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Pirate Rehearsal studio? Crystal Maze more like...


EJWW

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Hi all, 

I used Pirate rehearsal studio in Birmingham for the first time yesterday and it was a strange bordering on surreal experience. 

Pirate is unstaffed. Nobody on site whatsoever. 

When you book your room online you are given an access code to enter the car park, another to enter the building and another to enter your room. The electricity is turned on automatically 15 mins before your booking starts. 

The bass amp didn't work. I had to ring a number (alternative to using 'live chat') and spoke to someone in a remote call centre who advised me to go out of the room and find a replacement speaker cable from 'store cupboard 1' and gave me an access code to enter. 

This did not remedy the problem so he then sent me to 'store cupboard 2', another access code, to grab a replacement bass amp, and lug it back to the studio myself. 

Finally got working but wasted nearly 15mins messing about with the defective amp. However give them their due I complained about the time wasted and they gave me a free hour to use next time I book. 

The business model is clearly based on Ryanair with minimal staff costs and tech-savvy customers. 

Don't know if I like it. It was pretty busy so I might be in a minority here. 

I think having a human on site is a good thing generally. 

Anyone else used them?

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We use them periodically. They're OK, and at least the door code means you can definitely get in, rather than waiting for an unreliable human to show up and unlock (names withheld to protect the guilty here). I've not had any gear problems at the one in Nottingham, but their drum kits are pretty nasty IME. At least the rooms are decently damped though.

 

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I've used Pirate in Edinburgh. At first it was ok then we were finding the door code didn't work and the bass amps were all starting to give up the ghost - rattly speakers through overuse and no maintenance.  Haven't been back for a few months

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I used the one in Greenwich twice last week. It was fine but I actually like talking to the staff, other bands, etc to keep my finger on the pulse of what is happening locally.  

Feels like the world is now being taken over by distruptor business models where there is zero human interaction because the owners have Aspergers and think that everybody else does too. 

This can only lead to more social isolation and mental health problems :(

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6 minutes ago, Davo-London said:

If we're trying to eradicate humans from the whole process why not just play a random .mp3 in each room and be done with it?

Peace

Davo

If you played a random .mp3 of an Oasis track in a sealed studio and no one was there to hear it - would it be still be awful?

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I've used them in Nottingham and Leicester reasonably frequently over the last 3 years or so and have few complaints. I've had more issues recently with equipment either not working properly or being absent but it's usually feasible to get it sorted quickly, the most annoying one recently was trying for 10 minutes on the keypad to get into the room only to be told on ringing them 'ahh, yes we know theres a problem with that lock we will have to send you to the spares room for the manual key'. For the money I think the gear provided is reasonable quality and I like the option (when available) of recording the sessions to get half decent versions of songs in your particular band's keys and arrangements to either practice against at home or pass on to incoming bandmembers to get them up to speed (probably wouldnt use them as promotional material though). Thinking back to some of the utter shiteholes I've had to rehearse at in the past in dirtry, damp basement rooms that smell of mould and the gear's been practically held together with gaffer tape and string then Pirate are on another level altogether.

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used the one in Nottingham 3 times, about 3 years ago, like @kev b, had problems with the door code, every time we've not been able to get into the room with code they gave, wasted 15 minutes on the phone trying to get it reset and the equipment has never been what they promised, I had to use a keyboard amp, the last time we used it I took my own amp head.

But others have used it and said it's ok, so maybe we were just unlucky, it is cheap though, get discount when you first use it so get each member of the band to book it and you get multiple discounts

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The Leicester one was better in terms of consistency of gear and it being all present and correct but they have a problem with people being ticketed parking outside the studio itself and the car park they have arranged for people to use doesnt open early enough on Sundays for it to be of use to us so we relocated to Nottm brnach.

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I used one a couple of days ago.

A previous user had left some fairly valuable and easy-losable things in the room, so I got on the webchat (by phone) with someone at Pirate HQ. Ok, here's the code for the locker room. In there locker X is the lost property. Here's the combination for the padlock on that locker.

I got into the locker room ok. However the code for the padlock didn't work. Given it was home time for me and the turnaround of the webchat wasn't massively quick, I had to stash the lost property in the room somewhere and let them know. The last reply from HQ was slightly panicky, but there you go for not having anyone on site.

And don't ask my drummer about the kit quality. My Ashdown combo was ok but I set it all flat anyway.

 

 

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I’ve never used a Pirate Studio and seeing as the nearest location to me is 43 miles away in Digbeth it’s unlikely I will any time soon. A pity, because from the look of their website the facilities appear to be infinitely superior to the absolute dumps we practise in, through necessity and lack of any alternative. 
Interesting to see a few posts mentioning the lack of anyone on site; I don’t think I’ve ever rehearsed anywhere where there’s been someone there. Is that unusual? 

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16 hours ago, gjones said:

Luckily the parking at the Edinburgh one is fine. The rooms sound great and have decent equipment - no ancient TE bass amps or drum kits with dodgy hardware.

You've had a better experience at edinburgh than me then.  Last couple of rooms we've used (upstairs) the bass speaker has been badly distorted so I've had to use a guitar cab and the drums are worse than useless.  

AND why the hell can't they provide decent lighting?  I can't see any benefit rehearsing in near darkness. We've gone back to Stevenson college's Music Box round the corner. 

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We use the Nottingham one regularly. I have noticed recently that the equipment is starting to show its age, mics and leads particularly often need a spare getting from the store cupboard. Generally no complaints, its central, there's parking and it's better than any of the others I've used locally

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