Aesthetic Studios provides melbourne musicians of all ages with the perfect environment to rehearse and record their music of choice. Our acoustically designed and treated rooms let the musician hear their sound, how it should be heard. From Gotye to the King Cannons, from The Gun Runners to The Red Lights, from Confession to Carpathian, from built on secrets to I explode like, come practise along side your favourite artists! Every room has hardwood floors, topped with Persian rugs along side acoustically treated walls and baffles that give that perfect balance of a live and deadened sound. Each room is also soundproof and comes with a 500watt yamaha emx 12 channel series PA's, EV speakers, Four RODE M3 microphones (equivalent of the beta 58 but Australian made!), mic stands and our newest home made Licorice Leads (which are also for sale!). As for hire gear, we cover all bases with from Marshal, Mesa Boogie and Orange guitar gear, Ampeg, Ashdown and Trace Elliot bass gear and Pearl and Yamaha drum gear, all can be set up on request!
With the musicians in mind, Aesthetics was built with ZERO steps, 100% disability access and toilets, a drive in undercover load in area and ample parking. Long gone are the days of worrying about rained on gear and long hikes with heavy gear. When its that time to take a break, we have an indoor lounge built to distract with a 42inch lcd + playstation 3 and our fridge of American goodies ranging from Dr Pepper to A&W and all the old favorites (Coke-Gatorade-water-energy drinks-Mars-Cadbury-Kettle-Red Rock-Pringles). We also provide a sheltered outdoor seating area if some fresh quite air is what you are after. So come and rehearse along side some of Melbourne's finest bands and live the good rehearsal life. Open from 9:30am till 10:30pm seven days a week (yes weekends too, no rest for the wicked).
Aesthetic Studios and Fred Really mixes are glad to be able to offer two alternative types of recording soulitions. The good old fashion way and a taste of whats to come!
RECORD IN AUSTRALIA, MIX IT IN SWEDEN!
With that wonderful Internet thing at our disposal, Aesthetic Studios has teamed up with Fred Really Mixes hailing all the way from Sweden. Fred Really Mixes caught our ear with his fantastic quality mixes and extremely fast turn over time. O yeah, and that one other thing, Fred has set up his studio with a live feed so you can watch AND hear (at 192kb quality) LIVE from Sweden!
Here is our little back-story,
My band Strickland () were on the hunt for the most economical way to record a few songs without sacrificing quality. At Aesthetic Studios, we have Fantastic natural acoustics in all of our rooms (check out the gallery for further details) and a plethora of microphones at choose from. When choosing for Microphones at Aesthetics, we understood that every good recording starts at the source, and that source is captured by the first link in the chain, the microphone. We decided Beyerdynamic, Shure, Audix, hand made Little Blondies and Australia's own Rode microphones were best suited for the job at hand. All world-class industry standard microphones.
We were capable of recording our self, but knew we were no where near experienced enough to achieve the polished sound we were after. It is a harsh reality that if you do want that polished radio ready sound, or that down and dirty mix to do your music justice , Two things come in handy. One is years of experience and TWO is A nice flashy studio with all the right bells and whistles. Trolling through elitist forums and braving the all-knowing web of links shined a diamond in the rough in Mr. Fred Erickson. Instantly we trusted that our music would be in very safe, and capable hands.
His resume and previously mixed bands were one thing, Fred's attitude towards music and his drive to create the best possible mixes is another. My band and I logged onto the Live stream and watched and listened in amazement as his turned our songs into exactly how we wanted them to be heard. I was sitting there the whole time thinking, I HAVE to get this guy involved in Aesthetic Studios. Here is the end product of Our first mixing experience with Fred Really Mixes; Today by stricklandmelbourne
HOW IT WORKS
When your band is ready all fresh and rehearsed up and ready for the big red record button, We will work out EXACTLY what kind of sound you are after and talk about what you want from this recording and what you are planning on using it for. There is a big difference in time management between bands looking at recording songs for a Demo/EP/Album and a band that are in the pre production stage. It is important from everything from recording to a click and making sure there are zero mistakes with a Release vs. the flexibility of being left off the hook for a few mistakes for pre production recordings. Other important factors to discus are if big layers of DI'd guitar are needed, whether the vocal wants to utilize pitch correction/autotune and whether you would like drum replacement or not. Generally, we can get through 3-6 songs in a 6ish hour session if your band are very well prepared for the recording.
When needs have been discussed and a date is arranged the fun begins! On Arrival at Aesthetics, we will set up the gear in all the sweet spots of the room to assure the best acoustics. Once set up, generally we will record in this order, Drums (with or without a guitar guide track), bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, synths, Vocal. This is not a set order, and can be rearranged accordingly. To save time, we encourage Drummers to bring in their drum kit the night before. This saves a big chunk of time in setting up Drum Mics.
Once the instrument is properly mic'ed up, we test the source and make sure that the sound we hear back is of the best most accurate quality. A lot of the time, we can also save lots of time by recording bass and guitars all at the same time, this is an extremely useful and viable option if you are looking at getting 5+ songs done in the quickest time possible. Once happy with the source, on goes the big red button. Rinse and repeat for every instrument. At the conclusion of every recording, we can go back and layer or fine-tune any solos/harmonies etc.
Once all the songs are at 100%, they are all bounced, arranged, zipped and then uploaded. I tag out, and Fred Really tags in. We will provide you with a live feed to watch Fred do his thang on the other side of the world. Due to a fortunate time difference between Australia and Sweden, Fred starts most his mixing between 5-6pm our time (9-10am for him). You can watch live as he moulds your sound into how you want your songs to be heard.
Anything you like/dislike along the way can be communicated to Fred via chat. Generally, depending on the need for pitch correction/note quantizing (going out of time) the songs will require 1-3 days of mixing. Once the songs are all mixed, mastered and finished they will be bounced and the raw .wav file will be sent through to your email. We will also attach the highest quality 192kb .mp3 files.
And that’s it! All over in a matter of days rather then weeks or months. Saving a whole of cash, which can now be spent on touring or buying that new g-systems get up you always wanted.
THE LIVE RECORDING-
There was a growing demand for live recordings amongst Melbourne bands, so we thought we would fill that void. Whether you want to record your band, you’re acoustic Act or spoken word, we aim to best accommodate every need! We aim to provide a relaxed atmosphere to allow us to best capture what you want recorded, no stress = good results.
We are able to deliver an accurate reproduction of how you sound live in the flesh. The pros and cons of this recording go hand in hand with the alternate recording we have at Aesthetics. The live sound is raw, this works very well for the cleaner sounding bands. This type of recording is also very good at capturing the grunt and natural groove of a lot of bands that gets lost in quantizing.
So how does it all work you ask?
The biggest most time consuming part of most recording is all the setting up. What we do at Aesthetics to combat that, is roughly set up all microphones prior to the session so once you arrive and set up, we can quickly adjust the microphone placements, check levels and we are good to go! If you wish to hire gear for the recording, EVEN BETTER! That way, we can have the gear set up and good to go the second you arrive! Then you are free to rehearse the songs before we start rolling or if confidence is your thing, hit that big red record button straight away! If you would rather record vocals/guitar solos separately we can do that too! We are more then happy to give some advice along the way or hit record and give you the freedom and control to do what ever you want.
We know once your done and finished recording, you want the end product as soon as humanly possible, So at Aesthetics, we promise to have emailed/uploaded/sent the finished product within 24 hours!
Our rooms at Aesthetics have been used for a variety of things. From photography shoots to video clips to movies to gallery space to workshops and classes. With our rooms ranging from 25square meters to 75 square meters, we try to accommodate any request the best we can. Our largest room at 75 square meters also has a 3.5 meter high ceiling, perfectly accommodating any high lighting that is needed. We are open seven days and are extremely flexible with our times and prices so feel free to give Aesthetic Studios a call and see what can be arranged!
Aesthetic Studios Provides ample space to accommodate any sort of photography shoot. With 3.5m high ceilings, double door entry, white walls and timber flooring we can meet any need!
