The Cutting Room Recording Studios was opened in 1995 by owner David Crafa. The company is currently located in Greenwich Village, Manhattan NYC. Consisting of two fully equipped audio rooms, and multiple leasable spaces, The Cutting Room has remained one of the leaders in the music industry for 19 years. Services offered at The Cutting Room include tracking, recording, mixing, mastering, music production, voice-over sessions, and remote connections via ISDN, phone patch, and Skype.
History
David Crafa started The Cutting Room studios while he was still a student at New York University in a loft space on West 25th Street. The first official studio location was in a leased space on the fifth floor at 678 Broadway. The studios are now located at 14 East 4th street in the historic building now known as The Silk Building. The building is zoned for working artists and formally housed Tower Records flagship retail space, Island Records, and V2 Records. Historically, Hip-Hop artists have been some of The Cutting Room's more successful and commercially recognized work. Artists such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Dead Prez have called the studio home.
Many notable producers and engineers in the music industry, got their start or were employed by The Cutting Room, including Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze. He started as an intern and moved his way to night manager and lead producer. Just Blaze's beats were used in hip hop productions in the late 90s and early 2000s, including Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia and The Blueprint. Hit producer Mike Mangini worked on many of his biggest projects at The Cutting Room including work with David Byrne, Bruce Hornsby, Digable Planets, Baha Men. Ben H Allen got his start as Assistant Engineer at The Cutting Room and has since gone on to produce for Gnarls Barkley, Christina Aguilera, Animal Collective, and the Kaiser Chiefs. Some former staff have made it full circle, including super producer Mike Elizondo who started as an intern at The Cutting Room, and years later returned to mix Regina Spektor's album in Studio A in 2010.
The Cutting Room has partnered with KEXP radio to provide space and technology for artists to connect their live performances with listeners around the world. Over the course of the partnership The Cutting Room has hosted the radio station's NYC in-studio performances including The National, Yeasayer, Animal Collective, The xx, Phoenix, and Mark Lanegan. The Cutting Room donates all studio time and services to KEXP as part of a larger effort to give back to the local music community they have been immersed in for the last 15 years.