5 Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Get Your Hands on the World’s Rarest Synths
Five synthesizer studios packed with jaw-dropping synths.
You don’t have to buy a Jupiter-8 to play a Jupiter-8. Get access to amazing synths at these mind-blowing synthesizer studios.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios
Earlier this year, I wrote about five synthesizer museums, places where you could see and learn about synths. That’s all well and good, but you probably want to play and record them too, not just look at them. While a few places in that story did offer tracking facilities, they’re not full studios. For those kinds of services, you’ll want a dedicated studio that specializes in synths.
Today, then, we’re talking about synthesizer studios, commercial facilities aimed at recording musicians who are after a specifically synthy sound. All of the synthesizer studios mentioned here provide full tracking, with many offering other services as well, such as online sessions, equipment rental, and even lessons.
Here are five incredible synthesizer studios. I’ve tried to choose ones in different places around the world with a variety of instruments and services available. Of course, I couldn’t list them all. Let me know in the comments which ones you think also deserve a mention.
Many of the products mentioned in this story are available at Thomann*.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Synthesizer Studio Berlin
Let’s start with Synthesizer Studio Berlin, a studio that (as the name suggests) specializes in synthesizers. Associated with the Synthesizer Museum Berlin, which I highlighted in our story about synth museums, Synthesizer Studio Berlin offers studio time in a variety of blocks and prices, and all include an in-house engineer/programmer. And, if you don’t happen to be near Berlin, the studio also provides online sessions, which allow you to track MIDI files or DAW tracks with hardware instruments.
As for the synths themselves, Synthesizer Studio Berlin has a large selection of keyboard and semi-modular instruments, many either set up and ready to go in the studio or waiting off-site. These include a Yamaha CS-80, Roland Jupiter-8, Roland System-700, Moog Memorymoog, Oberheim Matrix-12, and many more.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Rosen Sound Synth Cabin
Next up is Rosen Sound Synth Cabin, the studio facilities at Burbank, California’s Rosen Sound vintage synthesizer repair, sales, and rental shop. Designed to not only record their synths but “meet the same benchmarks of some of the best studios in the world,” in their words, the Synth Cabin is an amazing place to track some of the rarest and best-known synthesizers ever made.
A quick perusal of the studio’s gear list should be enough to have you booking a flight to Los Angeles. It includes an Elka Synthex, EMS Synthi AKS, Moog Taurus I Bass Pedals, Rev2 and Rev3 Sequential Circuits Prophet-5s, an Oberheim Eight-Voice, and the ever-amazing Roland Jupiter-8, many with MIDI installed. They’ll even hook you up with snacks. Nice.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Synth Palace
Leaving Los Angeles, the next stop on our tour of incredible synthesizer studios is Synth Palace in Montreal, Canada. Founded and curated by musician Peter Venuto, Synth Palace aims to be an affordable alternative to more expensive options, with equipment rental, online sessions, sample packs, and yes, studio time.
Gear-focused, Synth Palace lets you choose the gear that you want to record first and foremost, and then go from there. Check out the instrument list, which features 139 synthesizers, including the EMS VCS3, Roland SH-101, Moog Opus 3, Fender Chroma Polaris, and many more. It’s not just vintage, either, but a large selection of modern machines, too, should that be your purview. The studio also offers microphones, drum machines, effects, and more.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Greystoke Studio
If you’re London-based and fancy a high-end studio experience, Greystoke Studio looks to be the synthesizer studio to consider. Owned by producer Andy Whitmore, and with indie dance rockers Primal Scream having recorded there, Greystoke is very much a top-quality studio – with a gear list to prove it.
Along with the usual list of computer equipment and software, plus some impressive outboard (Greystoke also offers full mixing and mastering services), the analog and digital synths at hand include an original ARP Odyssey, Moog Minimoog, Oberheim OB-1, Roland Juno-106, Yamaha CS-80, Roland JD-800, and a Korg Wavestation. It may cost a bit more than the other studios in this piece, but if you can afford it, it would be a luxurious experience to record there.
Incredible Synthesizer Studios: Willem Twee Studios
One of the more unique synthesizer studios in the world, Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, offers more than just the usual vintage synths – which they do also have – but a vast array of test equipment, the kind that you usually only see in old documentaries about musique concrète (or in Hainbach videos).
The facilities are separated into four main areas. Studio I features a massive wall of test and measurement equipment from the 1950s and 1960s. This includes units like sine and pulse generators and filters, as well as more unusual analog computers and nuclear instrument modules. If you’d rather work with more traditional vintage synths, you’re in luck, as Studio 2 is ridiculously well-apportioned, with an ARP 2500 and 2600, Serge Modular, Roland Juno-60, Oberheim Matrix-6, and Yamaha DX-7, among others.
The fun continues in Studio 3, which offers five small workstations, each with its own unique focus, like test equipment, Roland x0x machines, Korg MS-series instruments, analog monosynths, and a modular station with a Synton Fenix and EMS VCS3. Lastly, Studio 4 is a small concert hall for recording piano and pipe organ.
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