Grammy award nominated mastering studio in East London

The Carvery Studio has certainly come a long way from cutting dubplates in an east London living room, to becoming a respected, multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy Award nominated mastering studio.

Since 2004, the studio has been behind some of the independent music scene’s best-loved releases. From electronic heavyweights including Aphex Twin, Bonobo, 2ManyDJs and Dimitri From Paris, to hip hop pioneers such as Madlib, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Nu-Mark and Methodman – the list is endless.

Community first

From the very start, mastering engineer and owner of The Carvery Studio, Frank Merritt, was already embedded in the vinyl collecting and DJ community of London since the early 2000s (he is a founding member of the Sofrito label and club night alongside collector Hugo Mendez and artist Lewis Heriz).

Whilst actively supporting grassroots labels, venues, artists and charitable projects, as well as placing profit secondary to the goal of creative excellence – The Carvery Studio has become an epicentre of musical flourishment.

Now, that strong network has culminated in the creation of The Carvery Studio’s new resources platform, celebrating the very community that has brought them success. Everything herein is brought to you by passionate creatives – people who themselves are esteemed in their own fields and are connecting to peers in other creative industries.

East London roots

As with many small businesses, the studio had humble beginnings – namely in the living room of a Hackney Wick warehouse, when Frank Merritt (mastering engineer and owner of The Carvery Studio) and friend George Thompson (producer Black Merlin), saw the need to cut dubplates for friends, competitive scratch DJs and their own DJ nights in East London.

After years of building up clientele and savings, Frank branched out on his own to buy an industry standard vinyl lathe – the Neumann VMS 70. It originally came from the US, where it had begun life in Nashville cutting many of the famous Motown records of the early 70s, before being used by Sony in the 80s, and finally ending up in EMI’s Townhouse Studio in Shepherd’s Bush. Following the catalogue of these labels over those decades, one can only speculate at the sheer number of records (hits or otherwise) that this Neumann lathe has cut.

Since then, The Carvery Studio has grown with and helped nurture a plethora of influential independent labels in the fertile creative grounds of London and the UK, including Rhythm Section, BBE, Soundway, Strut, On The Corner, Glitterbox, High Focus and Gilles Peterson’s Arc imprint. Not to mention being sought out by similarly respected European, African and American labels.