Big Dan Recording Studios is based in Stoke on Trent in the UK
Big Dan Recording Studios
Big Dan Studios was conceived in around 1994
because of a need to record music at a cost effective price with
good results. The recording industry for bands was getting harder -
mainly because the affordable studios stopped taking bands. Like
everything else in life there is always an answer. The answer for me
was to build a studio where technology played a big role without
scary costs.
So Big Dan Studios was born. In those early years
the studio used a Yamaha Analogue desk on to a Fostex hard Disk
recorder. What might indeed sound not so good today as far as
technology is concerned in those days that was the way ahead. Later
the Studio updated to a Mackie HD recorder and an o2R Digital desk
which was really the highest level of equipment that could be bought
from the funds available.
But like many things even that became outdated, so I once again did some updating to an O2R96 Digital desk, Eventide Outboard and a host of other outboard stuff. Visit Bigdan Records - my record company from the link below (now stopped!). I had actually been recording since the mid 70's and at that time I used reel to reel tape recorders and other stuff - how it's moved on. Today big dan studios can record and produce at 96 KHz (better than you can hear!) and master a CD right there and then or upload immediately.
The studio has developed continuously and has recorded some great artists, some of which have recorded some awesome music. Those artists have ranged from regular bands, solo male and female artists, jazz bands, choirs, and even a real bona fide opera singer who had travelled the world singing and was a real 'name' in his area of music. The basic idea of the studio is to offer musicians recording time at a low cost without affecting the quality of the recording. That has been proved to be a success over time with different artists returning again and again. However, these days I don't really have too much spare time for recording projects of other guys so let's just say that big dan studios now is only for recording close friends and myself.
The last album 'Berner Street' from Mckenzie - Bruce is an album where you could win $10,000 (or £5000.00) by solving the puzzle from the music. That album, and my previous work 'Eniac' were both recorded at big dan studios so if it's up to my standard the quality is likely to be up to yours... who knows... maybe you prefer a portastudio?
Actually this is well out of date in 2025: I installed Presonus 32 track desk - and my latest album (with Alan Bruce) is Gravity Waves that you might want to look at... it has many styles of music on there and is a departure from some of he earlier stuff. I must get to update this stuff one of these days...
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© A B Mckenzie 1997-2026. All Rights Reserved



