Deep in South Wales Owain Fleetwood Jenkins has created a fabulous residential recording studio in a now very impressive once abandoned chapel. We had head several producers talk about StudiOwz and were keen to find out more so after a four hour drive arrived on a sunny day and at once felt like a holiday was about to start.
This is a very tucked out of the way studio. In all the time there only one vehicle passed which turned out to be a local farmer. While some distance to travel makes this studio most suitable for artists wanting to be away for a week or more the journey is well worth it - the studio is one of the best musically equipped studios visited and you'll get the idea when you watch this studio tour!
Some of the outstanding instrument selections include a wonderful Bechstein grand piano which has one of the best tones heard, sadly Owain wearing the tie clip mic showing us around hints at just how good it really sounds. We hope to visit very soon to record a feature demonstrating the piano's ability. The selection of drums is very impressive and sadly had to edit out most of Owain demonstrating some of the drums as the lav mic wasn't really capturing it and we, again, will be over to cover the vast range of drums on offer later.
The recording space is very impressive having a lovely smooth sound with loads of height and balcony areas for you to put the choir if you have one or to maybe set up mics in interesting places. There's a small booth for singers and then there's the 'dead room'.. The dead room isn't super dead but is very well controlled. Open one door in the room and there's a well organised collection of mic cables, mics and other 'stuff'. Open the other door and pull out the amazing rack of drums. Not seen that before! Not to forget the range of organs, guitars and amps to choose from - it's the kind of place you can hitch hike to (maybe not so easy out that way) and make a record bringing nothing with you.
Technically, the mic selection is well curated. Some very desirable mics are here. Upstairs, the control room is vast, it's 'airy', sunlight coming in from all four directions giving the space a relaxed and comfortable vibe with the plants everywhere and almost 70's feel, probably due to the large orage sofa and choice of colours. This is one control room that will not feel tiring on a long album project.
One notable feature of the studio is that the control room is possibly the only studio we have visited that faces away from the studio! A nice touch for nervous artists feeling the pressure of a first recording but pressure isn't the kind of thing anyone would feel here.
Owain is to be congratulated, this is one of the finest 'band recording studios' we have visited in a long time. For someone so young to have built this is most impressive. We strongly recommend this studio and hope that you enjoy the tour around, maybe call Owain up after and set up a trip to check it out.