Overview

Thanks for your interest in our studio.  We began the build on this large facility back in 2022, and it is currently still under development.  We expect to begin operating in early 2025, and are currently accepting applications from clients for sessions.  If you would like to know more, you can Sign Up for notifications as we near opening.  For direct inquiries, please Contact Us and we can assist.

At this point, this page will be updated as things progress but the equipment has already been procured and in the process of being moved to San Miguel de Allende.  

Myles Wakeham is currently doing on-site recording work at various locations around San Miguel and Mexico and in the USA & Europe, and has a full setup for professional level recordings.  If you would like to hear some examples of this, take a look at our Client Projects page.  If you would like to inquire or book Myles to record you at a site location (ie. live venue, etc.) please use our Contact Us page.

Now without further adue, let's get nerdy with the studio tech...

A "Green Studio"

The studio design is based on 100% sustainable technologies.  Powered by clean solar energy, it is self-contained and yet backed up by city power.  This ensures that all power is conditioned in the studio, avoiding unnecessary ground loops and hums throughout.  It also mitigates against the risk of brown outs or rolling power blackouts which occur regularly in Mexico.

Blending old & new

When designing the studio, it was important that it pays homage to a time in musical history that created much of what our social culture has become today.  Yet the design had to be modern & stylish.  Our vision was to look solidly into the future of where music is going, but to be on a solid foundation of the past.  The result of this is that the two key rooms of the studio - the "live room" where artists perform and where microphones capture the magic, and the "control room" where the engineering and technological voodoo occurs, may be separated by a windowed wall, but they represent the duality of the right & left hemispheres of the brain, but also the nostalgia of vintage good with the hope of a technological future.

As a result, the live room is based on the design of Sir George Martin's AIR Studios Montserrat live room, where every detail was taken not just from historical documentation, but from actually befriending those that designed and worked in that epic studio.  We wanted to pay homage to this iconic place, but more importantly offer a way forward that the vision of being isolated - in a musical utopia - can be continued in the heart of Mexico.

The live room features 24 individual XLR inputs for microphones, and additional support for Ethernet, Line In, and MIDI connections.  We can support recording small orchestral groups in the room, which is roughly 45 feet square in size.

The control room, however, is not based on 1980s technology at all.  It fully embraces the current and future trends of music.  It is firmly locked into the world of stereo mixing, featuring world class Focal Trio 11 studio monitors, but extends that to a fully immersive Dolby Atmos room with 7-1-4 sound.  Yet despite its futuristic vision, all audio being captured from the live room goes through a vintage Neve 8232 mixing console.  This console is one of only a handful left, and was resurrected from a major recording studio in Manhattan, New York, in which it was replaced with equipment more befitting the nature of Hip Hop & Rap productions that have become the mainstay of NYC today.  We crated and shipped the console to San Miguel along with upgraded power supplies and full support from the guys at 81series.com who commission and assist with maintenance on the console.

The audio, after passing through the magic of a Neve console, is captured in our Mac Pro rig with Pro Tools or Logic (depending on client preference).  Optionally channels can be routed to our 1/2" 16 channel tape machine (Tascam MSR16) for tape based saturation, before being sent to the computer.  Once the tracks are captured into the DAW, we then can use the combination of hardware outboard gear to further supplement the tracks, and a massive library of plug-in technologies to augment what the tracks are intended to be.  We use SSL and Avid automation and equipment for mixing.  Additionally for immersive mixing, we add Avid Matrix support for speaker monitoring and latency management.  Finally the output can be mastered with a variety of tools in our acoustically treated control room, to ensure that the end product is release ready when it comes out of the studio.

A connected studio

We understand that in a world connected by a global network, we are part of a global community of world class recording studios.  As a result, we fitted the studio with its own self-contained mini "data center".  Founder, Myles Wakeham, has over 40 years of experience working with computer technology, since the very first ever personal computers in the 1970s, and has built data centers around the world.  Troubled Clef leverages technology provider Edgeneering in the USA as it's provider of high security data center services.  Inside of Troubled Clef are racks and racks of Dell enterprise class fiber optic network switches, 10Gb/s managed switches feeding the entire studio with 10Gb/s network speed, and redundant network attached storage servers, to ensure all digital content is backed up in real time and also synchronized to offsite storage through Edgeneering's server offerings.

Troubled Clef also partners with AudioMovers to take advantage of the "ListenTo" software system, developed in conjunction with Abbey Road/EMI studios in London, England.  ListenTo allows artists in any facility that supports AudioMover's technology, to colaborate in real-time with each other.  Meaning that because of Troubled Clef's investment in connectivity and data center technology, we can proudly participate on any world class recording anywhere - whether that be an artist working inside of Troubled Clef's facilities in San Miguel de Allende, or an artist working in any studio in the world.  All at the same time, with no latency issues.

To further support this, our studio design contains dozens of HDTV monitors throughout.  This means that should a session be operating in conjunction with another studio somewhere in the world, the artists can see the other artists in real time where they are playing.  This is crucial to build the connection of human to human - musician to musician - so that nothing is synthesized but this is a truly organic collaboration between artists.

Some special extras

Over the years, we have collected pieces of musical recording history that we offer the use to clients in the studio.  This includes vintage microphones, instruments, amplifiers, etc.  Just some of the iconic items we have include:

  • 1971 Neuman U47 microphone - the very same Neuman U47 that was used by the late Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, in Australia and featured on every album the band recorded in the now legendary Albert Studios in Sydney, built by iconic studio builder Bruce Brown.  We offer the use of this microphone both to singers but also instruments that need the warmth of the past, to bring out the purity of what the instrument can produce in the right hands.
     
  • 1964 Vox AC50 amplifier - one of the very early amps that were custom designed for The Beatles when they first toured the United States.  This amp has traveled all over the world and was recently rebuilt and now settles in San Miguel de Allende.  If you want to recreate the pure tone of 1960s England, this is how you do it.  
     
  • A custom Rickenbacker 360, 12 string guitar that was one of only two made in the 1990s and was commissioned by the band Pearl Jam at the legendary Norm's Rare Guitars

Rooms

In addition to the large Montserrat live room, Troubled Clef studios has a dead room for vocals and drum tracking, when a blend of ambience is needed with a totally dead recording environment.  The room is large enough for a very large drum set, or multiple singers at once if needed.  An ideal choice for things like voice-over work, narration, etc. but generally is our main vocal booth.

We also feature a totally isolated Amp room, that includes Marshall JCM900, the Vox AC50, a vintage Fender Twin Reverb, and GK bass head.  This room is isolated from the live room, allowing guitarists to play and to be in the same room with their fellow band mates, but without creating hard to tame bleed.  However any amplifier can be wheeled into the live room if needed.  This is further supplemented with a Kemper Amp profiler, allowing any artist that comes into the studio to profile their specific and preferred amplifier before coming in, and we can just load in the profile into our Kemper and instantly they have "their sound" without the logistical headaches of shipping in equipment from around the world.

There are another 4 rooms that can be used for further isolation if needed, but are typically storage areas in the studio.  However the ability to be creative with the room space is available to us, and the results can be incredible.

The Grand Piano

Our AIR Studios Montserrat recreation includes their design of a piano enclosure.  Despite popular belief, even though the piano enclosure was part of the room design and affected the overall sound they got out of the room in the 1980s, it was rarely used with the piano positioned in that enclosure.  Even Elton John, who recorded mutiple albums in Montserrat, had the piano wheeled out into the room for those recordings.  And we can do the same with our piano too.

The grand piano in the studio will be the last procured item, since we will locate it directly in the live room once the room is secured.  We have narrowed down the brands to either a Steinway Model B or a Yamaha C3, with both being full sized grand pianos for the room.  We beleive this offers the greatest flexibility to pianists without limiting the options available.  Stay tuned for the decision and eventual move-in of the piano into the live room and piano enclosure.

In the meantime, if these pianos are not a good fit for what you need, we have over 5 terrabytes of Kontakt sample libraries including almost every grand or upright piano or digital piano/keyboard that you could imagine, all controllable with MIDI in the studio.  You won't be lacking to find the right piano tone you want on your recordings at Troubled Clef studios.

Personal monitoring stations

Like most world class studios, we provide to the artists in the studio the ability for them to customize what they hear in their headphones during tracking.  We have 8 personal mixing stations that allow each musician to customize the level of any track they are performing to - all under their own control.  And these settings can be saved for further recordings if needed.  

This takes the burden off the recording engineer and allows them to focus on getting the best recording rather than the monitor mix, and yet still provides the very best options for the artist to customize their own personal monitor mix.  They can hear just what they want during tracking, rather than sacrificing that and it affecting their own performance.

Video ready

We fitted the studio to support the needs of film directors and videographers since they need audio for their productions, but we also made sure that the studio is a venue worthy of recording epic vidieos of music being made.  If a band wish to bring in a documentary film crew to shoot the "making of..." video, we can handle that just fine.  Additionally we can also support the filming of any music video or performance in the studio - even with live streaming out to YouTube or any other streaming platform if required.  

All of our lighting is smart LED lighting, meaning that we can adjust lighting to meet the needs of any videographer in any part of the studio, at any time.  

Security

Our studio facilities are inside a "compound" with 30 ft high concrete walls around it.  Security is a key factor in what we offer - security for you and security for the studio.  It is incredibly safe in San Miguel de Allende, but we respect your need for isolation from the general public and so we built the facility to factor in high security from the beginning.

The studio is supported by private security agents, and over 15 CCTV cameras located throughout the property.

Total comfort

We know that making a great record takes time.  And much of that time is spent sitting around, waiting for fellow musicians to complete their performances for tracking.

So to make this easy, our control room was designed not only to have all the technology available for the engineers, but as a comfortable "living room" for the clients.  Big, comfortable sofas, couches, chairs, mixed with coffee tables, and a full kitchen with refrigerator, water, sink and even an Espresso Machine!   Add to this a full Audio-Technica vinyl turntable, with custom speakers and even a 55" UHDV TV set with Playstation and set top Android TV system.  And full high speed Wifi for anyone in the studio should they need to check their social media feeds or update on what is going on to their fans.

Studios are strange, artificial environments and we encourage any of our clients to not only experience San Miguel but also just the wonder of being outside in Mexico.  So our studio is designed to allow people to sit outside in the sunshine and relax - just as they can sit inside in comfort as well.  If clients need to visit the centro (central part of the town of San Miguel) we can arrange transport quickly.  If they need food brought in, no problem - there are over 300 world class restaurants in town (many that we have relationships with that can provide food quickly to the studio).  There's even local restaurants within walking distance if clients just need to get away for a while and have a home cooked traditional Mexican meal in peace.