Venue: Parr Street Studios, 33-45 Parr St, Liverpool, L1 4JN
Date: Saturday March 9
Time: 7pm - late
Sonicmeet is breaking out of London again, and this time we’re heading north to one of the most exciting music hubs in the country: Liverpool.
Parr Street Studios will play host at this event, which is a huge honour. Some of the best-known artists in history have recorded there (Coldplay, Stone Roses and the Verve to name a few) and it’s full of great equipment, some of which engineer Tony Draper will demo for the curious.
Besides a tour of these legendary studios, we’ll be drinking upstairs in the beautiful Attic Bar until around 9:30, when we’ll head into the wild and continue our adventure in town.
Remember to follow @sonicmeet for live updates on the night (perfect for venue changes or if you get lost).
Here’s a map to the studio. If you have a sat nav, it’s easy to remember that Parr Street Studios is literally on Parr Street. Fortunate, no?
A big Christmas party? With prizes? That’s right, we’re having our first ever Christmas party at a venue with loads of great beer.
The party will take place from 7pm on Wednesday 12th December at BrewDog in Camden, right around the corner from Camden Town tube station (see map below). We’ve got tables for 20 booked, but there’s plenty of standing room too.
That’s right, a #sonicmeet in Bristol!
Engineer and friend Ian Palmer has taken the initiative to put on a meet in the West of England, and we’re very pleased about it.
The meet starts at Christchurch Studios in Clifton on Friday October 19 from 7pm, then moves on to the Coronation Tap pub next door.
It’s great to finally branch out of London for the first time, and we would love to see more audio meets elsewhere. Contact @TomDavenport or @MikeHillier on twitter if you’re interested in running an event in your area. You don’t need access to a studio either - some of the best meets have simply been in a pub with a group of like-minded people.
Here’s a map to find Christchurch Studios in Bristol:
We’re very pleased to confirm that the next #sonicmeet will take place on September 28 at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London from 7pm.
Get there early, because a limited number of people will be given a tour of their facilities which include four studios, two live rooms and some of the best mastering suites available. It recently featured on the Radio 4 series Making Tracks, which should still be available on BBC iPlayer.
The main event will be in Studio B, where senior tech engineer Simon Saywood will be giving a demo of his impressive Fairchild 670 recreation, the AT-101, with chief engineer Sam Wheat running the SSL 4000G and Whiskey and the Wilsons as the live band. Not bad!
As usual, you can receive updates and any last-minute changes on our @sonicmeet twitter feed.
Here’s a map of the area - it’s a three minute walk from either Stamford Brook or Turnham Green stations:
In something of a departure from our normal boozing sessions, we’re very pleased that Screened Music has offered #sonicmeet followers a big fat discount on its very impressive music masterclass at the BFI on Tuesday 3 July.
This event will focus on pro mixing, with several talks from some of the best in the business. One of them is fellow sonicmeeter Jake Jackson from Air Studios. As you know from our meets, he’s a lovely chap and will do a live mix of a track from the James Bond game ‘Bloodstone’ and share lots of tips on using plugins and building an efficient workflow.
Other speakers include another #sonicmeet friend Richard Aitken from Nimrod Productions who has produced some of the best video game scores ever. Remember grooving to Driver? Exactly. He’ll be showing you how to win with MIDI production.
Full details of the day-long event are on the Screened Music site, but you can save 33% from the ticket price with this top secret code:
SONICMEET12
Remember to follow the @sonicmeet twitter on the day for any changes of plan for the evening.
The next London #sonicmeet will be in Battersea at Sphere Studios‘ private bar, on Friday May 25 from 7pm.
As usual, a rowdy crew of music professionals will congregate to drink until the last tube home, and you’re invited. As well as four eye-watering studios, Sphere has a private lounge complete with a pool table and bar — and if you arrive early, you’re in for a chance of checking out some tasty equipment too.
The nearest tube stations are Clapham Junction and Imperial Wharf. From there, just stuff this address into your smartphone for directions:
2 Shuttleworth Road, Battersea, London, SW11 3EA
Follow @sonicmeet on twitter for updates on the night. See you there!
Sonicmeet returns to Shoreditch and the Strongrooms bar next Thursday, March 1, from 7pm.
We last met there in July, and it was a fantastic beer-up. Producers, engineers, journalists, distributors and startup folk stayed far later than planned for a weeknight, but it was worth the morning off.
If you’re not familiar with Strongrooms, it’s a very funky studio with an exceptional bar and garden. To find it, get the tube to Silicon Roundabout, a.k.a. Old Street station, and find the bar with the map below.
Follow the @sonicmeet twitter for updates on the night.
Sonicmeet 3 will be on September 23 from around 7:30pm at Sub Bubble Studios, a short walk from Wembley Stadium. The nearest tube is Wembley Park.
The group will congregate in their lounge area, complete with a drums and piano setup. Take a tour with house engineer and soncmeeter Tobin Jones, look out for the indoor skate park which doubles as a reverb chamber. Please, no broken arms. There’s no bar, so we’ll arrange beer.
To recap on our last event, we saw a great variety of audio folk at Strongrooms Bar. From engineers to distributors, journalists to startups, it was an engaging crowd.
Discuss the meet in the comments or on twitter with the #sonicmeet tag.
See you there!
The second #sonicmeet is booked at Strongroom Bar for Thursday 21st July from 8pm!
We’ll be in the downstairs area of the bar. If all goes to plan, there’s a fair chance the first ten to arrive will get a tour around the famous Strongroom studio, pending on availability. From then, drinks will be shared between those involved in audio until the wee hours.
This is probably a good time to recap on the first #sonicmeet, which proved to be a fantastic night. Around 15-20 engineers met in Soho for drinks, trading both personal and legendary studio stories, before an invite from one of our more experienced guests to their personal studio in the area. I’m not sure they’ll want to be named here, but it’s safe to say their generous wine servings and loud studio demos in one of the best equipped studios in the country went down a real treat.
Why is #sonicmeet 2 on a Thursday? Let’s say the pubs were too busy, and booking an appropriate venue proved quite difficult for a Friday night the first time around. Yes, it means going easy on the booze because we all work on a Friday, but the main point of #sonicmeet is to get to know fellow audio pros.
Click here for details of the #sonicmeet venue. The nearest tube stations are Old Street, Shoreditch High Street and Hoxton.
Friday 18th March, 8:30pm onwards, at The Crown And Two Chairmen pub in Soho.
It’s on the corner of Dean Street and Bateman Street, see the map below. Look out for the group trading studio stories.
Bring beer money and your favourite smartphone. No pub quiz I’m afraid, it’s a public venue. Feel free to pass the details to suitable audio loving company.
Tweet @sonicmeet if you have trouble finding the group on the night, and tag all discussion with #sonicmeet.
See you there!
