01 · Write
Shape the songs
Bring a voice note, a lyric or a finished demo. A&R and pre-production with you: we develop the songs and the arrangements, and bring in the players each one needs.
4chordsStudios: write · record · release · grow
We work with you to get your music out into the world.
Not a day in a studio and a hard drive of stems. A boutique studio in a quiet village overlooking fields and hills, where we write, record and film your songs together, release them in Dolby Atmos, and stay on your side long after release day.
The difference
Not a day rate. A partnership.
Most studios sell you a day in the room, then wave you off with a hard drive. We are with you from the first idea to release day and beyond.
We are tucked away in a small village overlooking fields and hills, and the pace is slower here. That is the point. There is room to write, try things and get a take right without one eye on the clock. You do not need a finished plan: voice notes, rough demos and finished songs are all welcome. Every project follows the same journey, and we walk every step of it with you.
- Village calm
- Small artist roster
- No clock-watching
- On your side
02 · Record
Play it live, on camera
Tracked live in a treated room full of real instruments, with overdubs where the song wants them, and filmed from several angles while you play, so every session is also your content.
03 · Release
Out everywhere, in Atmos
Mixed and mastered in stereo and Dolby Atmos, out on the streaming services with a proper rollout, and made real on CD, vinyl and in your own store.
04 · Grow
Keep it moving
A content calendar, editorial pitching, press and advertising campaigns that keep your music reaching new listeners after release day.
The rooms
Two rooms, one purpose
A fully treated live room built for playing together, and a control room set up for immersive Dolby Atmos mixing. Cameras in both.
The Live Room
Fully treated and stocked for real sessions. The drum kit is miked and ready, guitars and basses hang on the walls, and the 1904 Steinway sits in the corner. It is built for bands and rhythm sections playing together as much as for a single voice and a guitar, and for every texture and overdub in between.
- 1904 Steinway
- Full drum kit
- Guitars and basses
- Amps
- Brass and woodwind
- Strings
- Percussion
The Atmos Mixing Room
The control room is where the record takes shape: tracking, production, mixing and mastering, with the cameras feeding in from the live room next door.
It is set up for Dolby Atmos, so your songs can be placed all around the listener as well as delivered as a polished stereo mix. Clarity, translation and depth, from an intimate stereo mix to a full immersive release.
- Dolby Atmos
- Stereo mixing
- Mastering
- Live session mixes
The collection
Pick it up and play it
Everything here is there to be played. If the song wants a different colour, it is usually already on the wall.
Piano
A 1904 Steinway
A Steinway & Sons Model K upright from 1904, with a beautifully inlaid case. More than a century of character, right there in the live room.
Guitars and basses
Electric, acoustic, bass
A wall of electric and acoustic guitars, basses and a mandolin, with amps and a growing collection of pedals.
Drums and percussion
A full kit, miked and ready
A full drum kit that stays set up and miked, plus hand percussion and a steel pan for something unexpected.
Brass, woodwind and strings
Horns, reeds and bows
Trumpet, saxophones, clarinet, violins and other strings, alongside stage keys and synths.
Microphones
Ribbons and classics
Vintage ribbon mics and modern recreations of classic 47, 67 and C12 style microphones, plus a locker of dynamics and condensers for every source.
Immersive
Built for Dolby Atmos
The control room is set up to mix in Dolby Atmos, so immersive audio is part of every release, not an extra.
The people
The players and ears your songs need
You are never on your own in the room. We bring the people, the parts and the finish.
Production
Producer, engineer, mix and master
Paul produces, engineers, mixes and masters, in stereo and in Dolby Atmos, so one pair of ears follows your songs from the first take to the final master.
In the room
In-house players
Need drums, sax, keys or a part on the 1904 Steinway? The in-house players can add them in the room, live with you or as overdubs.
Session musicians
The right player for the part
If a track calls for a string section, a horn line or a specialist, we bring in session musicians to play on it. Everyone who plays is properly credited.
Cameras rolling
Every session filmed. Every session is content.
There are cameras in both rooms, filming in multi-cam while you play. You leave with a performance film and months of material for your socials.
Listeners want to see the music being made. While you record, the cameras capture the performance from several angles in 4K, synced to the studio audio. That footage is cut into everything a modern release needs, then planned into a week-by-week content calendar that you can see, and approve, in your artist portal.
Long form
Full session film
Multi-camera footage of you performing the songs, cut with the studio mix.
Short form
Vertical clips and cut-downs
Vertical clips for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, plus 15, 30 and 60 second cut-downs for every placement.
For the release
Loops, visualisers and lyric videos
Short looping canvas visuals, visualisers and lyric videos, so every song has something to watch.
Your say
You approve what goes out
Clips wait for your approval in your artist portal before anything is published.
A session day
What a day here is actually like
Relaxed, focused and unhurried. Here is how a day usually runs.
Pre-production
We start with the songs: what you want them to feel like, what is working in the demo and what is not there yet, the arrangement and who plays what. No pressure to have every answer.
Set up and track
Instruments are ready, the kit is miked and the cameras are in place, so you can get playing quickly. We track as much as we can live in the room, together.
Try things
The Steinway on a bridge, a horn line, a different guitar. With a room full of instruments, trying an idea takes minutes, and there is time to take the song somewhere new.
Listen back
Back in the control room we listen properly, choose the takes, and plan the overdubs and parts still to come.
Leave with a plan
You go home knowing what was captured, what happens next and how the songs will reach people.
Our own tools
We make the SUS4 apps and plugins too
The same studio builds apps for practice and songwriting and plugins for mixing. A few are worth having before you come in.
Write
Catch the idea
SUS4 Recorder captures an idea before it disappears, and SUS4 Sketchpad keeps the lyrics, chords, a hummed melody and voice notes for a song together. Bring either to the first conversation.
Before the session
Arrive ready to play
Get in tune with SUS4 Tuner, tighten your timing with SUS4 Time Trainer and warm up your voice with SUS4 Vocal Warmup, so the day goes on the music.
Your own mixes
SUS4 plugins
Twenty-five audio plugins for your own sessions, each with a Sus switch that turns it into something else entirely. The guides show them in use.
Release
From the live room to the world
Making the record is half the job. We carry your music all the way out: to listeners in Dolby Atmos, onto CD and vinyl, and into your own store.
Dolby Atmos
Your music in Dolby Atmos
Every release is mixed in our Atmos room and goes out in Dolby Atmos as well as stereo, so listeners hear it in Spatial Audio on Apple Music and in Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music and TIDAL. It is still rare for an independent artist to release in immersive audio. Here it is simply how we do it.
- Apple Music Spatial Audio
- Amazon Music
- TIDAL
The release
Released properly
Every version a modern release needs: stereo and Dolby Atmos masters, instrumentals and stems, delivered to the DSPs (the streaming services) with the metadata and every registration handled, so everything your music earns finds its way back.
Physical
CD and vinyl
Physical editions to sell and sign: mastered for CD and for vinyl, with artwork, bundles and special or numbered limited editions.
Your store
Your own store on 4chords.studio
Direct to fan: your artist page includes a store for your superfans, with merch, CDs and vinyl, downloads, bundles, signed items and special editions, right next to your music and videos.
Your pages
An artist page and song pages
Your own artist page on 4chords.studio, plus a landing page for every song with the videos, a preview and a button for every place to listen.
For independent artists
Why we release the way we do
- Dolby Atmos · Spatial AudioWhy Dolby Atmos?What Dolby Atmos and Apple Music Spatial Audio are, where people hear them, why they matter for an independent artist (royalty weighting, dedicated playlists, fewer competing tracks), and how we record, mix and deliver them.
- Vinyl · CD · Your storeWhy vinyl and CD?Why vinyl keeps growing and who buys it, how mastering for vinyl differs from a streaming master, editions and bundles for your own store, where CD still earns its place, and how we make and sell them.
- Merch · Your own storeWhy merch?Why merch matters for an independent artist (direct income from your biggest fans, walking promotion, something to buy at gigs and online), why your own store beats a marketplace, and how we tie merch into the release.
- True fans · Owning the relationshipWhy true fans?Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans” idea for independent musicians: why fans who buy the vinyl, the merch and the ticket matter more than passive streams, owning the relationship, and how we help build it.
- Sync · Film, TV, ads, gamesWhy sync?What sync licensing is in plain words, the lingo explained, why a placement matters for an independent artist, and how we prepare and pitch your music, only ever with your written say-so.
- Royalties · Everything your music earnsThe royalty mazeEvery income a song can earn, in plain words: streams, sales, performance, mechanicals, neighbouring rights, sync, YouTube and overseas. What each one is, who usually misses it, and how we find and collect all of it for you.
Grow
Release day is the start, not the finish
We plan the release around your songs and your session footage, then keep working to find the people who will love your music.
Strategy
A release plan and rollout
Release dates, the order of the singles, a pre-release content plan and a launch built around the songs: a proper rollout, not a single post on release day.
Pitching
Editorial and sync pitching
Editorial pitching of every new release to the DSPs’ playlist editors, and sync pitching of your songs for film, TV and adverts.
Press
Press, radio and promoters
Your press kit goes to the journalists, radio and promoters who suit your music, each with their own private link.
Advertising
Campaigns that find listeners
Advertising campaigns for each release on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, built from your session footage and aimed at people who actually listen.
Your press kit
A real press kit, kept up to date
Every artist we work with gets a proper electronic press kit (EPK). Each journalist, DJ or programmer we send it to gets their own private press page: your bio, press release and photos, the songs to play or download on clear terms, and the session video, with a button to forward it to a colleague and a quick way to tell us whether they will play it. For film and TV there is a private catalogue for music supervisors, and nothing is placed without your written say-so. You keep it current from your artist portal: update your bio, photos and press release, and ask for a new press link whenever you need one.
- Private press pages
- Bio, photos and press release
- Songs and session video
- Forward to a colleague
- A catalogue for music supervisors
- Your artist portal
The partnership
You make the music. We handle the maze.
The music industry is a maze of royalties (streaming, mechanical and performance), publishing admin, registrations and rights. We find and collect what your music earns, so nothing slips through the cracks, and we share in the success together.
Finished
Your music, finished and released
Mastered in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and out in the world, not sitting on a hard drive.
Your say
Nothing happens without you
No sale, exclusive licence or film and TV placement of your music without your written say-so.
Invested
A partner in how far it goes
We are invested in how far your music travels, not in how many hours you book. The details? We talk them through with you, in private, before anything is signed.
Who it’s for
Made for people who make music
Experienced or brand new to studios, you are equally welcome. What matters is the songs and wanting to take them further.
Artists
Solo artists
Singers and players with songs ready to become records, who want a team behind the release as well as the recording.
Songwriters
Songwriters
Writers with songs that deserve a full arrangement. Bring a voice note and a lyric; we will help build the rest with you.
Bands
Bands
Groups who sound best playing together. The live room is built for exactly that, and the cameras catch it.
A&R
A&R and artist development
A&R (artists and repertoire) is how a label finds artists and helps them make their best records. Here is what it means with us.
Demos
We listen, properly
Voice notes, rough demos and finished songs. We listen to every submission, all the way through.
Feedback
Honest creative feedback
What is working, what is not there yet, and where the songs could go. Plain words, no flattery.
Development
The songs and the artist
Songwriting and arranging in pre-production, finding your sound, and building your story and content.
The project
Shaped with you
Single, EP or album; the sound; the release plan and rollout; and the team of players, producer, and mix and master.
Artist FAQ
The lingo, in plain words
Stems, masters, rollouts, DSPs: the music industry has a language of its own. Here is what the terms mean, and what they mean with us.
What is A&R?
A&R stands for artists and repertoire. It is the part of a label that finds artists, listens to their songs and helps them grow. With us, A&R means we listen to your demos properly, give you honest creative feedback, develop the songs with you, and shape the project around them: the sound, whether it is a single, an EP or an album, the release plan and the team who play on it, produce it, mix it and master it.
What is pre-production?
Pre-production is the planning before recording. We go through the songs together: the structure, the key and the tempo, the arrangement, who plays which part, and what the record should feel like. Doing it first means the recording days are spent making music, not making decisions.
What are stems, and how are they different from masters?
A master is the finished, release-ready version of a song: mixed, polished and ready for listeners. Stems are that same mix split into a few grouped parts, such as drums, bass, music and vocals, so someone can adjust or remove one part. Stems are handy for remixes, live backing tracks and sync, where a film or TV editor may want the song without the vocal. Every release we make comes with both.
What is an Atmos master?
An Atmos master is the finished Dolby Atmos version of a song, where the sounds are placed all around and above the listener rather than just left and right. It is delivered as an ADM file (a broadcast wave file that carries the audio and where each sound sits in the space), alongside the usual stereo master. Listeners hear it as Spatial Audio on Apple Music and in Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music and TIDAL. We mix and master in our Atmos room, so every release has one.
What is a rollout, or release plan?
A rollout is the plan for how a release reaches people, not just the day it comes out. It covers the release date, the order of singles, the pre-release weeks (teasers, session clips, pitching), release week itself, and the content and campaigns that keep it moving afterwards. We build the rollout with you around the songs and the session footage.
What are DSPs?
DSP stands for digital service provider. It is the industry name for the streaming and download services where people listen, such as Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. When someone says "out on all DSPs" they mean out everywhere people stream.
What is a pre-save?
A pre-save lets a fan save a song before it comes out, so it lands in their library on release day. It is one of the tools for the pre-release stretch of a rollout. Whether it suits your release depends on where and how the music goes out first, and we plan that with you.
All artist questions and the A to Z of industry terms
Not sure what any of this means? Talk to us. No jargon, no pressure.
4chordsStudios
How it starts
- Apply with 1 to 3 songs
- We listen, properly
- If it clicks, we talk
Send us your music and a few lines about what you want to make. We listen to every submission. If it feels like the right fit, we arrange a conversation and talk through how we would work together, in private and in plain English.
Apply / talk to us