Studio
Brooklyn’s Best Sounding Room
At Donut Shop Studios, we built a space designed for artists and producers who expect real quality. Our studio is home to one of Brooklyn’s most accurate and powerful monitoring environments, trusted by Grammy-winning engineers, major-label artists, and independent musicians who take their sound seriously.
Donut Shop Studios is a Brooklyn recording studio built for accuracy, impact, and real-world translation. You work in Brooklyn’s best-sounding room, powered by a custom Augspurger monitoring system widely regarded as the most accurate in the borough. Professionally designed acoustics eliminate guesswork so every decision you make holds up everywhere. Grammy-winning engineers rely on this room for major releases, and independent artists get the same professional standard without compromise. If you care about how your music truly sounds, this is where it happens. Located at 910 Grand Street in Williamsburg, Donut Shop Studios sets the bar for professional recording in Brooklyn.
Why Artists Choose Donut Shop Studios
• World-class monitoring for translation across all systems
• Professional engineering from Grammy-level talent
• A private, creative space with zero distractions
• Fast, efficient workflow for recording, mixing, and production
• Premium sound quality at a competitive Brooklyn rate
Donut Shop Studios is Brooklyn’s go-to destination for artists who want their music to sound powerful, polished, and professional.
Monitoring System
At Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn, the monitoring system is the core of how records get finished with confidence. You are listening through custom Augspurger main monitors built around 12MF drivers paired with dual 18-inch subwoofers. This is not a typical nearfield setup. This is a full-scale, professional monitoring environment designed for absolute accuracy and real-world translation.
Augspurger monitors are superior to standard studio monitors because they move air effortlessly while staying controlled. Instead of hyped highs or flattering low end, you get a flat frequency response with surgical precision. You hear exactly what is in the session, not what the speakers want you to hear. That honesty is what allows critical mix decisions to happen faster and with less second-guessing.
Power handling is a major advantage. These monitors stay clear and composed at any level. Whether you are checking low-volume balances or pushing the system to club-level SPL, the image stays intact. Transients remain sharp, midrange stays focused, and the stereo field does not collapse when things get loud. This matters when you are shaping impact, depth, and energy in modern records.
Low-end accuracy is where this system truly separates itself. The dual 18-inch subwoofers deliver deep, tight bass without smear or exaggeration. For hip hop, electronic, and modern pop production, this means you can dial in kick and 808 relationships with confidence. What you hear in this room translates cleanly to clubs, cars, headphones, and radio.
Engineers trust this room because it removes guesswork. Artists trust it because their music leaves sounding finished everywhere it is played. If you are searching for augspurger monitors Brooklyn engineers rely on, the best studio monitoring Brooklyn has to offer, and a truly professional monitoring system, this room delivers exactly that.
Control Room Equipment
The control room at Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn is built around serious infrastructure, not shortcuts. This is a professional environment designed for speed, accuracy, and reliability at every stage of production, recording, and mixing.
At the center of the room is Pro Tools HD, the industry standard for professional studios. Unlike standard Pro Tools systems, Pro Tools HD gives you guaranteed low-latency performance, massive track counts, and rock-solid stability for large sessions. When you are running dense arrangements, complex routing, or full-band tracking, the system never becomes the bottleneck. You work faster, make decisions quicker, and stay focused on the music instead of troubleshooting.
For production and songwriting, Logic Pro is fully integrated into the workflow. This gives you flexibility when building tracks, programming, or composing, while still allowing seamless handoff into Pro Tools HD for recording, editing, and final mix work.
Conversion and interfacing are handled by a high-end digital front end, including Antelope Audio Orion 32 HD alongside UAD systems. High-quality conversion matters because it is the first and last thing your audio touches. Clean, accurate conversion preserves transient detail, stereo imaging, and low-end integrity. What you capture stays intact through the entire signal chain, and what you monitor reflects reality.
The room is built around a hybrid analog and digital workflow. Outboard gear is fully integrated through a professional patchbay, allowing fast and flexible routing without repatching behind racks. You can send signals out to analog processing, print them back in real time, or build complex parallel chains effortlessly. This flexibility is critical for modern sessions that demand speed and precision.
Routing efficiency is a major advantage here. Whether you are managing vocal chains, parallel drum buses, hardware inserts, or external summing, everything is designed to keep sessions moving. You spend less time setting up and more time creating.
This is not a laptop-and-interface setup. It is a professional recording chain built for engineers and producers who care deeply about signal flow, conversion quality, and workflow speed. If you are looking for Pro Tools HD Brooklyn studios, serious Brooklyn studio equipment, and a control room that supports real-world professional demands, this system delivers.
Preamps & Front End
The front-end signal chain at Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn is designed to capture tone correctly at the source. This room is built for engineers who understand that the sound of a record starts before the DAW, with proper gain staging, clean signal flow, and intentional preamp choice.
For classic color and musical weight, the studio runs two channels of Warm Audio WA73 preamps. These are faithful recreations of the vintage Neve 1073 design, known for their thick low end, smooth high frequencies, and harmonically rich midrange. This circuit has been used on countless classic records for vocals, guitars, bass, and keys. When you want warmth, depth, and authority without harshness, this is the go-to choice.
For speed, punch, and clarity, the studio is equipped with a Warm Audio WA412, a four-channel API 312–style preamp. API-style circuits are essential for drums, percussion, aggressive vocals, and anything that needs to cut through a dense mix. They deliver fast transients, tight low end, and forward mids that translate exceptionally well in modern productions. Kick, snare, toms, and hip hop vocals benefit immediately from this character.
Having multiple preamp flavors matters. Not every source should be treated the same. Vocals might call for the thickness of the WA73, while drums demand the immediacy of the WA412. Guitars, synths, and bass can be shaped at the input stage instead of being “fixed” later with plugins.
The front end also includes high-quality DI boxes for bass, synths, and electronic instruments, ensuring clean impedance matching and noise-free capture. Every signal is gain-staged properly before hitting conversion, preserving headroom and dynamic range.
This is the same caliber of professional recording chain found in Manhattan studios charging $250 to $500 per hour. Clean capture equals better mixes later. When you start with the right preamp and a solid signal path, everything downstream becomes easier, faster, and more musical.
Outboard Gear
The outboard gear and signal processing at Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn is built for engineers who still believe in shaping sound with real hardware. In 2025, analog outboard gear matters more than ever because it delivers depth, saturation, and dynamic behavior that plugins still struggle to replicate authentically.
The studio features a carefully curated collection of world-class compressors and EQs designed to cover every sonic goal. For vocals and drums that need speed and attitude, the Tube-Tech CL 1B is a staple. Its fast response and aggressive control make it ideal for modern vocals, hip hop, and punchy drum sounds while still maintaining clarity and musicality. The Empirical Labs Distressor adds another layer of flexibility, capable of clean dynamic control or rich harmonic character depending on the setting. It is equally effective on vocals, drums, bass, and parallel compression.
Classic FET compression is handled by 1176-style compressors, perfect for drums, percussion, and vocals that need presence and energy. These units excel at controlling transients while adding excitement and edge. For smoother dynamics, especially on vocals, bass, and sustained instruments, the LA-2A optical compressor provides gentle, musical leveling that feels natural and effortless.
Tone shaping is completed with Pultec-style EQs, known for their passive design and broad, musical curves. Pultecs allow you to boost and shape frequencies without harshness or phasey artifacts, adding weight, air, and polish in a way that remains impossible to fake digitally.
All of this gear is fully integrated into a hybrid workflow. You can track through analog hardware in real time, committing tone on the way in, or loop hardware into mixes with full digital recall. This gives you the character of analog with the efficiency of modern sessions.
This analog outboard collection rivals top Manhattan studios and proves that no plugins are required for world-class sound. Engineers here have the right tools for any source, any genre, and any creative direction, all without compromise.
Microphone Locker
The microphone collection at Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn is built to handle any recording scenario with confidence, precision, and flexibility. Mic choice is never an afterthought here. It is a critical creative decision that shapes tone before any processing begins.
Large-diaphragm condensers
At the center of the locker is a Neumann U87, the gold standard for professional vocal recording and a microphone trusted on major label releases for decades. Valued at over $3,500, the U87 delivers balanced frequency response, controlled proximity effect, and unmistakable clarity. It excels on lead vocals, voiceover, acoustic guitar, and piano. The collection also includes AKG C414 microphones, known for their versatility, multiple polar patterns, and ability to adapt to almost any source from vocals to drum overheads and strings.
Ribbon microphones
Royer ribbon microphones provide a smooth, natural tone with soft high frequencies and realistic depth. Ribbons are ideal for electric guitar cabinets, brass, strings, and room capture when you want warmth without harshness. They also pair beautifully with bright voices or aggressive sources that need taming at the source.
Dynamic microphones
For punch, control, and reliability, the studio offers a full range of industry-standard dynamics. The Shure SM7B delivers broadcast-quality vocals and is famously associated with Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It is perfect for modern vocals, rap, rock, and spoken word. Shure SM57s remain essential for snare drums, guitar amps, and utility duties. Sennheiser MD421 microphones handle toms, guitar cabinets, and low-mid heavy sources with authority. The Electro-Voice RE20 excels on kick drum, bass cabinets, and deep vocals thanks to its controlled proximity effect.
This professional microphone collection allows engineers to choose the right mic for each voice and instrument, perform A/B comparisons, and apply proven mic techniques. The result is clean capture, strong tone, and recordings that translate effortlessly. If you are searching for a Neumann U87 Brooklyn studio, a professional microphone collection, or a serious studio mic locker Brooklyn artists and engineers trust, this room delivers.
Live Room & Acoustics
The live room at Donut Shop Studios in Brooklyn is a purpose-built recording space designed for accuracy, control, and musicality. Measuring approximately 10 by 12 feet, the room was engineered by professional acousticians, not treated as an afterthought or converted from a residential space.
Extensive bass trapping is built into the room to control low-frequency buildup and standing waves. This is critical for modern music, where low end defines the record. Proper bass control eliminates guesswork, allowing you to trust what you are hearing while tracking and making performance decisions that hold up later in the mix.
Diffusion panels are strategically placed to create a natural, balanced room sound without unwanted reflections or boxy resonance. The result is a space that sounds tight and controlled, not dry or lifeless. Vocals, guitars, drums, and acoustic instruments all benefit from a room tone that feels professional, not like bedroom reverb.
The frequency response of the room has been measured and tuned to remain flat and controlled, ensuring consistency from session to session. A fully isolated vocal booth is available for focused vocal recording, with excellent separation from the control room and live room to maintain clean takes.
The live room offers up to 16 microphone inputs, giving you full flexibility for multi-mic setups, drum recording, or complex tracking sessions. Layout and room configuration can adapt to different recording needs, whether you are cutting vocals, tracking instruments, or recording drums.
This acoustically treated studio in Brooklyn delivers a true professional live room experience. What you hear here is what listeners hear everywhere else.
Producer Heaven
Built for Modern Production Workflow
Donut Shop Studios is designed for how producers actually work today. This is a producer-friendly studio in Brooklyn where you can bring your own laptop, plug in instantly, and stay fully inside your creative flow.
You can connect your laptop and interface directly into the studio through a professional patchbay, giving you immediate access to the full system. Within minutes, your session is playing back through our Augspurger monitoring so you can hear your beats on one of the most accurate speaker systems in Brooklyn. Your music instantly sounds bigger, clearer, and more honest than it ever could at home.
You keep your session files, your plugins, and your workflow. Whether you work in Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, or any other DAW, the room adapts to you. There is no pressure to switch systems or learn a new setup. Our control room becomes your monitoring environment.
When it is time to record, you have full access to the studio’s microphone collection, preamps, and 16-channel live room. You can track vocals, instruments, or overdubs directly into your session while maintaining your production momentum. No exporting stems. No breaking your creative headspace.
This flexible recording setup lets you produce in your comfort zone while benefiting from a truly professional environment. Bring your production, hear it properly, record it cleanly, and finish it in a real room built for translation.
Built for Results
This studio delivers results because every decision has been made with translation in mind. You get Manhattan-level gear and infrastructure at Brooklyn prices, typically $95 to $125 per hour instead of $300 to $500. The room has been refined for over 20 years to meet the demands of modern production, mixing, and recording, not trends or shortcuts.
Every piece of equipment is chosen for accuracy, speed, and real-world playback. Grammy-winning engineers trust this room for major releases because what you hear here holds up everywhere. Clubs, cars, headphones, streaming platforms, radio. No surprises. Independent artists benefit from the same professional environment used on high-level projects, without the barrier of inflated pricing.
This investment in monitoring, acoustics, signal chain, and workflow means better decisions, faster sessions, and stronger records for clients.
If you are looking for a professional studio in Brooklyn that delivers serious value, schedule a FREE studio tour. Hear the Augspurgers yourself, meet the team, and walk through the room in person.
Call (716) 333-8985 or book online at donutshopstudios.com/booking.
Take your sound seriously.
Book a session today and experience Brooklyn’s best recording and mixing environment.