Q Division Studios

Making great sounding records in comfort and style in Boston's best recording studio

recent news

Update 6.24

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Hi Everyone!

We’ve been cautiously optimistic about the Covid-19 news in Massachusetts over these last few weeks. Governor Charlie Baker has announced the beginning of “the second step of phase 2”. For most people, that means indoor dining, and at Q division we are starting to book sessions involving more than one person recording. That doesn’t mean we’re back fully, but it means we can host more folks than we have.

What sessions can we book, EXACTLY?

While we’d like to give clear yes/no guidelines, the reality is that it has to be a conversation. The first principle is that everyone involved needs to feel comfortable with the session. We’d probably feel comfortable with a trio where the members have been isolating together, and not comfortable with a 12 piece live band with horns and singers (no masks) where people are flying in from around the country. We’ll save the specifics for later, but it’s going to involve all the (now) usual things- Screening, masks, distance, hand washing… The goal here is to create a good creative situation where everyone feels safe and knows what to expect.

So with that in mind- give us a call when you’re ready to work.

Update 5.18.20

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Hello, welcome to the much anticipated “opening up day”. Governor Baker has laid out a plan with phases- “Recording Studio” isn’t one of the named categories of business (they have a lot on their minds), so we’re following the “office” guideline, and we’ve been working on our own “phased opening” plan for a while. (Hey we’re audio engineers; we are very good with phase.) Currently we are in “phase one” in which engineer-only sessions are possible- Mixing, transfers, re-amping. However, we are now booking “phase two” sessions where there is one engineer and one artist/ client: solo piano, overdubs, remote sessions to have a session musician play on your record… There will be rules of course, but in general one good thing about recording studios is that there is really good isolation between the control room and the studio. For groups larger than that- let’s talk. We’re not booking those yet, but we’re working on it.

Quaran-amping!

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Starting this week, we’re offering remote access to Q’s collection of pedals, amps, analog tape, plate reverb, Neve console, tube compressors and more. Just as we’ve been doing for decades, we want to help your tracks sound their absolute best – but, this time around, since we can’t invite you physically to Q, we’re invite your tracks for a visit… Let us re-amp, compress, print to tape or whatever it is that your songs need. Check out our TOYS and the various gear pages – Studio A & Studio B for ideas.

Treatments will be done in Studio A, with easy access to the 1/2″ ATR, the 2″ Studer, the 1/4″ Studer, all our other tape delays, and of course, our Neve console. If folks want to access gear that’s normally racked up in Studio B it will also be available for processing – not to mention our collection of vintage and contemporary amps, cabs, and pedals…! Maybe you’ve recorded drums in your bedroom and want them to sound like they’re in a live room? We can pump your drums into Studio A’s live room and record them through our U67’s, the Neve and a pair of tube compressors.
To make this all work smoothly, we’ll send you a high quality audio feed so that you can stay as hands/ears on during the process.

And of course, now is a great time to transfer all your old media… We can handle 2″, 1/2″, 1/4″ and ADAT transfers, and we can bake your analog tape if they need it.

And, while not strictly in the “analog” domain, we’re also happy to tune and tweak tracks till the cows come home. Drop Ed a line (we’re offering special “quarantine” rates) and let us know how we can turn your quarantine tracks up to 11.

Q Division & Covid19

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We wanted to check in and let everyone know that we’re still here!

We ARE laying low for the time being – keeping everyone safe, but  planning for the future – one that includes us all working in person.

For now we’re doing much needed maintenance, transferring and archiving analog tapes, and soon we hope to make our vast collection of amps, mics, preamps, tube compressors, pedals, and general toys available to folks who want re-amping and mixing services.

Drop us a line if this sounds like something that interests you.

We’d also love your help – if you don’t see a project you worked on at Q on our website, let us know, and we’ll remedy the situation! And you can even visit our collaborative Spotify playlist and add your album, and help us keep track of all the incredible albums made here.

We can’t wait to get back to hearing and seeing you all in person. Feel free to drop us a line and let us know how you’re doing!

Spring 2020 Update

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Dear friends!

While we’re all waiting to see each other in person again, we’ve turned our gaze to our tape vault. Q Division, having been around for over 30 years, still has a massive analog tape library. If you’ve visited us in the last 4 years, you’ve seen it (in our previous layout the tape vault was much harder to find). The thing is, it belongs to some of you, but we might have lost track of you over the years. We’d love to reunite you with your analog tapes, and we’d be happy to archive them in the process. Get in touch!

There’s another way we can all connect in this time of distancing – help us fill in the holes in our discographies and artist lists.

How can you help?

If you, or an artist you know, has worked on projects at Q and you can’t find it on our list, remind us what we’ve missed! We’d love specifics – album or EP/singles titles, years, engineers, producers, musicians, record label (if any), how the material was released. Mention anything really – great food? Amazingly long waits for the bathroom? Give us links – videos, articles, reviews, whatever you have – we’ll take it.

If you’re interested, write and submit an article or review of a project and we’ll integrate it into our website. You needn’t have worked on the album – maybe you love it and want to share some of your knowledge and affection of it with us.

If you don’t want to write or get in touch, you could add albums to a crowdsource playlist on Spotify – it’s a collaborative playlist, so all you have to do is “like” it, and then add your music to the playlist.
It’s here: