In the Hudson Valley, you will find no shortage of recording studios spread throughout the region, including a number in New Paltz, Woodstock and around Ulster County.
Welterweight Sound Studio in New Paltz, owned by producer/engineer Ryan Dieringer, is an ideal spot for recording, mixing, and mastering music with a 32’x17’ live room and “in the round” control room with 16’ wood-slat, gabled ceilings as well as two isolation booths. Welterweight is also an ideal place for audiobook/podcast/ADR recording or mixing, with a strong Wi-Fi connection.
The independent JT Beats LLC Studios in New Paltz is owned by Jake Totilo and offers several recording, mixing, and mastering services. Totilo grew up in Brooklyn and learned how to play piano from his Grandpa at the age of 7 and uses music as an outlet for self-expression, whether it be the piano, singing, production, or DJing. He is now 20 and studied music at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz and even released his album.
Discover Recording Studios from across New York State in Western New York, the Capital Region, Long Island, Central New York, and New York City.
Dreamland Recording Studios in Hurley, a town in Ulster County and west of Kingston, was opened in the ’80s by Joel Bluestein, due to the recording studio climate at the time, which he found to be a mostly hostile working environment. His goal was to create a socially-responsible business that treated its employees like family and was an overall better place to work and record, as well as close the gender gap in the male-dominated recording business, hiring women and bringing in new ideas and ways of working. In 2005, Dreamland closed down due to the economic climate at the time, as many studios were forced to do. In 2008, however, Jerry Marotta came on board and re-opened the studio with Joel. They continued their mission of maintaining the family-oriented, comfortable, creative vibe of Dreamland.
The best thing about Dreamland is that it offers remote recording services, so artists can achieve their recording needs from the comfort of their own homes. Artists can record tracks at home and send them to Dreamland for re-amping, analog processing, remote mixing, and more. Inside the studio, Dreamland is a residential recording space for artists to nurture their craft, with a fire pit inside surrounded by the upstate mountain breeze.
Gimme That Sound is a recording studio, occupying a refurbished Hudson Valley barn In Upstate New York’s historical hamlet of Stone Ridge in Ulster County. The studio is just a half hour south of Woodstock, and a little less than two hours from Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Owned and operated by Grammy-winning mixer/producer Stephen George, Gimme That Sound offers online Mixing, music production, in-house mixing, mastering, and recording services. The studio has produced music of all genres, from indie, hard-core, pop, rock, r&b, hip-hop, and gospel.
Before opening Gimme That Sound, George was a local Chicago musician, playing the drums for the band Ministry, and worked as Chief Engineer at Zomba / Jive Record’s “Battery Studios Chicago.” In 1998, George moved to New York City to expand his career. Recently, George relocated from Manhattan to the Hudson Valley, between the Catskill Mountains to the north and Shawangunk Mountains to the east.
Woodstock’s Levon Helm Studios has been producing music since 1975, and is named after the late Levon Helm, who gained fame as one of the three vocalists of The Band and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Home of Levon’s legendary Midnight Rambles, and situated on 18 acres in historic Woodstock, the barn-style Levon Helm Studios welcomes artists for intimate concerts, recording sessions, rehearsals, writing retreats, and private events. Other artists and bands who have recorded there include Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, and many more.
New York’s Hudson Valley is home to Long Pond Recording Studios, where Taylor Swift has worked several times. The singer-songwriter has recorded her eighth studio album, Folklore, as well as her re-recorded version of her second studio album Fearless and fourth studio album Red. Long Pond’s incarnation began with musician Aaron Dessner having hope in his heart to move out of New York City with his family and find an oasis for the band The National. The main goal was to create a space that would encourage and inspire creativity for the creation of music. This process culminated with the band creating and recording their Grammy award-winning album Sleep Well Beast, using the Studio as the album cover and becoming the theme focal point of the marketing campaign created by Pentagram.
Platinum Productions in the Orange County Town of Monroe is a full-service recording studio and video production company serving clients throughout the Greater New York Metropolitan area and nationwide. The studio is located just one hour from New York City and has many musicians from all genres of music, including 2012 The Voice winner Jermaine Paul. Phil Bula, President of Platinum Productions, began as a young boy playing in brass bands with the Salvation Army and was featured on the game show I’ve Got a Secret a the age of nine. Bula grew and progressed into a professional musician before moving from the stage to the studio in 1978 and began working for popular artists including Billy Joel, Michael Bolton, and Whitney Houston. His work may be seen and heard on television shows produced by HBO, ABC, ESPN, USA Network, and Disney.
These are among the several recording studios throughout the Hudson Valley of New York where aspiring musicians can produce music to make their musical dreams come true. If you know of another we missed, reach out to editors@nysmusic.com!
