All Photos

We thought that we would put all of the photos that are on the site on the same page  so you wouldn't have to trawl through several pages.  If you're on a slow connection, (like a mobile 3g one), it my take some time to load up, but every photo on the site is here.

Rehearsal Studio 1

Acoustics:  A  large room with quite an open sound, with lots of room for the sound to fill.  Barely any reverb, due to the acoustic treatment we have in the room (it is behind the frames with the fabric)  A good choice for bands with a very loud drummer, the drum riser also helps to project the drums in the rooms,  and it has the loudest of all of the PA systems, due to the extra 18 inch sub woofers in the room, as well as the extra 12 inch speaker, meaning we have 1 12 inch, 2 15 inch and 2 18 inch speakers. 

Studio 1 used to be a very large studio, but it has since changed into 2 rehearsal rooms, a storage cupboard and a new corridor.   This was done in June 2009, so if you haven't been to the studio since then , it will be different to how you remembered it.  We have photos of the old room, for bands who remember what it looked like before, and also just for nostalgia.  Below though, are photos of how the studios currently looks.  Remember though, a lot of the equipment is moved from room to room, depending on what bands want, but as a general rule, the big 8 x 10 bass cab always stays in this studio, and there is usually 1, if not 2, of the 4 x 12 cabs in this room.   Also, this studios usually has the green Mapex drum kit in it, although, again, if another band has requested it, it may be out of the room, but if you want this room with this drum kit, please just make a request, and we will always make sure that priority is given to you for this kit in this room. 

Rehearsal Studio 2

Acoustics:  A large room with quite an in-your-face sound.  Not much reverb, but the room still has a bit of life in it.

Studio 3

Acoustics;  Not much life to it!  Carpeted walls means you don't get much reverb, due to the large PA and small room, when turned up very loud, it can be very full on, but extremely clear.

Studio 4 - Piano Room (Through the office)

Acoustics;  The most reverberant of all of our rooms, but not overly echoey.  Very tall ceilings and a combination of bare walls and carpet, as well as acoustic treatment for mids and highs means that you get a great drum sound in this room, very alive with sound.   Parquet flooring, but with rugs that can be lifted up for added reverb, the reverb has a very short time, with a short burst of early rarefactions and then very short reverb.  Loved by many bands.

Studio 5

Acoustics;  Dead as can be.  It has been specially treated with extensive acoustic treatment, so that it is as dead as possible in sound.  A great place to record if you want a really dry sound

The Office/Bally Tuck Shop

This is where our staff members spend most of their time.  We started the Bally shop about a month after the studios opened, as we are about a 10 min walk away from the nearest shop.  We get new stock regularly, and always try to get retro snacks (Monster Munch, Wham Bars, Curley Wurleys, Frazzles, etc).   Cheap too, with all of the sweets/chocolates/soft drinks at 50p, and the Crisps at 40p.   Remember, we are mainly trying to cover our costs with the shop, and is more offered as a service to the bands, as opposed to something to make more profits from.  There are other rehearsal studios shops we have seen that are up to 60% more expensive than us (80p for a drink).  

Free Fruit Tea, up to 45 varieties at any one time (some of the boxes are variety packs)

2 Things a rehearsal Studios should never be without.    Joss Sticks....

....and a huge collection of spare parts (Only 1 box shown, we've actually got about 12 of them like this)

Free Bally Badges

Our Retro old telephone

We donate 25p from each and every session (even a 1hr drum practice) to Guide Dogs.   We're on course to do £550 in 2011

Things bands never bring, but suddenly desperately need;  Cowbells, Tambourines and Gaffer Tape (all of them are free of charge)

Spare cables, in case any of yours break, or you forget yours

We even lend out Umbrellas, in case any band doesn't bring one, and it starts to rain during your session.  How chivalrous of us!!  18 umbrellas lent out, all of them bought back the next session.   Such honest bands we have!!

Spare Snare Drums

Complimentary Bally Bottle Openers

Message/ Community Boards

Here are some photos of our community message board, which is situated just outside studios 1 and 5. As you can see, if you put flyers up on our board, we take it all pretty seriously here that your flyers are not strewn around the floor or put into the bin.  We started off with just the one message board in June 2009, and by mid 2010, due to demand, we now have 4 of them lined up in a row, measuring around 8 foot across, by about 4 foot vertically.  If you want to send us any flyers in the post, please feel free and we will make sure that they all go up on the message board, and  you might also be able to see in there photos some CD's on the shelves, as a lot of the bands that come to the studios leave CD's up on the shelf for other bands to pick up, so again, if you want to send us some Cd's for the bands to pick up here, (and remember, we can get up to 50 bands every week here), we'll make sure they're put somewhere where bands will see them.

Our little Chill Out Area. 

There was once a time when we honestly thought about having a pool table. Then we decided to add an extra studio instead.   So now we have a very small communal area, but it does the job well.   Here are photos of the stairs that are just beside studios 1,3 and 5.    It has an amazing echo.   In the past, we've put a snare drum at the bottom of the stairs, put microphones 1 inch, 1 foot and 10 foot from it, then a microphone on the next floor, then another on the second floor.  The phasing was a bit mental (well, more than a bit.....) but we got some pretty cool sounds.  

The Route from the station to the studios (visual reminders)

People remember visuals much much more than names of roads.  So here are some visuals to guide you to the studio. 

Car Parking at Bally

If you're driving to the studios, here are photos of the car parks so you know where to park, for free

Train times from other Victoria Line Stations

Floorplan

The Old Rehearsal Studio 1

Back in 2009, we decided to split our main rehearsal Studio, Studio 1, into 2 smaller rehearsal studios which now make up our studio 1 and studio 5.   We built a little thin storage cupboard between the 2 of them where we keep studio spares, crates of soft drinks and general stuff like that, that helps with the sound insulation between studios 1 and 5.  We were, of course, very sad to see the back of our massive studio, but rising costs meant that we either had to magic up an extra rehearsal room from somewhere, or increase to costs of our sessions.  We didn't want to raise the rates, and after talking to about 20-30 of the bands here, we decided to build the extra room.   A lot of the bands had said that they loved the old studio 1, but actually preferred the size of the then smaller studio 2, so we made studio 1 about the same size of studio 2.  Well, it's actually about 10% smaller, but it has higher ceilings, so it doesn't feel too much smaller.  We kept the old PA that was in the old studio 1 for the new studio 1, so it's still a massive PA that cuts through really well in the new studio.   

 But anyway, lots of bands  were asking about the old room, so we have put these photos up here for you to see.