Restrike Studios

Do you remember that Status Quo song Argos used in their advert years ago? That went, «Whatever you want, whatever you need» etc??? Well, that pretty much explains Restrike Studios.
What do you want? Good sound recording and mixing for decent prices? Well, here you go, upcoming rock stars. Maybe you can be like Status Quo, rinsing the same three-​bar blues for thirty years.

Recording onto tape is becoming a lost art in today’s increasingly digital world of music. However, Restrike studios are kicking it old school with their Otari tape machine.
They’ve got Pro Tools as well though, so we recorded the drums, bass and guitars on the tape machine for that old-​school feel before throwing it all on to the computer and finishing the tracks.
My band came into Restrike for a long weekend of demo recording. Three days at Restrike costs a reasonable £350.
We did three tracks over the weekend, which is quite a heavy workload and basically involves people nailing their parts in one or two takes and then moving onto the next thing. We weren’t mixing or doing any production as we went along, so by the end of the second day we were worried about the overall quality of the recordings.
However, the final day, spent mixing with the studio’s owner Cormac, brought everything to life. For the money we spent and the amount of material recorded in a short space of time, we were very happy with the results.
Restrike’s live room is huge, which allowed everyone to set up their gear at the same time and we just switched quickly from instrument to instrument. There’s a side room too with pool table, dart board, computer games and Cormac’s geeky selection of Star Trek videos. Lots of fun for the inevitable hours spent doing nothing during recording.