About

How a
project runs

STUDIO ▸ 01 is R.L. and D.O. R.L. writes, orchestrates and runs the sessions. D.O. writes, edits and mixes. We have worked together since 2019 and take four or five projects a year, which is what two people can do properly when the recording is done in-house.

We ask for the rough cut as early as the director will show it. We watch it once straight through, then again against timecode, and send back one page: where we think music belongs, where it does not, and what we would record. That page is the basis for the spotting session.

We write for small groups because we record them ourselves. A quartet, a prepared upright, two tape machines and the two rooms below cover most of what a feature needs. When a film wants more than that we hire it and say so in the estimate. We do not use orchestral sample libraries. A sampled string section under dialogue tends to sound like the temp track, and directors hear it.

Fees are a flat figure per project, agreed after spotting, covering writing, recording, mixing and delivery. Recording the players is included.

A dark studio interior, light from a single window
Studio 1, the live room

How we work

  1. 01

    Rough cut

    You send the assembly. Within a week you get one page back: where music belongs, where it does not, and what we would record.

  2. 02

    Spotting

    Half a day in the edit with the director and editor. We agree in and out points for every cue against timecode and write them up the same day.

  3. 03

    Sketches

    Piano demos for every cue inside ten days, laid against picture so you can hear them in the edit. Changes are cheap at this stage, and we expect to throw a third of them away.

  4. 04

    Recording

    Two or three sessions with players, usually a quartet. Takes are edited lightly. The version you approved as a demo is the version we record.

  5. 05

    Mix & delivery

    Stems and stereo mixes per cue, named and timecoded to the locked cut, plus 5.1 or Atmos splits if the dub needs them. One of us is at the final mix to make cuts on the spot.

Rooms

  • Studio 1: a live room, about forty square metres, wood floor, plaster walls. Quartets are recorded here.
  • Studio 2: a small treated room next door for piano, tape and mixing.
  • 1961 upright piano, prepared as each cue needs: felt, clips, tape.
  • Two ¼-inch tape machines, used for loops and for printing cues to tape and back.
  • A ribbon pair, a valve condenser pair, and a few dynamics.
  • No orchestral sample library. Anything larger than a quartet is hired and recorded on site.

Available from January 2027

Two projects. We answer every enquiry within a week.

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