Bally Studios

09/10/2026

It's that time of year again when we celebrate the anniversary of us opening! 21 years ago today, the current management took it over, and it's been a wild ride in those years! We are now passed 50,000 sessions in total. We've got all of the sessions from 2002-2026 all documented in a big spreadsheet, including the sessions that happened under the previous ownership, and it's been nice looking back at all of the bands that have come to us over the years, as we were doing this morning. It's been an absolute honour to work with all of you, here's looking forward to what the next few years have in store! 😃👍🎂🥳❤️

🥳Well it was 20 years ago today..... 🥳

Today we are celebrating our 20th birthday! 🎁🎈🎂 It was on this day back in 2005 that Sync City Studios became Bally Studios when we took over the old existing business, meaning we've been running it for 20 of the 36 years that the studios has been in existence. We've been looking back at the old booking diaries from the last 20 years, and at some of the literally thousands of bands that have rehearsed with us in that time, and it's been lovely to be reminded of so many of the great bands that have used us over the years.

When we first took over the studios we were turned down for the application to get a loan to buy the business 6 different times. The only way that we were able to finally get the money was by supplementing our loan by maxing out an overdraft and a credit card limit on 3 different bank accounts, (2 separate business bank accounts and a personal one), and we took our first wage in 2007, with all of out income before that going to pay them back, The last 5 years has been an incredible challenge, and there were times a few months into the first COVID-19 lockdown that we were told by multiple financial advisors that we had no option but to close our doors, and this is why we're so happy to announce that to date, 2025 has been our best trading year ever, with an average of more than 550 hours of bookings per month!🥳 We've sold hundreds of Bally t-shirts, we've had multiple #1 Albums written/rehearsed/demoed in our rooms, we're churning out badges in the office like there's no tomorrow, we're doing multiple recording sessions on our 8-track recorder each week, and we have big plans for the studio for the future, more of which will be revealed soon.

More than anything, we're now friends with so many of the bands that have come to us over the years, we've been to many of their gigs, been invited to their house parties, we've very rarely had a band skip out on paying us, and we're very proud that we've always tried our very best to give the absolute most to the bands that have come to us. We've had 19 people working at the studios in that time, and in the last month we've been in touch with 3 of those past members of staff, with one of them requesting a job reference to kickstart their new business. One of them was visiting London having moved to Brooklyn NY and they wanted to drop in on the studios and see how things are, with another coming to the studios for their band rehearsals. Our manager, Mark Edwards, has been with us for 15 years so far, and nearly every single staff member who left us in that time did so in order to move to a more senior position within the music industry, and we're so proud that we could play a part in their path through the music industry.

We're very proud of the family that we've created at the studios, and more than anything, we're proud that we've had so many lovely bands coming to us for so long. Some bands have literally done hundreds and hundreds of sessions with us, and we will never take that for granted. So from the bottom of our hearts, thanks so much to each and every band that has used us over the years, and for making the studios what it is. Without you, we would just have empty rooms with a PA system. It's been amazing, and we're looking forward to the next 20 years! We'll be releasing a new blog post with more information on how we started the studios back then, we'll share the link here when that happens. 🥳🎂

30/09/2026

We were recently sent this video by Solo Drummer Explores, (https://www.youtube.com/) which is a really cool YouTube channel where Frankie from The Odd Project reviews different rehearsal studios! He does it for solo bookings, which we offer from £6.50 per hour. We didn't realise that he was doing a review when the booking was made, which means it was a lovely surprise when it suddenly popped up on YouTube!

It's a really great YouTube channel, and it's a really great source for studio owners to work out what they are doing correct, and what they need to improve. As a studio owner it's an absolute godsend to see a channel like this, more of it, we say!! Definitely check out his channel, which is really well done as well, there's lots of information on there that we are making notes on, and the more that people start projects like this, the better rehearsal studios become for all bands! Thanks a lot Frankie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pami28JoAdY

Lovely, cozy little room, Bally Studio in Tottenham , great place f...

11/09/2026

A few months ago we shared the news about our new 16 track recorder that we have available for hire at Bally, where for an extra £90 flat fee on top of their usual session price, a band can hire it along with all of the microphones, stands, cables, headphone amps, headphones and everything needed to record their music to a full 16 tracks. They can then take away the stem tracks with them and mix them at home.

The original target market was bands who had a band member who was adept at sound engineering, but it's also opened up a market for budding sound engineers who are not in a band themselves, but have studied audio engineering or who have read a lot about it, or watched a lot of YouTube videos, and want to test out their skills and take their first steps in the world of recording, and take charge of a whole project themselves.

It's really interesting to see the sessions that we've been having, with some great bits of progress that has built a huge amount of confidence, and then the odd few mistakes that have focused the mind and offered a reality check. In short, progress, progress, progress!! 💪

02/09/2026

Hello everyone!

we've just released a new newsletter of all the things that have been happening at the studio in 2026. as everything is so busy at the moment, Instead of checking social media every day we've been focusing on keeping everything running while at the studio, and then once every few months we will do a newsletter to tell people what's been happening. Here is the latest one, which has information about:

→ Our brand new booking system.
→ New 16-track recording now available.
→ New bass drum monitor in Studio 2.
→ New Ampeg bass cabinet now available.
→ New lava projector in Studio 2.
→ Upgraded air conditioning in Studios 1 & 2.
→ Café / restaurant on site, 7 days a week.
→ On track for 2026 to be our best trading year ever, since 1989.

in the comments we will put a link to the place where you can sign up to the newsletter if you prefer, we only do a maximum of eight newsletters per year, as we would prefer to let the news build up rather than keep pestering you with tiny bits of information. So there's lots of info in there, as one person said to us yesterday, "blimey, it's like a magazine!!" 😄

Find out why 2026 has been our best years trading since 1989.

29/05/2026

**News** New bass drum amplifier available within studios, for no extra fee.

Ever since we took over the studio 20 years ago, we've always tried to accommodate the requests of bands as much as possible, but there's one thing we've always draw the line at, and that's putting the bass drum through the PA system. ❌

The reason is simple. Our PA systems may be 2000watts+, but they are designed for vocals. Routing a bass drum through them risks blowing speakers and eating into the headroom the vocals need. Between 2008 and 2011 we allowed it, and it resulted in 26 blown speakers in three years. 🔊🔥 Ouch!!

The extra cost of replacing speakers was inflating the prices we needed to charge for sessions, so in the interests of better sounding rehearsals and keeping costs low, which we could then pass on in the form of cheaper session rates, we put a complete ban on bands putting the kick drum through the PA system. 🙅‍♂️

But it is a feature we have always wanted to offer properly. Our studio manager is a drummer. Our owner is a sound engineer. We knew there had to be a better way, 🤔 and now we have found it.

We have added a dedicated personal kick drum monitor in Studio 2: The box MA120 MKII active monitor. The drummer hears their own bass drum signal clearly and powerfully, without routing it through the PA at all. The rest of the band can hear it too. Here's a demonstration video of it, it's quite subtle in the video, and you'll need headphones to hear it properly, but it really adds a great amount of bass and punch to the kick drum sound. 💪

Competition time: the first band to recognise the drum beat that our manager Mark Edwards Bulbous is playing, 🥁 gets a free pair of drumsticks the next time they come to the studio for their session. Let us know in the comments what your guess is, and hopefully you enjoy the improvements we're making at the studio to make your session as great as possible!! 😃👍

22/05/2026

**NEWS 3/3** Air Conditioning upgraded in the Studios.

We are preparing for summer already, and that means upgrading the air conditioning that is in the studios. The new air conditioning units are now 40% stronger than the last ones, and most importantly they are just under half the volume as the previous ones meaning a much cooler and quieter rehearsal. We have now done three of the five studios, with the other two to be finished soon .❄️🤫❄️🤫❄️🤫

22/05/2026

**NEWS 2/3** New 16 track recording service.

Over the last few years we've been offering bands the opportunity to record their sessions to glorious 8-track, and loads of bands that have taken us up on the offer have been cranking out great albums for as little as £200. The premise is very simple: x8 microphones, everything recorded live, get in there, get everything recorded with as few takes as possible, and mix it yourself at home. No mess, no fuss. We have now lost track of the amount of bands who have used the recording format, it's been a great success. It is no stretch to say that for some bands it has been a complete revelation in how they record.

We are now super happy to announce that we now have a new 16 track recorder available which can be used in exactly the same way. It was kindly donated to us by the lovely people that are Caribou, and we are super super grateful for them for doing so because it will mean that loads of bands on a really tight budget will now be able to record their music to a standard that they were not able to do so before. Thank you so much guys, it genuinely is so kind of you!!! ❤️😀

However, to be clear, this recorder requires the bands to have a much more developed understanding of how audio equipment works, since it has a lot more options. The beauty of the 8-track recorder is that you set it up quickly, And after that all you need to do is press REC + PLAY, press STOP at the end of each take, and there is a lot less focus on the recording equipment and more on the band playing. In that sense it is an opportunity to record a rehearsal to a high quality, as opposed to conducting a full blown recording session.

With this set up, however, it will require quite a bit more planning, but everything will run in exactly to the same principle as with the 8-track, in that things will be set up, and then the band will be left to their own devices to play and record themselves, without a sound engineer. If this is something that you think you would be able to take advantage of, please welcome to WhatsApp us on 07842 191282 and we can chat to you about the options. It's a flat fee of £90 on top of the usual rehearsal rate of about £15/£16, an hour, meaning you could feasibly do about 30 hours of recording about £550.

22/05/2026

**NEWS!!** 1/3
We've been quite quiet on social media recently, and that's because everything has been so busy at the studio over the last few months. we've actually got about 7 or 8 bits of news of everything that's been happening at the studio, so here are 3 of them by which we will do in separate posts.

We have now added a new Ampeg 1X15 bass cabinet, which can be paired with 4X10 cabinet that we already have, and when combined with Hartke 300 watt head, it sounds like a real beast!! As always there's no extra charge for any hire of any backline equipment, ever!!