image via Excello Studio
North Brooklyn is “studio central,” with tons of new studios surfacing and a growing number of recordings coming out of the area. “It’s what Hell’s Kitchen used to be,” says Paul Gold of Salt Mastering on Greenpoint Avenue. Hardly surprising perhaps, since great music is being made and performed locally by talented indie bands and singer songwriters that want to record close to home. “I can basically master a record and walk a few blocks and see a band I just worked with. If I walk into a bar and talk to the bartender who happens to be in a band, I may end up scoring a gig,” says mastering engineer Heba Kadry, of Timeless Mastering.
Increasingly, international musicians are either coming to record or relying on local studios to mix and master. Bands are drawn to the luxury of large spaces that are innovatively designed, achieving a cross between a living room with vintage instruments and a hospital operating room. There are still, of course, the more garage-type spaces and places that musicians can rent by the hour.