Belly of the Beast Studios
BOTB Studios
Located In the heart of Forest Hill London SE23, barely a minutes walk from the train station with great links to north, south, east and central London.
We’re here to provide a sympathetic and inclusive working environment in which to capture, enhance and maximise your creativity and musical ideas.
Our skilled and dedicated team of in house engineers and producers offer the best in professional recording, production, mixing and mastering across all genres.
Our history
Botb studios was founded in 2000 at the beginning of the grime scene by Artist manager and producer CAGE with early music by WILEY ROLLDEEP and DIZZEE RASCAL all being recorded here, including the genre defining releases I LUV U, ESKIMO and DIZZEE’S Mercury music prize winning lp Boy in da corner. Sound on Sound article here….
Between 2000 and 2016 it was the default studio for DIZZEE and his DIRTEESTANK RECORDINGS outputting 5 uk number ones, 2 platinum lps and countless underground releases. Studio owner CAGE won a prestigious Music Producers Guild lp of the year award for his contributions to the hit album Tongue n Cheek together with several Ivor Novello nominations. Visitors included the ARTIC MONKEYS, YOUNG JEEZY and EMILI SANDE. The studio opened its doors to the public in 2021 with a diverse mix of artists enjoying the facilities such as Burna Boy, Unknown T, VTSS and Sega Bodega
Services
Recording
We have a booth and two live rooms with an eclectic selection of mics and pre amps to give a wide variety of flavours when recording, coupled with a vintage vocal chain of the highest quality. This includes the legendary Sony c800g microphone Original series la2a 60s compressor and the much prized 1066 Neve preamp. Available by the hour /half day/ day/week
Mixing and Mastering
The space was designed by celebrated acoustic designer Nick Whitaker for maximum sonic clarity and accuracy. We utilise a Neve 8424 desk Headliner mag interview here and an extensive suite of the latest UAD software plug ins combined with classic analogue hardware and precision monitoring care of our ATC SCM 150 a, Barefoot micromain 27s and Yamaha ns10. What you hear is what you get.
We offer attended and unattended mastering and stem and multitrack mixing to suit most budgets with revisions from all formats.
Production
The studio is well appointed for producers to come and write/upscale demos or finish tracks to the highest standard with a good selection of digital and analogue keyboards drum machines and sequencers and an eclectic fx rack. Need live drums, saxophone or some guitar overdubs ? Can’t nail that elusive melody? We can help.
Want a backing track for your song or a track for your dj set in the club ? We can co write/ghost produce to a high standard in all modern pop rap and club styles
Engineering
Stem optimisation/software to hardware conversion
Send us your pre mix or live stems and we can process them for optimum results. Need those stems sweetened and re amped? Want that vst guitar part replayed with the real thing ? Swap that static bass line for a dynamic analogue one? Give those programmed drums the funk and punch to elevate your track? We got you
CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR REQUIREMENTS
Vocal Postproduction
We can level and sweeten your podcast/audiobook/vocal recordings swift turnaround service
CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR REQUIREMENTS
Sample replay/Sync to picture
Between the team we are able to recreate most styles of music and have experience in sample replay and sync to picture for both film and advertising