THE STUDIO

The Manor, the recording Studio and the Photo Gallery

The Manor

Olivier Bloch Lainé created the studio in 1980 in this Manor of La Frette sur Seine, 15 minutes away from Paris.

The manor, from the 19th century, is entirely dedicated to each project.

Located in the village of La Frette Sur Seine, holiday town in the 30’s where Parisians used to come to swim in the Seine river, next to Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier or Albert Marquet’s houses.

The works started downstairs, then we installed mic ties in the living rooms, the studio growing like a tree over the years. The salons de musique stayed like there were originally, we tuned them acoustically with furniture like couches, wall of vinyl, bookshelves…

Though La Frette was originally conceived as a private studio, word quickly spread, and the studio became a popular choice for many French and international artists. Olivier focused on independent music and album production. Today he runs the place with a team of six people, including engineer/producer Nicolas Quere and maintenance engineer Olivier Bolling.

The Studio

In the bottom floor, the control room hosts the 36 input Neve console, the recorders Studer A820, the effects racks and the pro-tools.

Blending vintage gear like a Fairchild 670, plates reverbs and digital technology, the studio is fully equiped to host different kind of projects.

Endless Analog’s CLAPS system is used to integrate a Studer J37 and the Studer 820 24 tracks tape recorders into modern recording project, allowing to use tape machines with a direct transfer to protools.

The control room opens on 3 isolated but communicating rooms.

About half a dozen of the actual studio rooms are professionally treated and soundproofed, based on designs by Tom Hidley, yet over the years we have found good uses for almost all the rooms in the building. With around 650 square meters of floor space in total, there are plenty of opportunities to get creative !

The Piano Room

A 35m2 room with elm panelling and bass-traps, Steinway B piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer.

This room allows visual communication with the drum booth, the stone room and the control room. As monitoring system we use Furman little mixers allowing musicians to do their own mix.

The Stone Room

A 35m2 vaulted cellar with stone and bass-traps, it host guitar’s amps and synths like the minimoog, oberheim OBxa, Fairlight IIx, and many vintage gear.

Dead Room

This room used to be a rain water tank, we transformed it as a drum booth, this room is also useful for dry guitars or bass amp.

The live Salon

On the top floor, the big entry hall with its 3 store monumental wooden staircase opens on a double music ‘salon’, directly connected to the control room, hosting a Bosendorfer piano and Hammond B3 organ.

The Residential House

As a residential studio, La Frette offers six bedrooms in the main house, as well as optional space in another house nearby the river and on a houseboat loft.

The Photo Gallery

Please click HERE to have a closer look at the studio, the Manor and the gear