Danbro Studios

My boyfriend’s band has a studio here and I really do love this place. The sound control is pretty great and you usually aren’t bothered and can’t even hear many of the other bands playing or rehearsing. They’ve got tons of studios and different sizes and types of rooms. Pretty cool abandoned looking environment, which my band found great for photo shoot material.

The rooms are great and the owner and building management are also really cool and nice folks. My only issue is that they don’t have a way to pay them easily when you’re out of town and I ended up eating a lot of late fees when trying to plan ahead and use their recommended method of electronic check because I always underestimated how long it would take the check to arrive (and I went by their account managers suggestions on that)
If you can figure out the payments, this place is pretty good as far as the sound isolation goes. They are constantly adding new features, which could be better communicated though. If you’re recording in the building, you want to be in constant contact with the management to ask about any planned construction near your room.
As an extra bonus, Paris, one of the dudes who mantains the building facilities is one of the most polite and nicest people you’ll ever meet. Don’t forget to tip Paris at New Years as he is the one who will be cleaning up everyone’s mess that they leave around. He doesn’t get enough credit for how much work he does and maintaining the most positive attitude of almost anyone I’ve met in NYC who works as much as he does. What a dude!
I’m subtracting two stars only because the electronic payment system was promised, but after about 2 years, it still isn’t in place.

I’ve been doing music production and some freelance mastering in a studio at DanBro for the past 6 or so months.
Pros:
— Triple wall insulation is pretty nice
— Double doors, inner door has a nice seal.
— 2^nd elevator coming soon.
— ²⁴⁄₇ access
— Great area to connect with other bands
— Ideal for band practice spaces
— Free to build/​do whatever in the room within legal limits
Cons:
— I swear most bands don’t close their inner door, causing serious sound leakage into the halls, exacerbating the imperfect sound insulation. The sound insulation is okay, and it would be a lot better if people actually closed their inner doors. Hell sometimes bands practice with both fucking doors open.
— Its pretty expensive for what you get (a small ass room). I guess its cheap if you split it with your band or another band, but I run a solo studio, and I do not get a whole lot of space for what I pay.
— (Some rooms) have exposed ceilings with concave domes, which, despite what they might tell you, is terrible for sound (unless you wanna get some weird sound effects/​comb filtering) and every once in a while I come into the studio with a bunch of rocks on the floor from the loose ceiling. Just a little worrying.
— The air ducting is incomplete if not quite inefficient
Tips:
— Nobody is there in the mornings (like 8am) so if you need to record without excess noise, that’s your time to shine.
EDIT: A couple of other things to consider:
— Danbro takes 2 months security from you (to be fair, their excuse is that this is because they dont do financial checks)
— They charge a $ 200 inflexible late fee if you are over 5 days late. A bit excessive honestly, especially for people who usually pay on time.

Spaces are decent. Heat during the cold weather. Some of the rooms have windows. Other bands and musicians are pretty respectable and cool. Old school elevator. Good environment to make some music in.

DANBRO ROOLZ, SWEATSHOP DROOLZ! Hey, fourth floor, return the freight elevator to the ground floor! (J-​foolin’, fourth floor — I love you guys.) Danbro’s been undergoing some kind of renovation or refurbishment for the whole two years or so I’ve been rehearsing with bands here, with increasingly spiffy results. Secure spot — rooms are rented out on a monthly basis, not hourly, so you get to know the musicians on your floor after a while, which lends some peace of mind. Graffiti in the hallways never stays for too long these days, but I’ve seen some choice phrases on the walls, like «LIFE IS NOT OF A BOX CHOCOLA,» «PHENOMINAL BOOBAGE» (god, I hope that’s a band name), and this one (in which there is some disagreement over the pointlessness of this):