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John Hudson Mayfair

Grammy Award winning recording-mix engineer
record producer
Mayfair Recording Studios, London UK.
Mixing Music with John Hudson

Mayfair's famous Studio 2 with marble floor

London's Top Studio 1970 - 2008

All titles with artists are listed on Mayfair Hits pages

Great sounds. Classic tracks thru time

The studios closed in 2008 - but the sounds live on......

Our story about Mayfair . . .

Almost everyone who came to the studios believed in the Mayfair magic, and because they believed it, magic happened. The magic lasted for 30 years and it touched everyone who was part of the magic ride.

Download pdf version or
purchase paperback on-line.
Keep Scrolling for History tour and photos.

Mayfair History Tour

The Early Years

JOHN AND KATE with their first gold and platinum discs

Designed and owned by John Hudson and his wife Kate, Mayfair Recording Studios was a haven of creativity, a place where recording artists could come, relax and work in peace. They loved the atmosphere at Mayfair and so many hit records came out of the studios it was as though Mayfair somehow sprinkled magic on the artists tracks.

Mayfair began in the 1960's at 64 South Molton Street in London's Mayfair. The little company was poor then, but amazingly successful. We moved to beautiful Primrose Hill in 1981 and the week we moved from the old studio we had 5 records in the Top 20. It was as though the magic came with us. In the following years the new Mayfair grew to become one of the most respected and successful studios in the world.

Why was Mayfair so different?

When Kate and John Hudson took over Mayfair in 1979, the studio had no money. Other studios had better equipment, and Mayfair had nothing unique to sell but their enthusiasm and caring.

This was a lesson never to be forgotten. It became a way of life, and from the moment you walked through the door at Mayfair you could notice the difference. Everybody cared about your project, and wanted it to be successful. They wanted you to walk out that door happy, and with a hit record on the way. That's what Mayfair was all about.

Music touches everybody - our global community now spans 105 countries speaking 49 different languages.

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE PICTURES OF THE STUDIOS and detailed spec for each studio.

STUDIO TWO CONTROL ROOM

NEVE 60 CHANNELS

• Size 24 x 18 ft. / 8 x 6 m
• NEVE VR60 60 Channels
• Flying Faders, recall and events
• Lynx Synchroniser
• Protools, two inch & half inch

The large console, known as the Pink Neve because of it's pink trim!, was positioned close to the 4 way Dynaudio monitor system giving ample room for the large leather sofa, and loads of keyboards and racks, as well as the five bays of outboard effects.

STUDIO 2 LIVE ROOM

• Overall size 30 x 45ft./ 10 x 14m
• The large main area had a very bright live feel with a high ceiling (14ft/4.6m)
• You could make four separation areas with maximum visibility over the whole of the recording area.

Bosendorfer full size grand piano included

Scroll down to see more pictures....

STUDIO ONE control room

SSL

5.1 SURROUND MIXING

• Control room
• 24 x 21 ft./ 8 x 7 m
• SSL XL9000 K Computer
• 64 Channels 'G' & 'E' eq switchable
• Total Recall
• 5.1 Mixing

The console was centrally placed in the room giving a very accurate sound reproduction. There was a very large window and glass sliding doors to the studio areas

Live room 35 x 18 ft/ 11 x 6 m. divided into live end and dead end plus a separation booth connected by sliding glass doors.
The live room is ideal for a 3/5 piece band & tracking- excellent separation.

Mayfairs Writing & Programming Rooms

STUDIO THREE

Artists and Producers would come to Mayfair to do all their programming in these smaller studios/writing rooms with professional audio facilities & acoustics. It was a terrific atmosphere

Even if you were using your own equipment, Mayfair had all the full recording studio facilities right in the building, with tons of gear, miles of cables, connect anything to anything. They could make up special leads on the spot, and had experts to get you going when you crashed!

STUDIO THREE

This studio was favoured by new young artists and producers and many now famous names started their careers here such as Lily Allen, Sugababes, Amy Winehouse and Fun Lovin' Criminals.

• Control Room 16.5 x 18ft./5m x 5.5m
• Amek "BIG" Automated Mixing
• 32 channels. Total Recall
• Bargraph Metering

To cater for the widest range of uses: bands, composers, record producers, advertisers, audiobooks, radio & TV production, podcasts this room provided, recording & tracking single instruments, Protools, mixing to picture, voice-overs and pre-production & writing.

STUDIO FOUR

Small Writing room with separate Live room, window between.

• Control Room size 16.6 x 15ft / 5 x 4.5m
• Studio 4 : 5m x 4m

Originally this was the room we used for meetings, but Annie Lennox asked if she could use it as a writing room when she was writing "Walking on Broken Glass" and then the Bee Gees used it for a writing room whilst they were recording their album "One" in Studio Two, so that was it - no more meeting room. Matt Rowe later became a permanent fixture for 6 years in this compact little control room with adjoining live room and mic tie-lines. He spent many hours there working on Spice Girls tracks and writing new songs.

Nellie Hooper wrote and recorded the music for "Titanic" in this studio.

• Live Room same size with 12 Tie lines
• Comfortable control room and adjoining live room with mic lines and talkback
• Mixing desk and monitor speakers supplied
• Daylight via velux rooflight
• Airconditioning

STUDIO FIVE

Studio 5 : 7m x 5m on 2 levels
A writer's/programmer's paradise. It had luxurious spacious room with daylight. Stairs to own mezzanine lounge tv area. Adjoining large office with self contained kitchen and and bathroom. Herbert Groenemeyer used this as his own special studio for 5 years. In recent years Rick Knowles worked there with artists such as Keith Urban.

• Writing room with own Kitchen and toilet, office and mezzanine chill area
• Completely self contained, airconditioned
• Control Room size 23 x 16.5ft / 7 x 5m

A writer's/programmer's paradise. Luxurious spacious room with daylight. Stairs to mezzanine seating/tv/chill area.

STUDIO SIX

Studio 6 : 6m x 5m on 2 levels
Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams persuaded us to build this room for them by converting our office space into a studio. There was a spacious main room with superb drum booth, rooflights with daylight. It had stairs to a private mezzanine seating area with tv and kitchenette. Needless to say we ended up with our office up in the loft which was the only space left in the building!

• Rooms were soundproofed to NS10 level, airconditioned and serviced by Mayfair's highly trained staff
• Spacious Writing room with separate Live BOOTH, round window between
• Stairs to Mezzanine "chill" area with TV and Kitchenette/fridge and airconditioning
• Control Room size 20 x 15ft / 6 x 5m
• Live Booth 12 x 12ft / 3.5 x 3.5m
• Comfortable control room and adjoining live room with mic lines
• Mixing desk and monitor speakers supplied
• Daylight via several velux rooflights and window
• Airconditioning

MAYFAIR STUDIOS TECH SPEC

Click on the pictures for more technical info for Studio 1 and Studio 2.
For Studios 3, 4, 5 and 6 all relevant information is listed above.

Tell us your story. . . . .

Have you recorded at Mayfair, or have some memories you want to share with us?

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John Hudson Mayfair

Grammy Award winning recording-mix engineer
record producer
and creator
of
the Legendary Mayfair Recording Studios,
London UK.
Mixing Music
with John Hudson

Mayfair History Tour

Mayfair History Tour

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