Austin Studio Greater Noida
Gate no. 4, Gamma 1, D- 147, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201308, India
Austin Studio, Greater Noida is a pocket-sized sanctuary for musicians tucked behind the Sector-36 metro station in Lakhnawali village. From the dusty lane you spot only a small, black-and-white marquee that reads “Austin – Sound Before Sight,” but climb the narrow staircase and the ceiling rises into a double-height, wood-paneled hexagon: half Scandinavian cabin, half New Orleans street-corner. Reclaimed teak baffles float overhead like kite ribs, scattering the LEDs into gentle amber streaks; at dusk the room glows like the inside of a violin.
The live floor measures thirty-two square metres of floating maple that sits on squash-ball isolators. JBL VTX V20 tops flank two custom 15″ subwoofers built into the corners, so low-frequency pressure hugs the corners instead of your ankles. A single Neve 5059 satellite mixer is racked beside an Apollo x16 interface, giving engineers tape heft without the price tag. Drummers choose between a ’67 Ludwig Club Date and a modern Gretsch Brooklyn; guitarists get a pristine ‘64 Princeton Reverb and a no-nonsense Kemper rack. The kings of the room, however, are the pre-CBS Strat and the battered 335 on the wall—both wired, tuned and always in tune because luthier Rakesh “Rax” Singh lives next door and treats them like houseplants.
Vocals are captured through a matched pair of Warm WA-47s routed into an honest UA 610 preamp, then to a Wunder PEQ1 EQ. An adjacent iso booth (2.5 x 2.5 m) absorbs cymbal bleed with recycled denim panels and hosts tabla riffs as effortlessly as scratch DJ routines. A second, smaller booth is lined with mattresses: perfect area for whisper-close ASMR or metallic rap ad-libs.
If you rent hourly (₹1,800 off-peak, ₹2,200 prime), engineer Vaibhav “VB” Barman is included; he’s mixed Shillong indie to Punjabi folk, and keeps mood charts taped to the SSL-style patchbay. Full-day lockouts come with the green-room loft above—an AC mattress floor, an Xbox, and a kettle that is permanently on, supplied by Tara, the in-house tea-whisperer who can conjure masala chai in under ninety seconds.
Evenings often tilt into listening sessions. Around nine, owner Samridh “Sam” Mishra kills the work lights, flips a hidden switch to turn the VTX rig into a hi-fi system, and threads reel-to-reel tapes: Miles, Shafqat, and occasional pre-production cuts from Vasundhara-based rappers looking to impress. Beer is BYO at cost, but Austin insists on no shoes, no fights, and no autotune unless it is used like seasoning.
For first-timers they loan a “starter box”: strap, cables, pick sampler, capo, and an RTA diary. Sign the ledger on your way out; hundreds of scrawls quote Jeff Buckley’s studio credo: “Music is about the spaces between.”
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- Published: August 4, 2025
