We still record the drums to tape

Room 1 has a half-inch eight-track tape machine that Ines Calder bought from a closing studio in 2018. It needs a service twice a year and new tape is expensive, so it is not on for every session.

When it goes on

Drums, mostly. Tape rounds off the sharpest edge of a snare hit in a way that is hard to copy with software, and bands play differently when they know a take costs something. Signal Fires and Roof Tiles both have drums recorded to tape and copied into the computer afterwards.

When it stays off

Quiet music. Tape adds a faint hiss, which disappears under a rock band and sits right on top of a solo piano. Tomás Reyes records straight to the computer, at a high sample rate, with the microphones close.

Where the tapes go

Every reel is labelled with the catalogue number and kept in a cupboard in Room 2. That is how Pale Bloom could be remastered seven years later from the original tapes.