Black Bay Recording Studio

Black Bay Recording Studio

Nestled in a sheltered harbour on a tiny Hebridean Island, surrounded by the ever changing beauty of the Atlantic Ocean, lies one of the music industry’s best kept secrets.

Now home to the UK’s most remote recording facility, it’s hard to believe that Black Bay Studio began life as a humble crab factory. A major renovation in 2016 transformed the space to a state-of-the art studio, incorporating three spacious and beautifully designed acoustic rooms, comfortable accommodation, and a dedicated team of staff who treat making records as a way of life.

Between takes, walk the coastal paths to stunning white sand beaches, try your hand at surfing or fishing, and maybe even catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights before finally resting your head under infinite star-filled skies. Immerse yourself in music in a place like no other.

The meticulously designed control room sounds incredibly balanced throughout. It is spacious enough for everyone to comfortably hang out together, and can also easily be tied into the live rooms so you can add guitar, bass or keys from the heart of the mix. The Cadac J-Series console is the heart of Black Bay and sounds exceptionally warm and open – a real discovery for anyone who isn’t familiar with the Cadac sound.

With oak floors, and pitched ceilings the Black Bay live room is something really special. This huge space has been designed to sound big and open when you want it to, but the bespoke acoustic design is highly adaptable. Through the use of positioning, and our movable treatment, you can use the room to achieve a wide range of acoustics. We also have ties into all neighbouring rooms that can be used as isolation booths for amps etc. The space sounds particularly good with acoustic instruments – piano and strings really sing and drums can sound properly massive.

The dry acoustic space is a big room in its own right at 40 square metres and has good sight-lines to the Live Room and Control Room beyond. It has a very close acoustic thanks to the heavy acoustic treatment, but still sounds balanced. There’s ample space to record a full drum kit and/or multiple musicians and the room also houses our extensive range of vintage, weird and wonderful guitars and backline – all ready to be picked/turned up.

Black Bay Studio is the perfect environment to escape, focus and get inspired!

Accommodation

There’s ample space for accommodation on site, all under the same roof as the studio.  The large, comfortable lounge and dining area boasts a fully kitted-out kitchen.

Up to nine people can stay on site very comfortably across four warm and cosy bedrooms. There is a mix of single, twin and double rooms, and two shared bathrooms.  If you need to spread out a bit further, we can arrange additional accommodation a short distance from the studio.

Black Bay Studio can arrange any catering you need whether fully catered, self catered or anything in between and can work within your budget. They’re proud to be Vegan/Vegetarian friendly but can cater for all requirements

Equipment

Desk

• Cadac J-Series 54 Channel Frame

Monitoring

• Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube Passive Monitors

• PMC IB2S Passive Loudspeakers

• ProAc Studio 100 Loudspeakers

DAW

• Apple Mac Pro 2x 2.4GHz 6 Core

• Apple Logic Pro X

• Avid Pro Tools Ultimate

• Steinberg Cubase 8.5

• Avid HDX

• Digidesign 192 Interface

• Lynx Aurora n 32 i/o HD

• UAD-2 Quad

• Plugin Alliance

• SoundToys 5

Outboard

• API 2500 Stereo Compressor

• Alan Smart C1 Stereo Compressor

• Chandler Limited Little Devil Compressor

• D.A.V. Electronics BG1 2 Channel Mic Preamp

• Empirical Labs EL8-XS Distressor Compressor/Limiter

• Pete’s Place Audio BAC500 Compressor

• Radial Kommit Compressor

• TK Audio TK-lizer Baxandall Stereo M/S EQ

• Universal Audio 6176 Vintage Channel Strip

• DBX 160A Compressor/Limiter

• Vermona VSR3 Vintage Spring Reverb

• Wem Watkins Copicat Tape Echo

• Furman HR-2 Headphone Distribution Boxes (X5)

Microphones

Condensers

• AKG C 414 ULS (X2)

• AKG C 535

• Beezneez James Tube Mic

• CAD M179 (X2)

• Charter Oak SA538B Condenser

• Flea 47 U47 CLONE

• Kel HM-1 Condenser

• Kel HM-2 Condenser

• Kel HM-3 Condenser (X2)

• Michael Jolly Hulk condenser

• Mojave MA-201 LDC

• Neumann U 87 Ai

• Rode K2 (X2)

• Schoeps CMC 6 (X2)

• STAM U87 (X2)

• C-Ducer Tape Microphone contact mic (X2)

Dynamics

• AKG D 202

• AKG D 112 (X2)

• Audix i5

• ElectroVoice RE-50

• Electrovoice RE 20 (X2)

• Sennheiser 421 (X2)

• Shure 545 Unidyne III (X4)

• Shure SM57 (X2)

• Shure SM58

Ribbons

• Apex 205

• Beyerdynamic M 160 (X2)

• Coles 4038 (X2)

• SE Electronics RNR1

• SE Electronics Voodoo VR1

Floorplan

The Control Room - 35m² . The Live Room - 100m² . The Dead Room - 40m²

How To Find Black Bay Studio

It’s hard to get more remote in Europe, but Black Bay has great transport links to the mainland UK. There are daily flights from Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness and several ferry sailings each day from both Ullapool and the Isle of Skye.

There is also have moorings for ocean-going vessels and even a helipad.