“There were several different contractors, but I had the final say in most things,” Varun said. “We wanted the studio to have as much natural light as possible; there is also a fresh air vent that connects to the indoor hvac units of every room so that long sessions don’t become a drag with a constant influx of fresh air in both studios,” he added. Due to the shape of the premises, for Varun, the challenge was incorporating columns within the layout because of which he had to redesign the studios to incorporate the structural features behind the bass traps. There are two studios each with its own attached live room. Both rooms can handle a full workload and most kinds of recording. The only difference is that the Mix & Live Rooms of Studio A are a little larger with a full size drum kit able to fit comfortably in Studio A.
Apart from these two studios, Bay Owl also has a Jam Room that doubles up as a client presentation room that can comfortably seat 30-50 people. The final construction of this was put on hold due to the Covid-19 lockdown, but will definitely resume once the situation eases out. Each Room has a set of 2.1 midfield monitors and 2.0 nearfield monitors. Studio A has the flagship Adam S5H series as midfields along with Focal Shape 65 as nearfields and Studio B has the flagship Focal Trio 11be as midfields and the Adam S2Vs as nearfields.
The Acoustics The acoustic consultant was Aural Exchange and the brief provided to them by Varun was simple, to have natural light and fresh air in every room and the acoustics of each room had
Studio Inventory Studio A
Studio B
API The Box Analog Console
API The Box Analog Console
Adam S5H Main Monitors
Varun Parikh - Founder &
s
Engineer, Bay Owl Studio
Once he became an audio engineer, Varun always knew he wanted to eventually open his own studio. Bay Owl Studios was conceptualized while he was working as a freelance audio engineer. After several months of envisioning and financial planning, the dream of having his own recording studio was finally realized. The idea, he says, was always to have two recording facilities in the same premises. “The vision was to make it a chilled space that people would love to come and work at,” he adds. During the conceptualization stage, the name chosen for the studio was Night Owl. However, a few months into construction, it was found that Night Owl was already granted a word mark. To avoid any complications, Varun started looking for alternatives and came up with the name Bay Owl. “Having grown up and lived my entire life in this city, we instantly thought of Bay Owl, as a play on Bombay, and thus the name ‘Bay Owl Studios’ came to be.”
The Location Bay Owl Studios opened its door to the recording and music world on the 2nd of February 2020. The studio is located in Khar, Mumbai within close
July - August 2020
Focal Shape 65 Near Field monitors
Rehearsal Space Drumkit -Pearl Male Hybrid*
Focal Trio 11be Main Monitors
Vault Cymbal Set*
Adam S2V Near Field monitors
Adam Audio Subwoofer
Focal Subwoofer
Presonus StudioLive 32SX Digital Mixer*
Manley VoxBox Channelstrip
Universal Audio LA610MKII Channelstrip
JBL PA System*
Audient ASP 880 8 Channel Pre
Avid HD IO 16x16 Analog
Guitar & Bass Amps*
ART Pro VLA II Compressor
Pro Co Sound Switch Witch
Avid HD IO 16x16 Analog
Pro Tools Ultimate
The Design
Pro Co Sound Switch Witch
Logic Pro
The design, layout and interiors of Bay Owl Studios were designed by Varun and his wife, Friyana Pardiwalla.
Pro Tools Ultimate
4x48 Patchbays
Logic Pro
proximity to the railway station. The reason for choosing this particular location, Varun says, being close to the station makes the studio easily accessible and since most of the work they do is in advertising and post-production, it was only sensible to choose a location that was centrally located to the industry.
Gear List
4x48 TRS Patchbays * Delivery on hold due to Covid-19
Condenser Microphones
Dynamic
Amps
Guitars
Telefunken Elektroakustic TF-51
Telefunken Elektroakustic M82
Line 6
Kramer Striker 211 Vintage Series Electric
Telefunken Elektroakustic TF-47
Telefunken Elektroakustic M80-SH
Roland Cube
Granada Acoustic
Neumann TLM-103
Telefunken Elektroakustic M81-SH x3
Samwick 15W
Baby Taylor Semi Acoustic*
Telefunken Elektroakustic M-60 Pencil Condenser x2
Dr. Alien Smith Subkick
Laney Ironheart*
Ibanez Maple Series Electric
Dr. Alien Smith Dirt Mic
Shure SM7B
Orange Head*
Shure SM57 x2
Marshall JCM 900*
Shure SM58 x2
Markbass Little Mark Tube*
* Delivery on hold due to Covid-19
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