Old Cottage Audio is the new name for online mixing and mastering studio Brighton Mastering

BRISTOL, United Kingdom, 2022-Jun-30 — /EPR Network/ — Established in 2011, online mixing and mastering studio Brighton Mastering is now called Old Cottage Audio. The change reflects the studio’s move from the south coast up to Bristol, UK.

Nick Lewis, studio owner, and mixing and mastering engineer, says the name is also intended to reflect the kind of work he does, “I hope that Old Cottage Audio captures the vibe of what I do. Making records a place people want to curl up and spend time in. Whether they’re luscious acoustic albums or cathartic bursts of noise. Organic sounds in a digital world.”

In his 11 years running Brighton Mastering, Lewis applied his aesthetic to records on iconic labels like Fierce Panda and Talitres, national advertisements for brands like Red Bull and Mercedes, and final mixes for award winning independent films.

Lewis says his sensibilities are a result of where his ears naturally take him, “Sound engineers are like musicians. They’re naturally led a certain way, even if they don’t want to admit it. Some people like glassy and precise. My ears lean towards the warm and fuzzy.”

This tendency informs the decisions he makes when mixing and mastering, but also the tools he chooses to use. “Over the years, I’ve built a carefully selected collection of plugins that all sound as natural as possible. They’ll never sound exactly analogue, but they’re as far from the flat, sterile stereotype that digital processing has.”

And the studio boasts a rack full of high-end analogue equipment, too. There are compressors by API and Manley, EQs by Custom Audio Germany, DAV Electronics, and Gyraf, and converters by Crane Song and Prism Sound. “The rack is all mastering grade,” says Lewis. “It’s a really flexible chain. I can do perfectly clean and precise – but with the three dimensionality of analogue – or I can really push things to bring out the warmth, pull out the bite.”

Lewis’ aesthetic, and the tools he uses, lend themselves to organic recordings. But the studio doesn’t confine itself to live instruments. Lewis is just as interested in crackling electronica, dusty beats, and abrasive punk as intimate singer-songwriters. The point is to make recordings feel like living spaces, places that listeners can spend time in and explore.

The same principles guide the studio itself. “Almost all my mixing and mastering is done online,” Lewis says. “Clients rarely, if ever, come into the room. But I think they appreciate their music being treated in a beautiful space. It retains a little bit of that studio romance.” The walls are covered with leafy wallpaper. Surfaces are festooned with real plants. The desk is rough, reclaimed Somerset wood, built bespoke in a workshop in nearby Weston-Super-Mare.

It’s intended as the physical embodiment of the values Lewis tried to capture with the name, Old Cottage Audio. “Most studios are windowless, characterless,” he says. “It works. In the same way, you can make a ‘pro’ sounding record with plugins and AI. But I think the human element is important. You still need that intimacy. Humans are still analogue.”

About Old Cottage Audio

Old Cottage Audio provides online mixing and mastering services from its base in Bristol, UK. It specialises in crafting natural textures and tones that stand out from the bright and the hype, the sterile and the flat. With an experienced, audiophile engineer, and a carefully selected set of digital and mastering-grade analogue tools, Old Cottage Audio is mixing and mastering done right.

Find out more about Old Cottage Audio’s online mixing and mastering services. Visit www.oldcottageaudio.co.uk

Contact Old Cottage Audio

For more information, contact nick@oldcottageaudio.co.uk or phone +44 (0) 7795 484452.