Recording Studio Edinburgh

Welcome to Kean Audio Digital Studios

Kean Audio is a custom designed digital recording studio and sound production suite. We offer a range of services for bands, record labels, songwriters, advertising agencies, radio stations and media professionals.

We specialise in guitar based rock and pop music and we have experience in producing everything from rap artists doing original tracks to club singers recording demos of cabaret classics.

We aim to make the big-budget recording techniques used by major record companies affordable for unsigned bands and independant record labels. So many bands spend a fortune on gear and commit to a weekly practice room regime - only to produce low quality demo recordings due to budget constraints.

We believe that the recording stage is the most important part of band development. With the exposure unsigned bands can generate through myspace, youtube and other such sites - high quality recordings can help promote bands and take their music to a wider audience. Revenue created through cd sales, download sites and radio play can usually recover recording costs too - if the writing, production and marketing are of the standard expected by music fans.

Our total recall digital technology allows you to setup a session once and instantly recall EVERY setting and patch in that session at any time in the future. This allows bands the freedom to run recording sessions over weeks or even months, without having to worry about losing sounds or having to setup again. This allows bands to use the studio as an augmentation to the practice room and to spread the cost of professional recording over a timescale that suits.

We offer packages to suit any budget - check out our rates for details.

about us

We established Kean Audio in 2006 to offer Edinburgh musicians cutting edge recording facilities using the latest digital equipment at affordable prices.

As musicians, we've both played in bands covering styles from heavy metal to europop and have been active on the Edinburgh band scene since the early 1990s.

Having both studied as electronic engineers we've always had an interest in digital electronics and our passion for music threw us into digital production in 1998.

We've grown up with PC based music production and were on a constant quest for a "holy grail" of recording bands - the right combination of equipment and setup that would allow bands to interface with the studio in the traditional way and also offer the flexibility and control of leading edge digital systems.

Kean Audio represents our latest incarnation of this project. As technology marches forward so too does our configuration - but we believe that we've created a streamlined and HIGHLY flexible studio environment where your musical creativity can blossom and high quality commercial recordings can be made quickly and easily.

We like to think of Kean Audio as a playground for musicians.

Have a look around - you'll see what we mean.

Ryan and Graeme

development

If you are in a band, a manager, an A&R executive or an agent and feel that it's time to take your act on to the next level - we are here to help you discover new ways to improve and develop your sound.
We can nurture your creative ideas into reality and also provide an objective persprective and direction when you need it most.
From one track demo to full album production, recording to full arrangement, drum programming to providing session musicians - Kean Audio can price your requirements competitively and provide fast turnarounds.

bands

At Kean Audio our first love is band music and we offer a range of services to suit all genres. Maybe you're tired of beat up rehearsal rooms and want to jam with the most-up-to-date live digital equipment? Maybe you're band is missing a guitarist or a drummer and you'd like someone to fill in while jamming? Maybe you'd like to undertake a bigger project such as recording an album and making music videos? Whatever your needs we're here to make sure you spend the best time doing what you do best - playing together.

Our Total Recall digital technology ensures that you can run projects over many sessions and always pick up where you left off with the minimum of setup time. We don't have additional rental prices for any of our gear - if we've got it - you're more than welcome to use it.

When you decide to call us and make that booking - the more information you have for us the better prepared we can be for your session.

songwriters

Narrow mindedness, band politics and lack of cooperation are just a few of the challenges facing songwriters today. Don't compromise - it's your song - so get the sound you want. If it's recording you with your weapon of choice, our comfortable relaxed atmosphere and objective perspective will have your songs shining out. Maybe you want a band backing you up, or a full orchestral arrangement. You're in charge - so lets get the songs from your head on to CD.

electronica

Here at Kean Audio - we embrace digital music and realise the benefits of home production. We have the specialist finishing touches that are not possible or financially viable for you to do at home. Our post production tools and listening environment will give your compositions that touch of class and our advanced controllers can add some flashy tweakz. Maybe you have your tracks all sequenced and programmed and want to add those couple of recorded elements. Our digital studio is 100% automatable and we have the expertise to integrate with your projects and gear.

control room

Custom designed control room within a room with video link to Live room. Fully automated 68 Track (34 in simultaneous) digital recorder with 96KHz samplerate at 24bit and total recall for spreading projects over many sessions. Quad display layout for project overview and mixing. Expansion packs by Universal Audio and Powercore feature the very best sounding digital DSP effects available today. Models of classic and vintage gear faithfully reproduced through the Mackie HR824 monitoring system.

live room

Our soundproofed and acoustically treated live room features air conditioning, adjustable LED lighting and the most up to date digital equipment for live and studio use. From the state-of-the-art hybrid digital drum kit through to the computer driven keyboard station - every part of your signal chain has been designed for maximum flexibilty and audio quality. Tannoy active Reveals supply monitoring in the live room with multiple independent headphone mixes for a silent recording environment when required.

drums

Come and play the most advanced hybrid TD-20 based digital drum kit in the world - with analogue add on packs and real feel dynamic drum heads. Features over 50 different kits. Customise mic placement, mic spill, ambience, reverb, shell type, beater type, FX and more. Build your own custom kit. From the dance classics to dry-mic anologue retro kits. Fully programmable with double bass pedal.
Save time by quantizing your drummer or change the sound of the whole kit for the chorus. All this is possible. Midi outs allow you to play through Reason or the FXPansion plug-in BFD for that vintage sound. Never waste studio time setting up another drum mic.

guitars

You might have your guitar playing just the way you like it, and your favourite FX already setup. Great! Bring it all down and we'll hook it up to an amp. Maybe you'd like to experiment with some other guitars for those different songs in your set? Why not create a new sound that would be impossible to achieve with conventional equipment?
Industry leading guitar modelling by Line6, VOX and TC Electronic. All your favourite sounds and FX. Fully programmable for hot swapping sounds. An unlimited selection that'll turn you into a digital convert. Models of rare and vintage amps as well as modern classics. Guitars also available - over 25 models including acoustics.

vocals

Range of mics, preamps and FX processing by TC Electronics, TC Helicon, UA and Yamaha. Features include tuning, pitch shifting, harmonizers, EQs, delays, reverbs and many more.

bass

Bass amp modelling by line6. The best amps and tones - from warm and deep subs to cutting synth leads.

keys/synth

Dedicated PC featuring various samplers, drum machines, instruments and sythesizers - all fully programmable and automated via Novation control surface. Non weighted keyboard with aftertouch and full size clavinova with weighted keys for piano performances.

The Recorder

Dual Core PC with 2GB Corsair RAM and 3 hard drives

System Drive RAPTOR 10000RPM
Samples Drive RAPTOR 10000RPM
Recorder Drive broken into 3 Partitions - 7500RPM

Matrox Triplehead AGP graphics card for huge workspace allows project screen, mixer screen and effects/control room screen to be visible at all times.

Recorder features:

2 x RME Multiface II audio interface cards allowing 26 simultaneous tracks to be recorded at 96kHz 24-bit, or 34 tracks at 44.1kHz 24-bit.
We chose RME cards due to their excellent analogue to digital conversion characteristics and their industry leading low latency performance. Check out www.rme-audio.com for more information on RME cards.

2 x UAD-1 DSP effects cards. The Universal Audio UAD-1 card has already become a classic effects processor. It features digital recreations of the most sought after analogue equipment in the world that are so good - not even seasoned pros who work with the originals can tell the difference. The cards are expandable and new effects are being added all the time. Check out www.uaudio.com for information.

1 x Powercore MkII DSP effects processor. Along with the UAD-1, the TC Electronic Powercore system is another digital expansion card featuring the very best sounding effects available today. With effects ported straight from their flagship SYSTEM 6000 processor along with many other great sounding effects, this processor in combination with the UAD-1 gives us acess to a HUGE pallette of sounds that can be dialled in to the mixer. All these effects are available to you when tracking or in post production. Check out www.tcelectronic.com for more information on the Powercore range.

For sequencing and editing we use Steinberg's Cubase 4. We have been using cubase for over 10 years and version 4 represents a huge step forward in computer based recording technology. We also recognise that Cubase is the most popular sequencer in the world and using this allows us to interface directly with more producers, studios and home recording enthusiasts. The workflow improvements in version 4 allow producers to work faster than ever and to browse and catalogue sounds in a completely new way. Cubase 4 bundles with a huge array of instruments based on the Yamaha MOTIF synthesizer. Check out Cubase 4 on the link below.

The Recorder is MIDI enabled via 3 x M-audio MidiSport interfaces.

Tactile control of the mixer is achieved using the Mackie Control Universal. The Mackie Controller features 8 channels of control that can be setup in fader groups in Cubase allowing one touch access to any 8 channels. The faders are motorised and we have macros of commonly used tasks and shortcuts applied to quick access buttons. The Mackie Controller takes a bit of setting up, but it's well worth it once all your macros and fader groups are in place.
Mackie monitors also feature in the Control Room. Their ruler flat frequncy response provides an uncoloured sound and they have an advanced feature set for different room setups. Read all about the Mackie Control Universal and the HR824 Monitors at the link below.

We have a second computer that we use as an instrument/sampler machine. It also has Dual Core processing and 2GB RAM. It features an RME 9652 Hammerfall ADAT card that connects and synchronizes directly with the Recorder machine. The RME cards allow the second machine to act as a slave to the recorder and ensure that perfect digital transfers can be made between machines in real time. We can also record onto this machine via the ADAT port of a Yamaha AW2816 digital desk. This effectively expands the Recorder by 8 channels and allows us to use the Yamaha as a front end if we wish. Although the AW2816 is a small machine, it features the same mic preamps used in the O2R digital desk and many of the same DSP algorithms

The Sampler machine also features various VST instruments and Reason V3. For drummers who prefer a less processed sound than the TD-20, this machine also features the FXpansion plug-in BFD for a more natural, "in the room" sound.

Check it out here:

more to follow...