Slam Door Studios

Recording / Mixing / Mastering

About Slamdoor Studios

Slam Door Studios is run by recording artist, engineer and producer Ed Rome. With over 15 years' experience in mixing and mastering Ed has built a reputation for producing high quality results. Many of Ed's recordings are regularly featured on BBC radio and the recent album 'Trigger Warning' by The Chancers which Ed produced, mixed and mastered, won a CZ Grammy/Angel award.

Ed has spent years perfecting Slam Door's listening and live environment to give you the best results possible. Ed has worked on material from genres as wide ranging as choral to metal & reggae to classical. Ed realises that handing material over to a mastering engineer can be difficult for an artist but he is always keen to incorporate artists' tastes as much as is possible within the mastering process.

Praise for albums mastered at Slam Door Studios:
'An excellent album'
- Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 2

'Irresistible, absolutely authentic, carries complete conviction.'
- Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music

'A talent' 'Excellent'
- Craig Charles, BBC Radio 2

'A fantastic sound'
- Robert Elms, BBC London

Studio

Hardware:

  • Focal Solo6 Monitors
  • Mac intel tower
  • UAD 2 Apollo
  • UAD 2 PCIe x 2
  • Motu 828 Mk2
  • Soundcraft M8
  • Presonus HP 60
  • Fully acoustically treated listening environment

Software:

  • Logic X
  • UAD 2 plugins
  • Waves Sound Design Suite
  • DSP Quattro

Mastering Rates

(no hidden extras)


EP (1-4 tracks) - £38 a track

Mini Album (5-9 tracks) - £35 a track

Album (10-14 tracks) - £32 a track

Add £8 a track per extra medium e.g. Vinyl

We are happy to master a sample for your perusal before you commit.

For songs longer than 7 minutes please contact first


What you get for your money:

  • A free mix appraisal
  • A sonically mastered commercial quality Red Book CD
  • DDP File
  • Embedded ISRC
  • Includes all revisions

After your free mix appraisal and mastering sample, if you want to proceed with mastering then Slam Door asks for 50% payment upfront and the remaining 50% on completion of the master via paypal to [email protected].


Mixing Rates

Please Contact us for Mixing rates

Mixing @ Slam Door

A bad mix can destroy perfectly good recordings! We want to get the absolute best out of your recordings and want the mix to represent your material as best as possible so you can get your music noticed amongst the competition. As ever it It is in our interest too to put our name to the best product possible!

Why Slam Door?

  • Over 15 years experience of mixing and mastering
  • We value and incorporate your suggestions, needs and wants
  • We've worked in all major genres
  • Mixing takes place in a fully treated acoustic environment using high end monitoring and equipment
  • Our mixes and masters have received countless BBC Radio airplay

Mixing Appraisals

We also offer detailed mix appraisals for those who want to mix their own music but may have got to the point where they need some help. Maybe you are constantly remixing, not getting very far and need another pair of ears in a properly acoustically treated room to have a detailed listen and give you some pointers.

What Is Mastering?

Mastering is the final process of music creation before the duplication/replication of the release. Slam Door's accurate monitoring in its fully acoustically treated listening environment enables the application of 15 years of mastering experience. Your mixes are taken and turned into professional standard radio friendly commercial masters.

Mastering can involve working on frequency balance, dynamics, noise/digital error correction, clarity, stereo image and loudness. The mastering process ensures that your music will transfer successfully to various playback systems and will give your audio consistent clarity and volume across an album, mini album or EP.

Bear in mind that mastering is not a magic wand. You cannot assume that problems in recording or mixing can always be solved in the mastering process and why would you want to pay for unnecessary corrective mastering work! If a mix is poor then there is only so much mastering can do for it. To avoid disappointment, record your music to the highest quality you can and get your mixes sounding as you want them to. Mastering is vital but it is the 'final polish' and not the fundamentals of the music's sonic qualities.

Mixing Tips

Before you arrive

For those who want their music mastered here at Slam Door we offer free mix appraisals. We will point out anything that can be tweaked more successfully at the mixing stage as it is pointless mastering mixes that could be easily bettered your end. It is in our interest to put our name to mastering the best final product possible!

Here are some tips:

  1. Listen for unwanted noise & distortion, pops & clicks, checking all edits.
  2. Read about and experiment with mic placement techniques and avoid the need for the excessive corrective de-essing of vocals.
  3. EQ tracks unsoloed in context and be subtle as volume/fader changes later can expose excessive EQ boosts/cuts.
  4. Question why you are using a compression on a track, is it to correct/reduce a dynamic range or is it for its sonic qualities too? Explore parallel compression also
  5. Be aware of the distinction between ambience and reverb and be careful not to overuse reverbs.
  6. Not every instrument can be massive in the mix, try and make room for everything avoiding negative internal competition.
  7. Explore the stereo field being by panning subtly.
  8. Bear in mind that most mix changes affect other elements of the mix so let mixes evolve gradually.
  9. Test the mix on different playback systems and in mono.
  10. Common problems with mixes are that they are too sweet in the bottom and/or top end.'
  11. Ask yourself 'can I hear everything?' 'Is anything dominating the mix?'
  12. Do not use any effects on the master buss or 2 track masters. When rendering/bouncing, leave 3-6dB head room and do not normalise.

Songwriting

We can offer suggestions as to ways to improve the arrangement of your material. From something as simple as a change in chord use to offering full arrangements for your initial idea.

Studio Session

If you need players on your music we can offer all saxophones, guitars, bass, keys, mandolin, harmonica drums, percussion and vocals in many genres...

Samples

Testimonials

"Quality Old School Production"

- Neville Staple (The Specials)

"Whenever we record music in the future we will want Ed to be involved, in fact, we will make sure we keep recording just to keep working with Ed!"

- The Twisty Turns

"Not only does Ed have an incredible ear for sound but he also listens to his client and works with you to achieve great results. His knowledge and attention to detail whilst mixing and mastering have helped our projects to become so much more."

- Stuart Bowditch (Courier Sound)

"Ed Rome (Slam Door Studios) is one of the industries best recording, mixing and mastering engineers. His work for our label has always been thorough and his creative input is a vital part of our release process."

- Sticky Joe (Kingston Express)

Clients

  • Horace Andy (Massive Attack)
  • Neville Staple (The Specials)
  • Rhoda Dakar (The Special A.K.A/The Bodysnatchers)
  • Freddie Notes (Trojan Records)
  • Dennis Alcapone (Studio One Pioneer)
  • Pama International
  • Jon Fawkes (The Filaments)
  • Hybernation
  • USRNM
  • The Big
  • The Beatroots
  • New Found Lung
  • The Twisty Turns
  • Jenny Wren and Her Borrowed Wings
  • Katie English (Isnaj Dui)
  • Lou Woodger
  • Marie Delanote
  • Nick Dawson
  • The Chancers
  • The Condriacs
  • The Filaments
  • Turn Left At The Jedi
  • Al Johnson (Alien)
  • Al Tracey
  • Bendikg
  • Blues Brew
  • earsaregoos
  • Edward Wragg
  • James Knights
  • The Cabstars
  • Chris Davison
  • Gateway FM
  • Jo Overfield & Ray Morgan ft. Diamond Family Archive
  • Origami Noise
  • The Chancers
  • Andy Perriss
  • Quintus (classical vocal quintet)
  • Jimmy the Squirrel
  • On the Case
  • Eumig
  • James Eldridge
  • Joe Atkinson (Flipron)
  • Sticky Joe
  • Phillious Williams
  • Serrata
  • The Splitters
  • Gina Sykes Sessions
  • Ian Reed
  • Universal Disappointment Sponge

Sending Files

Mastering:

Once you are happy that your mixes are as good as they can be you can then send your stereo wav files to Slam Door Studios via dropbox to [email protected] for your free mix appraisal and free online mastering sample. If you have any sonic preferences (e.g. regarding levels of processing and loudness) please tell us!

N.B. do not use any effects on the master buss and when rendering/bouncing, do not apply dither and leave 2-4dB head room and do not normalise. For more info see 'mixing tips'

If you have any questions please feel free to fill out our Contact form

Mixing:

Once you are happy that your recordings are as good as they can be you can then send your stems to Slam Door Studios via dropbox to [email protected]

Send us a stem (a WAV or AIFF file containing one instrument) for each song. Make sure all the stems start from the same point and that they do not have ANY effects on them (N.B. do not use any effects on the master buss and when rendering/bouncing).

If you prefer you can send a Logic X session of you work(s)

If you have any sonic preferences please tell us! e.g. "I would like spring reverb on the lead vocals".

If you already have a mix of your track that you are not happy with, send it to us and tell us what you do and do not like about it. Also, where appropriate, send us samples of other artists mixes you like and explain why.

If you have any questions please feel free to fill out our Contact form

Contact Slam Door