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aberdeen-music

Where do you practice??


ido

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Hi folks,

wondered if any of you can help me and give me some info (hopefully pics) on studios you practicei n. Looking for somewhere to practice and there doesnt seem to be as huge a selection as down in Glasgow.

Where do you practice?

Whats it like (photos pleassse!)?

Prices? Equipment?

Staff decent?

How many rooms they have?

Where/what to avoid?

Do you hire from them, what ?

Whats it not got you want?

Where/Photo/Price/Avoid is prob most important.

Thank you :):)

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Hi folks,

wondered if any of you can help me and give me some info (hopefully pics) on studios you practicei n. Looking for somewhere to practice and there doesnt seem to be as huge a selection as down in Glasgow.

Where do you practice?

Whats it like (photos pleassse!)?

Prices? Equipment?

Staff decent?

How many rooms they have?

Where/what to avoid?

Do you hire from them, what ?

Whats it not got you want?

Where/Photo/Price/Avoid is prob most important.

Thank you :):)

I say Musical Vision.

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The most popular ones in Aberdeen are Captain Toms and Musical Vision. Both are similar in price (think MV is slightly cheaper) and similarly sized.

Toms has a load of pretty rubbish solid state amps which are the worst thing about the place really. The drum kits are a mixed bag as well with some in better nick than others.

Musical Vision has a mix of nice valve heads and combos with a couple of half decent solid states and a shitty Peavey (kingofdeon, you guys were in after us last night I believe so you'll have had that as well). Haven't seen our drummer complain much about the kits there either. We're instrumental so I couldn't tell you about the PAs and mics.

Recording wise I'd say the live recording we did in one practice session at Musical Vision pisses on anything I'd ever done at Toms before. But that's probably not just the fault of the studio, as results are often the fault of the band as much as anything.

The one thing I will say Toms definitely does better is the shop, having replacement strings etc and a tuck shop on hand is the one thing I miss about practicing there.

There are other practice studios at The Foyer (haven't practiced there for years, used to be cheap as chips but with mixed equipment and an often broken kit and a tiny room) and Transition Extreme (never used it). Hopefully someone else can give you up to date descriptions of them.

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Captain Toms Music

City centre-ish, the most expensive in town at 15 an hour. 4 rehearsal rooms and a really good quality studio. Rooms are well set up, and every one has the same gear in it so it's nice and simple, but some of the equipment is really old and sounds a bit dead. Good craic with the stoners at the desk, and they have strings, batteries, cables, leads etc. Also they sell pickled onion Space Raiders. It's my favourite of the lot.

MUSICAL VISION LTD // ONLINE // HOME

City centre - 15 an hour, 2 hours for 25, 3 hours for 35. 7 rooms, decent equipment, problems being that every room has completely different amps / PA's etc. so you have to spend ages trying to figure everything out and how to get a good sound. Also, ridiculously they have wooden floors and hard plaster walls so if you try to turn up a bit it just becomes an echoey noise. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of staff, you book by phone and when you turn up there's just a printout on the wall saying which room you're in. For some reason they seem to have nothing but shitty old broken microphones, though the PAs are generally quite good. There's no shop or store or anything so if you need a string, or batteries or something you're pretty much fucked. Though theres a garage next door for juice, mars bars etc. Never tried the studio there.

Foyerlive

Right in the city centre - cheapest at 10 an hour. I haven't been here in a couple of years but it used to just be one little room up at the back of this community centre place with amps and drums etc in it. It's basic but it does what it says on the tin, the sound is really good for such a small room. Had a recording done there which I wasn't that impressed with. I'm actualy practising there tonight so I'll report back tomoro.

Of the three I prefer Toms because it has the best set up by miles, and the best sound. MV is good if you want to save a bit of cash but I don't like the sound or the setup.

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Captain Tom's

At a guess, their rooms are approx 3Mx5M

MUSICAL VISION LTD // ONLINE // REHEARSING

I've only poked my head in the door of one room here but I think it's slightly smaller at around 3Mx4M.

aberdeen foyer music

Yet again I've only ever poked my head in the door but it seems quite cramped compared to the other two.

.:Transition Extreme | Extreme in Aberdeen :.

I've never been here but the rooms look comparable to CT/MV in size from the photos on the website.

All except Transition are city centre so if you're bussing it they'll be close enough to walk from your stop.

If you prefer using your own gear and you want to rehearse more than 4-5 hours a week there are also some band-run studios but they're more word of mouth so you'd need to ferret them out once you're here (and normally have to wait for a band to "die" before one was available).

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the best thing to come out of captain tom's.

being more helpful, i often forgot certain bits of gear for practice. unless you're 2 mins drive from MV go for Tom's as their assortment of strings, leads, straps and chocolate bars will help you out no end. and if you become a familiar face they'll let you put on teckle gigs.

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They're more 5Mx7M I reckon, except for Room 4 which is a bit smaller. It's basically a box. You can forgive this just for the pre-school Hall'o'ween carpet though.
It's been a while since I was in but I reckon there's no way they're 5M wide (looking round my flat and knowing how big it is) but I could be wrong.

We'll split the difference and call them 4x6.

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Having your own place to practice is a God send.

I cant imagine how much money would have been spent by now on rehearsal space if I didn't have my studio!

Correct. in my old band we practiced twice a week for six months and one a week for the six months before that. 30 pounds a pop. quite a lot of money for a band that played five gigs

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I've never been to MV, but I endorse Captain tom's. The price is a bit hefty, and the drumheads are permanently in need of replacing, but the equipment in general aint bad and the guys there are helpful. Also, Tom and Q have been doing their bit for the local scene for a decade or so now, and I have a lot of time for that.

Love from Christy

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