Come make some noise where Austin keeps its soul.
Analog and digital. Three Austin Chronicle Awards on the wall, right next to the Steamboat sign. Country band at noon, rapper at midnight. Bring your song.
Forty-odd records. Neon. Thirty years of Austin.
Analog soul. Digital speed.
The gear list isn’t a brag sheet. It’s the sound. A 54-channel analog desk for the weight, Pro Tools for the speed, both on most days.
- Crest analog console54 channels of analog
- 22′ × 22′ live drum roomfour isolation booths around it
- Pro Tools 12400+ plug-ins · hybrid on most days
- Neumann U 87 Ai · Royer R-121 · AKG C 414the microphone locker
- Genelec 1031A · Yamaha NS-10 · Auratonethree ways to check a mix
A few of the records.
Thirty years of them, and no two alike. Six here to give you the idea.
“We've recorded all over the country. We keep coming home to this room.”
“This band literally formed in this building. Omar heard something we didn't know we had yet.”
“Two albums cut here. Both times we walked in with songs and walked out with records.”
“Omar gets cumbia. Omar gets everything. The room just sounds like Austin.”
“The Hammond, the rugs, the tube glow. My record sounds warm because the room is.”
“No studio nerves in this place. You plug in, Omar hits record, and what comes back is honest.”
“Metal needs punch. Those Neves and that live room hit like a freight train.”
“We tracked live off the floor. The takes you keep are the ones with the room in them.”
“I came in with a notebook. I left with an album. Omar built the bridge between the two.”
Omar Vallejo
Your idea, finished.
Omar has spent three decades on both sides of the glass. Bassist of Vallejo, the band that went from Steamboat’s Monday night to #30 on Billboard. Now the producer the Chronicle called Austin’s best.
Here’s the special sauce: Omar isn’t a producer who used to play. He’s a working musician who produces. Thirty years of paying gigs, a band that charted, brothers still fronting bands all over Texas. He knows the nerves before a take and the lift after the right one because he lives on both sides of the glass.
One studio. A whole scene.
The Steamboat Story
The sign hangs in this room. Danny Crooks, the Vallejo brothers, and how Austin’s loudest door ended up on our wall.
Read it →512 Studios Live
The live performance series, filmed on our floor. Austin bands, broadcast out.
Watch →512 Radio
The studio’s own stream. What we record, what we love, what Austin sounds like.
Listen →512 Music Foundation
The nonprofit arm. Money and muscle back into Austin music.
Learn more →Your session starts here.
Book online or call. Tell us what you’re making and you’ll get a straight quote. A 25% deposit locks your dates.