Record With Us

Where we are

Visconti Studio sits on the edge of Kingston Hill, surrounded by green space and directly across the road from Richmond Park. Kingston upon Thames is a short bus ride away, and we are easily reached by train, bus, or car from central London.

It is a quieter, greener alternative to a city-centre studio, with ample parking outside, load-in straight into the live room, daylight while you work, and somewhere peaceful to walk and explore during session breaks.

What a booking includes

A booking gives you the whole facility: the live room, the drum and vocal booth, the control room, the machine room, and everything in them. That includes the instruments in the room, and access to our microphone collection. Ask about the gamelan. Single instruments can come into the room for a session, and the full set can be laid out with notice.

Sessions are supported by our in-house engineers, technicians and interns. You are welcome to bring your own engineer or producer, and equally welcome to arrive with nothing but songs and let us staff it. Tracking is what the facility does best, and we can handle mixing and mastering across formats, from a fully analogue tape session to high-resolution digital.

Who records here

Records made here range from rock bands and jazz ensembles to chamber groups, choirs, and small orchestral sessions. Ralph McTell, Holly McVie, Romances, BISHI, Mary Epworth, SOL Collective, Tankus the Henge and Flight Brigade have made records in the room. Daniel Blumberg wrote and recorded parts of an Ivor-winning score here. Chris Kimsey, Chris Porter, and Rob Walsh have all worked in the control room, and Tony Visconti has been recording here since the studio reopened in 2016.

Availability and rates

Visconti Studio is a working studio inside a university building. During term time, evenings, overnights, and weekends are usually available, and weekday dates can often be negotiated with enough notice and planning. Over the summer the studio opens up considerably, and longer lockouts are straightforward.

Rates depend on the length of the session, what you need staffed, and when you come. Tell us what you have in mind and we will send you a quote.

We can sometimes offer reduced rates to clients who are happy to work alongside our students or researchers. In practice that might mean an intern observing or assisting, or half an hour talking through your process with a postgraduate researcher at the end of the day. Plenty of the artists and producers who record here take this option. If it interests you, mention it when you get in touch and we will work out what suits your project.

Tape, transfers, and reamping

Analogue recording to tape. If you have never worked to tape and want to, this is a good place to try it, and we will talk you through what it changes about how a session runs.

Transfers and archiving. We can transfer material from 2-inch, quarter-inch to high-resolution digital files. If you have reels or tapes in a cupboard and nowhere to play them, we can help.

Bringing your own recordings into the room. If you have recorded at home and w or elswhere and would like the room on it, bring the files. We play them out through the live room, re-mike them, and give you back something with a unique sonic character to incorporate into your mix. It works particularly well on drums, percussion and backing vocals.

Venue and event hire

The live room is available on its own, without a recording session. Its architecture, natural acoustic, and full-range PA suit concerts, talks, conferences, showcases, and recitals. Seated, it holds around 120 people.

We also welcome filmmakers, photographers, installation artists, and anyone working across those boundaries. The room has been used for music video shoots, documentary filming, and installation work.

Practical details

Full room dimensions, the floor plan, and the equipment list are on The Studio page.