11 more ways that we've improved Bally Studios over the last few years.

by Jimmy Mulvihill,

12th September 2025.

4 years ago, back in September 2021 we wrote this blog post about 9 small ways that we've improved the studios over the years, and in those last 4 years even more improvements have been made.   Therefore, it's time for an updated blog post, not only so that the bands that come to us can know how we're working hard to make the studios as good as possible, but so that the other studios can follow our lead and copy some of those ideas, to the benefit of their customers. 

We have had regular bands say to us that since that blog post was published, some of the other studios that they go to have copied some of the ideas in it, "which must be a bit annoying for you guys...."     Honestly - no, it isn't. Our competition is not other rehearsal studios, it's other activities that are in competition with live music, such as playing computer games, being on social media, staying in and watching Netflix, or any other activity that makes people stay at home, isolated, and doing anything else than writing and playing great music.    The better the music scene is in London, the better for our business.  The biggest factor that holds our business back is live music venues closing down.   The more vibrant and exciting the live music scene is here, the more bookings we will get, and for that to happen we NEED other rehearsal studios in London.    If every other rehearsal studio in London closed down tomorrow, our bookings wouldn't actually increase that much because we are already operating at near capacity, so the competition doesn't actually make much difference to us. We need a great music scene for our business to work, and that's why we are based in London, as it's one of the best places for live music not only in the UK, but in the world. A great music scene NEEDS great rehearsal studios, and we can't provide enough studios to ALL of the bands out there, so we need other studios out there to pick up the slack and do their bit too. 

Back in 2021 a rival studio opened in Tottenham, (you know the one....) and at first it affected us, for sure, but that was only because our bookings had already been affected hugely by COVID, which meant that we were already well under capacity at the time.  Having a rival studio open on our doorstep, on top of the unprecedented events of the 2020 lockdown was an existential crisis for the studios, no doubt.   However, over time it actually strengthened our studios, for a few reasons.

Firstly, the lack of any staff members at that studio suddenly put into sharp focus the service that our staff members offered. As one band said, "they didn't even have a kettle there, let alone a staff member that was happy to make coffees for us!"  The lack in the range in the equipment they offered highlighted the diverse amps that we offered, and the extra information that we could provide to band members about music venues and promoters that bands should both work with, and avoid, based on the information that we had gleaned from other bands, was in stark contrast to the lack of any community and care that those other studios had.   When other studios put in such a half hearted effort to help the band that used them, it makes us look better by comparison. The only way that we can lose is if bands start to move away from our studios, to a studio that offers them less, and that was what happened at first.  However, after a while the bands realised what they were missing, and they came back to us, and we honestly think that many of the bands appreciate the things that they now see that we offer that are not the industry standard.     Rehearsal studios that are run solely on a spreadsheet are not a threat to us. 

By contrast, having better studios as competition means making the music scene in London even better.  It makes us improve our game, and do everything we can to keep the bands happy. Our biggest competition is ourselves. and when we get lazy, our customers lose enthusiasm, and our bookings go down.   The only point of paying London rent rates is to be based in a city with a thriving music scene, and that needs BETTER rehearsal studios, so we even benefit when other studios offer better facilities to the bands that come to them. For that reason, we are happy when the competition offers more to their customers, because a rising tide lifts all boats.   

What's the city with the highest concentration of casinos? Las Vegas. Which city has the most profitable casinos? Las Vegas.  Whether it's Denmark Street for guitars, Hatton Garden for diamonds or Saville Row for tailors, the benefits to being surrounded by other businesses that offer a better service are numerous and obvious, and for that reason, we thought it was probably time for an update for that blog post, not only so that our current and potential customers can see how we're working hard to offer them more, but also so that other studios can copy those ideas too, for the benefit of everyone. 

In addition to the improvements that the last blog post highlighted, here are 11 other ways that we have improved the studios over the last 4 years.   

1) 8 track recording facilities, allowing a band to record their rehearsal sessions.  

This is a big one!  A few years ago we spent a few thousand pounds on the equipment bands needed to record their rehearsals to 8-track, and it's been an overwhelming success so far. The recording format is strippped down enough so that it can be set up in 90 minutes by our staff members, so that the band can come into the studios and play their rehearsal as usual, with the only difference being that instead of monitoring their rehearsals over the PA, they do so on headphones. The band plays live, and everything is recorded to 8 seperate tracks, with 4 microphones for the drum kit, (bass drum, snare drum and stereo overheads), with a microphone on each of the lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass guitar, with the  final microphone for the vocals. The band then has the option of adding more instruments on top of the recording later, either at home or in the studios, or leave it as it is for a stripped down and raw recording.   It's a great way for the band to make a basic demo to get gigs, to build up anticipation for upcoming gigs. or to make a recording that they could never otherwise be able to afford.  Here's a 15 minute video that we made about the process. 

Bally Studios 8-track promo video, featuring Cody Jr.

We've had bands knocking out whole albums for less than £300 over the last few years, with the recording equipment costing £50 for the hire, setup and packdown of all of the equipment, with it offering bands the capabilities to record their music with enough options to EQ, pan and balance the individual instruments against each other, whilst also being straightforward enough that the bands can mix it themselves at home on a freeware DAW.   You only pay a flat fee for the basic hire and setup of the equipment, and after that you pay the usual rehearsal rates, for however long you wish to book, by the hour. Record live versions of your songs, put down basic ideas, or just record your music so that you have something to look back on in years to come, it's a cheap and quick way to get a straightforward recording that is now becoming so popular at the studios that we are having to train multiple members of staff to do the setups. Sure, it's not the 128 channel set-up that some studios offer, but if 8-track recording is good enough for The Beatles, it's good enough for you!  

2) A badge making machine. 

We now have a badge machine in the office that bands can use to make very short runs of badges, with them costing as little as £10 for 35 of them, which is a perfect amount for your band to get done for a one off event like a gig, allowing your fans to get a custom made exclusive badge that celebrates that single gig.     The more of your gigs they attend, the more badges they can collect, and the more they can show off to everyone how committed they are to your band!      We bought it as we gave away so many of our own Bally Badges that we needed to work out a way to make them cheaper, and this allowed us to do that.  The feedback that we have got about their quality so far has been overwhelmingly positive. 

Buying badges for your band can be tricky.  Spend £200 on 1000 badges and whilst you'll make a 50p profit from selling the 401st to the 1000th badge, until then you need to sell that first 400 just to make your initial investment back.  The smaller the quantity that you get them made in, the more it eats into your profit margin, especially when other badge makers charge you for design setup, delivery, VAT, and for other costs.   With us it's simple: £10 for 35 of them, meaning they're cheap enough to give away for free, or you'll be making a clean profit on the whole batch with the 21st one that you sell. Design it yourself, email us the design, and then you can choose between getting 25mm, 32mm or 58mm badges, or a 58mm bottle opener, and collect it at your next rehearsal.   Simple!

 3) Guitar hangers on the wall. 

The last thing you want is to lean your Gibson up against the wall and watch in horror as it starts to slide down the wall, mid-performance, with the ground rushing up to meet it,  and this will prevent that from happening.     Guitar hangers are a great way to keep your equipment organised, to speed up guitar changeover and also to make maximum use of the space within the studios, and the ones that we have installed even have those nifty little moveable suspension bracket clamps on them, where the weight of the guitar will trigger the clamps to open and close automatically when loaded/unloaded, meaning you've got one less thing to worry about.    

4) Trays of bicarbonate of soda in the studios.

We know what you're thinking, and no, it's not drugs! ;-) 

We've started putting trays of bicarbonate of soda in all of the studios, hidden away behind speakers or under tables, as it's a great natural odour eliminator, so it keeps the rooms smelling fresh, and prevents that classic "musty-and-damp-rehearsal-room-smell" that some other studios have. You remember shake-and-vac, from the 1980s?  That was basically bicarbonate-of-soda with some extra powder that had an extra smell of lemon or lavender to further cover the smells that get trapped in the carpet, so this works on the same principle, without the added artificial smell added.   We change it every 2-3 weeks, and you'd be surprised by how much of a difference it makes to freshen up a rehearsal studio.  

5) Allowing band members to nick spare parts to repair their own equipment. 

Buying spare parts can be a right pain. Not only do you need to buy them to the exact size, which can be tricky to find out, but they are usually sold either in small batches at a high cost, or in large quantities at a cheaper, per unit cost.    And let's face it, there are very few musicians that need 100 different screws, when usually a single one will do. That's why a few years ago we started to allow our customers to  take spare parts to fix their own equipment, for free.   Whether it is a screw to hold the amplifier head in place, or  a washer to hold up the cymbals, or a spring that can hold the tension on either a bass pedal, a cymbal boom arm or a guitar vibrato system, we buy them in large quantities, in a wide variety of sizes and materials, so that you can bring your equipment in and try various bits until you find the one that is right for you.   Then you can take them, for free!    

We've had bands that have said that the handle on their guitar head has been loose for years, "but I could never be bothered to find the right part to fix it....".  If you've got a bit of equipment that needs a spare part, bring it along with you next time you're rehearsing with us to see if we have the spare parts needed to fix it, and you're welcome to them, for no extra charge.

6) Personalised notes from staff members about amps.

We've  added hand written tags to all of the amplifiers that we offer bands to give honest staff opinions about what amps we personally prefer, and what ones we think are a more acquired taste, with extra information available as to how to get the most out of each amp.   Not only does that help each musician to lean what features each amp has, it's also a great help to our studio staff members, as it helps to prevent some of the issues that mistakenly causes band members to seek help, with notes such as "if you find that your bass guitar has less definition when using this amp, remember to switch off the sub-frequency button", "if your guitar sounds lower in volume than you expected when using this amp, switch to the passive jack input, which will boost the gain at the input stage", or "if you need this amp to be louder, remember that you can also connect the 4x12 cab next to it up as well."   

We've had bands use our Traynor amps, unaware that  John Lennon and Eric Clapton used Traynor stacks while performing with the Plastic Ono Band, on the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album, as did The Doors, Alice Cooper, and legendary ‘50s performers Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, who also featured on the festival’s bill.  We've also had bands who were huge Oasis fans, who were unaware that the WEM Dominator that we have is the same one that Noel Gallagher used on Oasis's debut album.   

Noel Gallagher discussed using the WEM Dominator MKII during the recording of Definitely Maybe.

Handwritten tags are a great way for us to inform our bands of all of this information, and not only do we have multiple tags from multiple staff members, to give a more balanced views on each bit of equipment, but we encourage staff members to be 100% in their appraisals, even if they don't like certain sounds, so that band members get the unvarnished truth. 

7) More equipment than you need.

The problem with staffless rehearsal studios is that as there is no-one there to monitor the studios, they need to keep the minimum amount of equipment in each studio at any one time, to reduce the amount of equipment that bands can walk off with.  That doesn't apply to studios that have staff members present, and we will now routinely put twice the amount of amplifiers that a band needs at any one time in your studios, or sometimes even more, so that the band has options to try out different sounds, to use multiple guitar amps to get true stereo sounds from their instruments, or to swap over to a new amplifier if any faults develop with their first choice amplifier.   If your amp starts to crackle or cut in and out, you can quickly plug out the guitar jack from the faulty amp, stick it in the amp sitting next to it, and away you go!

There's a world of difference in having to report a fault during your session, and needing to wait for a staff member to check it over while the whole band stands around and waits for them, or worse, to use the messaging system that is in place at staffless rehearsal studios,  to take video of the fault, to send it to them, and to then wait for them to get back to you with a suggestion as to how YOU can fix the problem, with their advice.  My word, what a hassle!   It's much better to have more gear than you need so that if the worst happens, your session is affected as little as possible, with no chance for the energy of your sessions dropping.  That way you can mention the fault at the end of your session to us, and we can crack on with repairing it, at a time when it will not waste your time.        

8) Extra random percussion. 

Cowbells, triangles, sizzle chains, tamborines, all of these instruments are available to grab in the office, for free, for all of the bands that book sessions with us. Not only does it help band members to try new sounds, but often it can help the band to get out of a lull in energy. New gear can help to switch a band's focus, to distract them from any potential ruts that they have got into, and can also help lead them down paths that end up creating new ideas for the band.     

We've had bands see the cowbells in the office and joke, "Guess what?!? I've got a fever..... and the only prescription is more cowbell!"  

They'll take it into the studio with them to tell the joke to the rest of their bandmates, and then come out at the end saying, "I only took it in there to make the joke, but it actually came in handy, we had a few good ideas with it in the end!"    That's the thing, a good idea is always good, and sometimes a bad idea can be the springboard to a good idea later, so if you're ever low on inspiration or need new ideas, grab some percussion from the office and see what works!   

9) Preventative maintenance on mixing desks and drums. 

When you've worked at rehearsal studios for as long as we have, you learn how to get good at repairing equipment, and over the last few years we've seen a big reduction in the amount of our equipment that develops issues in the first place by using tools like the battery powered airgun to blast away the dust that starts to build up on the mixing desk faders, before it gets hardened and becomes a problem.    

We've even started dipping cotton ear buds into Evaporust, a specialist rust release agent, and inserting it into the lug holes of our drum equipment, and you know what?  It's only when you remove those tiny bits of rust and built up dirt from the places that you can't see, that you notice how much tension it was adding to the lugs.   The more tension there is, the harder it is to turn the lugs, the more pressure the drummers put when retuning, and the quicker the threads wear out.  If you want your gear to last longer, take action at a time before the issues start to raise their head.  A quick blast of compressed air here, a dash of WD40 there, and there's less time wasted on repairs, and less broken equipment in the long run. 

10) Wifi-extenders.

This year we had our internet upgraded, (after 20 years of badgering Openreach to do it,) and now our internet is finally fast enough for bands to livestream their session on social media in HD quality.    However, one way that we've really improved this is to add Wifi-extenders around the complex to make sure that there are no dead-spots where bands can't get a decent Wifi signal. When you have no windows and 60cms thick walls to keep the sound in, you need to put a bit of extra effort in to make sure that the Wifi signal is able to reach every last part of all of the studios, because sods-law will dictate that if the drummer wants to do a livestream of the rehearsal on their Instagram, the area around the drumkit will be the one part of the studios that the Wifi cannot reach   Wifi extenders helps to make sure that the risk of this happening is as low as possible. 

11) Battery recycling bin. 

We always encourage the bands that use us to drop in their dead batteries to us in the office, and whenever we swap over a bin, we feel at the bottom of the bin bag to see if there's any used and worn batteries that have been thrown into the bottom of it. If there is, we fish them out and put them with the others.   Then every few months we drop them into the Curry's down the road, opposite Tottenham Hale station, where they have a specialist recycling bin for used batteries. It's only a bit of extra effort on our part, but it makes sure that the studio is having as little environmental impact as possible.  

Can you think of any improvements that we can make, or that you have seen in any other rehearsal studios? If so, please leave a comment below this article, so that we can implement them at Bally for the benefit of both us and our customers.   

Thanks for reading!