Located in the heart of the vibrant city of Berlin, Klangbild studios provides exquisite sound recording and production for artists of talent if not of distinction. Founded by Martin J. Fiedler, the studios have gained recognition with the release of Josh T. Pearson's Last of the Country Gentlemen, the sound of which was praised by famed engineer Gareth Jones. Klangbild is a modern studio with an analog heart centred around our Stramp desk, one of the few working examples in existence. Check our discography to discover which artists have recorded at Klangbild.

About our Stramp console - The heart and soul of Klangbild

Peter Strüven was a legend in his own time. Working out of a converted barn outside Hamburg, he created music electronics with military spec parts and rare attention to detail. John Entwhistle of "The Who" was a religious customer of Herr Dr. Strüven. We are proud to own this beautiful example and keep it in top condition. Several modifications have (whilst keeping intact the amazing tone of the vintage unit) vastly improved its transient handling and noise specifications. Not the least of these is the addition of a laboratory quality power supply and a separately earthed phantom power system. Also the inclusion of balanced direct outs and inserts on every channel. The built in optical compressors have been entirely refurbished and are now patchable to any channel. Each channel comes with passive/inductive EQ section. Such filters impart the tone made famous by the classic Pultec design, yet with more bands to play with for supreme accuracy with zero added noise even at high boost settings.
We are at the moment refurbishing a second Stramp console, to provide more flexibilty.

Martin J. Fiedler, studio founder and producer. As the Berlin wall fell, Martin turned his attention to the art of music production. With an ear for talent and a unique patience in his search for quality, Martin J has become well known for his ability to shape rough diamonds into beautiful gems.

Pierre-Hugues is the Pro Tools wizard of the studio and is dedicated to making your music sound as good as possible. He is also a skilled drummer with many years studio experience and an electronic music producer. Check out his website.

James is our technical director. He refurbished most of our equipment and designed our plate reverb.

The Klangbild Room is the perfect recording space for solo artists or isolation when a dry sonic environment is required. It has a direct connection to the control room through a bay window. It is where most of the recordings happen.

The large room is the more comprehensive of the two recording spaces. Perfect for drums, strings ensemble or a group of musicians. The room has a wide and open sound and boasts a Blüthner grand piano.

The chilling area is adjacent to both rooms and has a small kitchen, fridge and glassware. Of course there is also a coffee machine.

Stramp MPS 24 Inputs with built-in passive/inductive EQs and optical compessors.
Adam Audio M8 monitors with subwoofer
Yamaha NS-10M Studio

Digital

Pro Tools 10.3.8 and 12.5.2 running on MAC OS X 10.9.5
2,6Ghz - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM

Conversion by Lynx Aurora 8 I/O
Slaved UA Apollo 8 for additional 8 I/O for a total of 16 I/O

Analog

Telefunken Magnetophon 15 2 tracks 1/4 inch

Preamplifiers

Universal Audio LA-610 Channel Strip
Neumann V476 B x2
Telefunken V672 x2
GA Project Pre 73 x2
FMR Audio Really Nice Preamp
Apollo Built-in Preamps with UAD Neve 1073

Dynamics & EQs

Girardin LC 101
FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor
Stramp Optocompressor x4
Urei 527 x2

Effects

Watkins Copicat Analog Tape Delay
Ibanez Multimode Analog Delay AD202
Dynacord DRP20 Digital Reverb
Dynacord DRP16 Digital Reverb

And of course a bunch of plug-ins from UA, Slate Digital....

Our custom made plate reverb is one of the pride of Klangbild and an integral part of the sound at our studios. Designed and built by our own James Masson, the plate adds complex, deep reverberations, especially nice on vocals and drums. The damping system allow a minimum decay time of 0.5 seconds. Maximum time is 6.5 seconds.

Klangbild has an impressive range of vintage microphones. We think they are the most important link in the recording process and we are proud to own several pristine examples.

Large and Small Diaphragm

Neumann Gefell CMV560 with M7 capsule
Neumann Gefell PM750
Neumann Gefell 692M93
Neumann Gefell UM70 x2
Neumann TLM 103
Neumann KM184 x2
AKG C1000s
RFT M20B
FML DL 622 x2
Oktava MK012 x4

Ribbon Dynamic

Melodium 42B
Beyerdynanic M160
TBone RB500

Moving Coil Dynamic

Beyerdynamic M69N
Sennheiser MD441 U
Sennheiser MD421 x2
Electrovoice RE27
Shure SM7B
Shure SM57 x2
Shure SM58

At Klangbild, vintage effects, rare amplifiers, various guitars and other instruments are at your disposal. Whether you desire the clarity and immediacy of digital or the lush quality of tape, Klangbild has it covered.

Our Blüthner grand piano. Julius Blüthner was the inventor of aliquot stringing and this piano exemplifies the enriched tone provided by this development. Rachmaninoff was a lifetime Blüthner owner, as were Bartok, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Debussy. The Beatles used one for 'Let It Be'. Interestingly, a lightweight aluminium version of this piano was installed on the Hindenberg. The Blüthner company is in it's 5th generation of family ownership. We keep ours in top condition.
The Melodium 42B large ribbon microphone, also known as the french RCA 44. The 42B had at least 3 design iterations. Ours is one of the more coveted examples of the first version. A beautiful microphone, just as comfortable picking up drum room ambience as it is at capturing the fine details of vocal performance.
The Klangbild room boasts this fine example of a Karl C. Hintze large format upright piano. This piano has a dark throaty tone and sounds particularly beautiful with the covers off and open.
This lovingly maintained Telefunken Magnetofon 15 Master Recorder is the unit of choice for vinyl master recording. It achieves extraordinary performance in terms of fidelity and depth, and remained state of the art for decades. With bass response down to 30Hz (depending on tape stock), the sound of this machine is deep and clear sonically, with a flattering rolloff at the top end very conducive to recordings intended to be reproduced at volume. As well as master recording this machine is equally suited to use as an effect when that beautiful lush tape saturation is desired on digital recordings.
The view to the control room from inside the isolation room. On the cabinet is a fully functional original Watkins Copycat.
A matched stereo pair of RFT MV690’s with Neumann M94 capsules installed.