering the studio to cut their first ever demo. We try and keep things relaxed, but focused, so that using our recording studio is something to look forward to and enjoy.

The studios have been designed to provide excellent lines of sight from the control room to the main live room, so live recording sessions are easily accommodated. A good studio should be a creative playground. We have plenty of interesting instruments, a live piano, guitar amps, pedals and things to hit, shake and generally play with - which hopefully add to your project!

Over the last few years we've seen more people combining the use of a commercial studio with their own DIY-style recording. Some people just use us for recording their drums, or to help with mixing. We fully embrace this collaborative approach, and it can produce great results. We'll always be honest and upfront about what we think is best for your project, and work with you to get the best possible results with your budget.

I really enjoyed working with Bugs at Half-ton on my latest solo album. I knew the recording side of thing was in safe hands and I was able to focus on the important stuff: trying to make a great record!

- Steven James Adams (The Broken Family Band)
Recorded at Half-ton

Steven James Adams

Get Over Yourself

The Studios

We have a number of rooms that make up our recording space at Half-ton Studios which have all been designed with music making in mind. The main action takes place between our large live room and the control room which are separated by a large soundproofed viewing window. We also have two additional spaces that offer either a different acoustic space or can provide isolation for guitar amps or performers.

Control Room

Very much at the heart of things, our acoustically treated control room looks through to our main live room via a large soundproofed window. The room has carefully been set-up to provide the most accurate monitoring possible and alongside the mixing desk and our precious analogue outboard units, we have an ever growing selection of guitars, FX pedals and other musical toys to experiment with during your session. There's also a comfy sofa for mid session lounging.

Post from RICOH THETA. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Main live room

Featuring a wooden floor, high ceilings and a live piano, our live room has been acoustically treated to provide a bright but controlled sound that is especially great for drums but will enhance any live instrument recordings. Big enough to accommodate larger live recording sessions, but with the capacity to become a smaller, drier, recording space if required, via movable acoustic panels.

Additional rooms

We have two other rooms we use for recording sessions: Our second live room, whilst being slightly smaller than our main room works great for acoustic guitars or for isolating amps during live sessions. Our smaller room 3 used to be our control room in another life and, as such, is an extremely well balanced room to record in and great for dry, tight drum sounds. All the rooms are fully connected via our main patchbay so microphones can be placed pretty much anywhere in the building.

Studio Equipment

These are our Equipment Highlights. For a full detailed list including all available instruments, guitar pedals etc. Please get in touch, and we'll happily send over a PDF.

Digital Audio Workstation

  • Custom built quad-core PC running Pro Tools 12, Studio One 4 and Ableton Live 9.
  • Numerous high-quality plug-ins by Waves, Soundtoys, Softube, Oxford, Melodyne etc.

Convertors

  • Lynx Aurora 16 converters with Lynx LT-FW card system: Mastering quality A/D conversion with very low latency.

Mixing Desk

  • Audient ASP8024 (24 channel larger format console)

Monitoring

  • ATC SCM20ASL
  • Yamaha NS10's
  • Various High-Quality Studio Headphones

Analogue Outboard

  • Neve 1073LB x 2
  • API 3124+ (4 channel transistor mic pre-amp)
  • SSL 611 EQ
  • Trident 80B 500 EQ
  • Warm Audio EQP-WA (Pultec Style EQ)
  • Thermionic Culture - Phoenix HG15 - Valve Compressor
  • Universal Audio 1176 compressor (x2)
  • DBX 560A VCA Compressor
  • JLM LA500 Optical Compressor
  • Little Labs - IBP phase alignment tool
  • AKG BX5 - Spring Reverb
  • Roland RE210 Space Echo

Microphones

  • Vintage Neumann U87 (x2)
  • Neumann KM84
  • AKG 414 B-ULS (x2)
  • AKG 414 EB (x2)
  • AKG C451B (x2)
  • Earthworks HDM TC25 (x2)
  • Earthworks HDM SR25
  • Audio-Technica ATM25
  • Audio-Technica 4033a
  • Royer SF-12 Stereo Ribbon
  • Beyer M160 Ribbon
  • Sennheiser 421 (x2)
  • Beyerdynamic M88
  • Shure SM7
  • Shure SM beta57 (x3)
  • Shure SM57 (x2)
  • Shure SM58 (x3)
  • AKG D112

Instruments/Amps (selected, please get in touch for full list)

  • Mapex Saturn 4 Piece Kit
  • Ludwig Supraphonic 400 Vintage Snare
  • Full Set of vintage Zildjian cymbals
  • Ampeg SVT Classic Bass Amp Head
  • Traynor Bass Master YBA-1A MkII Head
  • Traynor YT-15 1x15 Cab
  • Warwick 1x15 Cab
  • Fender 50’s Japanese Reissue Telecaster
  • Gibson SG Standard
  • Fender Vibro Champ Combo
  • Fender Hotrod Deluxe Combo
  • Fender Supersonic Head
  • Marshall JVM205H Head
  • Orange 4x12 Cab

FX Pedal/Misc

  • Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
  • Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress
  • Upright Piano (Get in touch to ask about tuning etc.)
  • Hammond B2 Organ
  • Rhodes Stage Piano Mk2
  • Korg MS-20 Monophonic Analogue Synth
  • Polivoks Analogue Synth
  • Leslie 16 Cab

Studio facilities

  • Kitchen with microwave, toaster, kettle etc
  • Wireless internet access
  • A large supermarket two mins across the road
  • A fish and chip takeaway, chinese, pubs, etc

At half-ton, my vision finally became a reality after about 3-4 years of trying to record the same 11 songs. I've never been happier with anything in my whole life!

- Daniel Flay (The Travis Waltons)
Recorded at Half-ton

Daniel Flay

Call The Cops

About Half-Ton

Half-ton Studio was started in late 2007 by engineer/producer Neil 'bugs' Rogers, with the help of Rob Toulson. We recognised that the recording landscape was rapidly changing, with recording budgets shrinking and DIY productions on the increase. The challenge was to build and develop a high quality recording space, but keep prices low to enable people to spend sufficient time crafting their recordings. Finding the right space, along with opening the facilities up for rehearsals, has enabled us to keep our overheads down, offer a quality service and still be affordable. Over the years the studio has grown in size and the quality of the gear we have available now, compared to when we started, still amazes us. We're particularly proud of our microphone collection. We believe we're able to offer our clients the best equipped studio of our type in the area.

Key to the success of any studio is the quality of the Engineers. At Half-ton you can be sure that you're in very safe hands, whoever you record with. We're very much a musician's studio at heart and our team will understand the issues you face when deciding how to plan and approach a recording session. As well as being technically sound and able to work quickly, a good engineer knows when to give an opinion and when to be as transparent as possible. No two recording sessions are the same and the real craft is knowing how to get the most out an artist, or band, and how to run a productive and successful session.

The Team

Neil 'Bugs' Rogers

Neil Rogers, or 'Bugs' to many, has over 20 years' experience performing and engineering in recording studios and understands the process from both sides of the mixing desk. He has recently produced recordings for Captain, Steven James Adams, The Travis Waltons, Freeze the Atlantic (ex Reuben and Hundred Reasons), The Broken Family Band and The British Public, to name but a few.

A creative engineer at heart, who's not afraid to experiment to get the right sound, Bugs manages the day to day running of half-ton and combines his relaxed but firm production style with excellent technical knowledge. He is also a regular contributor to Sound on Sound magazine, providing features on mixing, recording and product reviews.

Matty Moon

Matty has over 10 years experience working as an Engineer in both live and studio environments. As an accomplished guitarist, his years recording and touring with his own bands provided the platform for him to hone his Engineering skills. Perhaps best known for his work developing Lonely the Brave's early sound and recordings, Matty has also worked with the likes of B-Sydes and Daniel O'Dell and record labels: Columbia, This is Fake DIY & Lockjaw. He became one the in house Engineers at half-ton in 2008 and his unassuming production style hides a striking ability to bring clarity and direction to projects under his watch.

I really love going into half-ton. Great sound, great people and a totally relaxed atmosphere. We're lucky to have such a great studio in Cambridge.

- Mo (Lonely The Brave)
Recorded at Half-ton

Lonely The Brave

Hope There's Someone

FAQ

How much is it to record at half-ton Studios?

Prices start at £200 for an 8 hour day but get in touch and we'll put together a quote for you. The minimum booking is half a day (4 hours).

What is included in the price?

Full use of the studio, a skilled engineer, all equipment and instruments in the building, tea and coffee and a couple of CD's to take a away. We can also provide you with high quality MP3's of any mixes/masters.

What's not included in the price?

Replacement guitar strings and drum heads etc. You might want to consider getting the piano tuned if your planning on using it. This is about £60 if the tuner is available. We also don't offer CD replication - but can point you in the right direction

Is there parking at the studio?

We only have a few dedicated parking spots and we are on quite a busy estate so it's best to try and keep vehicle numbers down if at all possible. It normally works just fine though and if you have any problems just call us and we'll guide you!

How do I book and do you require a deposit?

We can book and confirm your session via email or over the phone. For 1st time clients we tend to ask for a 25% deposit and this is only non refundable if you cancel your session outright. If something comes up we might be able to move dates around.

Do you do mastering?

Yes and we offer very reasonable rates. Sessions we record and mix here come with basic mastering as standard but we also work with some fantastic, specialist mastering engineers who we recommend you consider using for release quality projects.

Do you offer production?

Being a music producer is a very broad umbrella these days and is often misunderstood. All our engineers will try and help you as much as they can during your session and will be happy to give opinions, if required or asked for, on sounds, arrangement, vocal performance etc etc. This kind of help is what a good engineer should do as standard though and production, in our opinion, is more of an involved role - where someone would fundamentally help steer and shape the direction of the project.

This might involve some pre-production work before the recording takes place and generally it becomes more of a collaborative process between the band and the person chosen to produce. These days this 'person' is usually the engineer as well so it becomes a combined role and it's common for an engineer who ends up working more closely with a band to be labelled a co-producer. If your interesting in working with someone in more a production type role It's best to get in touch and ask for more details, or if you have specific one of our team in mind we can put you in touch!

What happens to the files from our session?

We guarantee to keep your session backed up on multiple hard drives for 1 year. After this time there's a good chance we'll still have them, but make no guarantees. It's a good idea to take away an archived version of your session and most projects can easily be fitted on a small flash drive these days. We might ask for a small fee (£15-30) for this service.

Can we take the raw audio files away with us?

Yes no problem. We may ask for a small fee to cover our time preparing them for larger sessions however.

Can I do work experience at Half-ton?

It's unlikely we'll be able to help with this due to the nature of how most recording sessions are planned and booked. Do get in touch though and we might be able to offer you a bit of advice or ideas - we're a pretty friendly bunch.

Half-Ton Studios Location

The studios are located just outside the centre of Cambridge. As you enter the village of Milton from the A14, you can find us down the bottom of the 2nd industrial estate on your right.

TEL: 07973414317

EMAIL: info@halftonstudios.co.uk