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Hideout Studio Milano

Hideout Studio Milano

Sound, from the first take to the final listen.

Recording, mixing, mastering and archive transfers, at Via Plinio in Milan.

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Archive photograph: a woman standing beside a piano sings into a stand microphone, in a 1930s recording studio.
A singer at the National Recording Studio in Washington, around 1935. Photo Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress.

A studio built around listening

HIDEOUT STUDIO MILANO is a recording, mixing and mastering studio designed to follow a project from start to finish: tracking in the live room, mixing in the control room, mastering, and a final listen on a high-end domestic system in a room of its own.

Control room
Avid S4 console with 24 faders, Pro Tools Ultimate, two racks of analogue outboard and four monitoring systems.
Live room
Twenty preamps ready to go, independent headphone mixes for the musicians, talkback and listen-back to the control room.
Reference room
A high-end domestic system, to hear the work the way listeners will hear it at home.
Archive area
Next to the live room and acoustically separated: tape reels, cassettes, DAT, MiniDisc and vinyl.
Archive photograph: a man in a suit adjusts two turntables next to a portable radio receiver with a loudspeaker.
Playing records on two turntables and a portable receiver, Washington, 1931. Photo Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress.

How we work

The studio is hybrid by choice: analogue where it adds character, digital where it adds precision and recall. The rest is method.

Analogue where you can hear it

Outboard and analogue summing for the character of the sound; Pro Tools Ultimate for editing, session recall and delivery.

Every setup can be recalled

A digitally controlled patchbay connects all the outboard: every way of working comes back in an instant, exactly as it was last time.

Level-matched listening

Four monitoring systems matched in level and a single volume control: you compare the mix, not the loudest speaker.

No work without a copy

Automatic saves during the session, a verified backup at the end of the day and an independent copy in the cloud.

Every connection in the studio is documented in a technical manual: when we work, we think about the music, not the cables.

Archive photograph: five musicians with guitars and a mandolin play in front of the horns of a disc-cutting machine, in a 1920 recording room.
The Crescent Trio with Ferera and Franchini cutting a record, 9 December 1920. Library of Congress.

What we can do

A complete project, from tracking to delivery, or a single stage: just the mix, just the mastering, just an archive to rescue.

Recording

Live bands up to twenty channels, overdubs, vocals and acoustic instruments.

Mixing

In the box with outboard on inserts, or with analogue summing of eight stereo stems.

Mastering

A dedicated analogue chain; masters for digital distribution and for CD.

Stems and delivery

Printed stems, 24-bit WAV files, Pro Tools sessions ready for other studios.

Digitisation

Tape reels, cassettes, DAT, MiniDisc, CD and vinyl, with care for valuable originals.

Listening and review

Listening sessions in the reference room, to sign off the final result.

How a project runs

  1. Tracking in the live room, with headphone mixes
  2. Mixing in the control room, with outboard
  3. Mastering on the dedicated chain
  4. Listening in the reference room
  5. Delivery of masters, stems and sessions

Who it is for

Artists and bands, producers, labels, archives and collectors.

Working format

48 kHz, 24-bit in Pro Tools Ultimate; sessions from other studios can be imported and re-routed.

The equipment

Twenty preamps, two racks of outboard, API analogue summing, a mastering chain that is always wired, and machines for tapes and records.

Tracking and mixing

Microphones

  • Neumann M149 Jubilee
  • Neumann U 87 Ai
  • Neumann U 47 FET
  • Flea M251, valve
  • Schoeps CMC 6 + MK 4, pair
  • Royer R-121, ribbon
  • Sennheiser MD 441-U
  • Sennheiser MD 421 II ×2
  • Shure SM57 ×2, SM58
  • DI Rupert Neve RNDI-S ×2
  • Stereo DI Warm Audio WA-DI-A2

Preamps

  • API 3124V, four channels
  • Avalon VT-737SP
  • Universal Audio 6176 ×2
  • Neve 1073DPX, two channels
  • Harrison 32Classic
  • SSL Revival 4000 ×2
  • Cranborne Camden 500 ×2
  • Elysia Skulpter 500
  • Rupert Neve 511, Burl B1
  • Maag PREQ2
  • Chandler TG2, Germanium

Dynamics

  • Empirical Labs Distressor ×2
  • Empirical Labs Fatso
  • Antelope A4-1B ×2
  • Rupert Neve 535 ×2
  • SSL Bus Comp Classic
  • API 2500+
  • Elysia Xmax
  • Elysia Nvelope

EQ and colour

  • Manley Massive Passive
  • Wes Audio Prometheus
  • Maag EQ4 ×2
  • Rupert Neve 551 ×2
  • Rupert Neve 542 ×2, tape
  • Looptrotter Sa2rate 2
  • SPL BiG, stereo image
  • Bricasti M7, reverb

Analogue summing

API ASM164: eight stereo stems summed in analogue, then SSL Bus Comp Classic, API 2500+, SSL Fusion and Burl B2 conversion.

Outboard on inserts

Eight dedicated loops: outboard sits on a track like a plug-in, with the delay compensated.

Instruments: Moog Messenger, Arturia KeyLab Essential 88 mk3.

Mastering

  1. Manley Variable Mu
  2. SSL Fusion
  3. Bettermaker Mastering EQ
  4. Bettermaker Mastering Compressor
  5. Bettermaker Mastering Limiter
  6. Burl B2 Bomber ADC

Conversion and clock

Burl B2 Bomber and Burl B16, Apogee Symphony I/O MkII, Avid MTRX Studio; Antelope OCX HD clock.

Recall

The three Bettermaker units are saved with the session: a revision starts from the same settings.

Alternative flavours

API 2500+, Elysia Nvelope and Xmax, Looptrotter Sa2rate 2, depending on the material.

Archive transfers

Tape reels

  • Revox A700, 2- and 4-track
  • Revox B77 MK II, 2- and 4-track
  • Revox PR99 MK III
  • Akai GX-625

Cassettes

  • Studer A721
  • Teac W-995RX
  • AIWA XK-007
  • Tascam CD-A580

Digital and discs

  • Sony DAT 59ES
  • Sony MiniDisc MDS-JB920
  • Sony CDP X559ES
  • Tascam CD-RW402, CD400U
  • Technics SL-1200 Mk2 ×2
Archive photograph: shelves full of phonograph cylinders in a room of the Library of Congress, with a man bent over a phonograph.
Robert Winslow Gordon among the wax cylinders of the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, 1930s. Photo Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress.

Valuable originals

Mastering-grade conversion with the Burl B2, the same one used to print mixes.

Alongside tracking

The archive area is acoustically separated: a tape can be digitised while a session is recorded in the live room.

Four systems, one volume

Switch systems with one button, without the listening level changing: the matching lives in the monitor profile, not in the ears of whoever is comparing.

Listening level

The same on all four: the speakers change, the volume does not.

Augspurger Duo 8 · Sub 15

The main monitors, with two subwoofers.

Quested V2104 · SB10R

The second reference, with subwoofer.

Neumann KH 150 · KH 750

Precision near-fields, with subwoofer.

Yamaha NS-10M

The classic midrange check.

Archive photograph: in a factory, a worker holds up a loudspeaker cone between stacks of freshly finished cones.
Final inspection of a loudspeaker, Washington, around 1925. National Photo Company, Library of Congress.

Headphones

STAX SR-4070 electrostatic; Meze 109 Pro with Elysia Xpector.

Measurement

RTW TouchMonitor 5, Bettermaker Meterbox, spectrum analysers, Earthworks M23 measurement microphone.

Control

Systems are switched from the console or the controller, with one volume for all of them.

The final listen, as at home

In a separate room, a high-end domestic system connected digitally to the control room: the last check before delivery.

Speakers
Bowers & Wilkins Signature Diamond
Amplification
CH Precision A1.5
Digital source
Linn Klimax DSM/3 with Utopik
Vinyl
Linn Sondek LP12-50 with Urika 2
SACD and CD
Esoteric K-03XD
Headphones
Final D8000 Pro with Pass Labs HPA-1
Mains power
IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius

Come and hear the studio

Visits and listening sessions by appointment. Bring a track you know well: we will listen to it together on the control room systems and in the reference room.

Address
Via Plinio
20129 Milano, Italy
Directions on Google Maps
Nineteenth-century archive photograph: a baroque palazzo on the corner of Corso Venezia in Milan, with the street running into the distance.
Corso Venezia, Milan, between 1860 and 1890. Library of Congress.

Write to us

We will reply by email, or by phone if you leave a number.