Our History

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Salt Studios was established in 2001.

The East Brighton premises was chosen for its ease of access and proximity to great local restaurants and cafes. This was deemed a significant factor when setting up a recording studio. Other businesses on our doorstep include an IGA supermarket (With a bottle shop) and Jaycar Electronics.

The number 64 tram from the CBD runs right past our door, and there is ample parking nearby.

The studio facilities were constructed between 1998 and 2000 and were ready for sessions in late January of 2001.

No expense was spared in the construction of the studios; all internal cabling and materials used were of the highest quality available.

Upon opening its doors, Salt quickly became known for producing quality recordings and providing a relaxed and creative space for musicians to work in.

Numerous Album and EP projects have been recorded here for both independent musicians and labels, and many have claimed chart success upon their release.

In 2003, we did away with our then Adat format in the Studio and moved over to Pro Tools based system. The Adats weren’t discarded though; they were installed along with a Mackie 24-8 console in the now famous Duke Of Windsor Hotel in Prahran. This is where Salt Live was born. We immediately gained a reputation for recording awesome live gigs with dozens of live EP’s being released from these recordings. Some of the hundreds of bands recorded at the Duke at this time include The Fauves, Dallas Crane, Airbourne, and the now world-famous Jet.

In 2005, our live recording system was updated to a 32 input Pro Tools HD rig and was moved to The Palace in St Kilda as part of the Rollover sessions. Here, we recorded and documented dozens of excellent live performances on the Palace main stage by popular bands such as Electric Mary and The Sparrows, just to name a few.

In late 2006, we developed a technique for producing instant CD recordings. Live performances were recorded and mixed on the fly, and CD duplicators were employed to duplicate multiple copies of the performance to sell at the merch desk straight after the show. This became very popular with international touring and high profile Australian artists.

Close to forty live albums were instantly released in different venues all over Australia by artists such as Something for Kate, Tim Rogers, Ash Grunwald, Weddings Parties, Anything, Jeff Martin, Clutch, Royal Crown Review, Paul Kelly, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. These albums have today become sought-after collector’s items due to their limited release and for being hand-signed by the artist.

In late 2007, Salt built a stand-alone tracking suite side stage at The HiFi in Melbourne, and later on, provided the same service to artists in their Brisbane venue.

Salts studio set up at the HiFi remained there until the start of 2014.

Some fantastic performances were captured at both Hifi venues, including performances by The Tea Party, Birds of Tokyo, Decoder Ring, The Drones, Regurgitator, Josh Pike, Kate Miller Heitke, and The Bronx.

Other artists recorded live by Salt include Jimmy Barnes, Sinead O’Connor, Luka Bloom, Sarah Blasko, Plain White Tees, Paulo Ntini, Tex Perkins, and You Am I.

Salt Studios has never sounded better.

At the heart of the Studio is a vintage AMEK Hendrix console. The console has been rebuilt strip by strip by Lucas Miles, Audio owner, Dean Horler, with original parts sourced and brought in from the UK.

A selection of other vintage outboard gear and microphones make up the rest of our vast equipment list, ensuring that everything you need to make an excellent record is here.

We have installed a direct fibre internet connection to deal with online recording and streaming, giving us the ability to supply or record audio from any studio from anywhere in the world using Source Connect.

We still to this day provide bands, solo artists, and creative agencies with the same level of service we are known for, and many fine recordings still leave our Studio every day.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our history.

We hope to see you at Salt someday.