PIRATE.COM - Rehearsal Studios Reviews 817

I travelled an hour on a bus and then walked 30 minutes (on my birthday 😂) because I need to get some pre masters sent off ASAP.

I arrived to a broken chair, a broken sofa and hissing HS8’s (very loud white noise). Plug my stuff in as usual to hear them totally locked at full volume, I mean literally locked. I could have burst an ear drum or gotten tinnitus from how loud it was.

And I’m not talking about the audio interface dial being turned up because it was barely half way up, and the first thing I did when the sound blasted out was turn it fully down. The volume did not change one bit when I turned it down. Fully turned down, the volume coming from the speakers was still maxing out. Basically a major issue with it.

The pirate rules & regulations printed on the door clearly state to call a number asap because they have replacements on site. The words we will replace it ‘fast’ was even included 😂. This is clearly not the case… because it is a total lie. I even sent a picture of this statement to their WhatsApp assistance and they said they couldn't do that.

So why are they writing this on their door? 🤦‍♂️

An hour and a half of very slow back and forth came to no conclusion. My session would have been over by the time we got it sorted, so I just had to leave and take a refund instead. Absolutely nothing accomplished, just many hours wasted.

They even sent me a webpage with trouble shooting info, and the link to the one page that might have helped 'reset your interface' was a broken webpage!!!!!

To top it all off, there were people booked in after me for a 4 hour session (I know this because they told me on WhatsApp). And we know what happened to those people don’t we…They will have spent the first hours of their session trying to get things working properly.

The most worrying part is that Pirate are totally aware of their client base. (Skint beginner musicians that need working equipment, generally trying to complete something for a deadline). And despite this, they put zero care into ensuring the studios are ready and working in between sessions.

I will sadly never use pirate again due to this. I simply cannot risk half a day of my life venturing across a city to a studio room that may or may not work. It’s too risky.

I literally can’t trust a business model that can’t guarantee the thing I’m travelling for and paying for will be working (like what are you even doing guys, isn't that step one of every business in the world? Make sure the thing you are selling actually works?)

My hope with this review is not to aimlessly moan. My hope is that they actually do something about it for everyone else's sake.

15 minute check in between every session. Cannot believe this isn't standard procedure.

** UPDATE

They didn't even refund me like I asked. They credited my account for £2.50 less than what I paid.

I paid £28 and got a credit of £25.50 on my Pirate account after wasting money on buses and all of that wasted time.

** UPDATE 2

Emailed them like they asked me to below but they didn't respond.

Awesome!

Easy to book, quick and helpful service, and had a ton of fun using the CDJs :) Would definitely come back.

Their booking system is horrendous. Accidentally, I booked a room at the time and day I was given by default (right there and then) which already started from 6pm even though, I only managed to book it at 7pm, my bad admittedly as I wanted a to book a different day, as I immediately saw this mistake I contacted the person who was attending the chat but I was told me that there was nothing they could do about it as the booking already begun.
£51 of nada.
Last message I received was "Is there anything else we can help you with???"

The sound from the ear phones and speakers kept going in and out! We couldn’t record and wasted 2 hours of frustration. Not coming back here! Certainly won’t recommend this place to anyone!

I have used Pirate Studios two times in Berlin, and I have had very different experiences in both of them. In the first one, no problem, great equipment, sound system, and there was a slight problem with the AC. I contacted them about it and they offered one hour for free and a discount for the next session in exchange for the problem. Well done, appreciated it.

Next time I booked, my booking was cancelled 5 minutes in the time slot even before I arrived to the place. The guys that were previously using the room continued to be there out of their time slot and they were throwing a party. I was cancelled because of them. I called Customer Service TWICE and they told me after 10 minutes-long phone calls that there would not be a problem. The booking still was not reinstated. I called again and another person told me I would have to file that complaint to another department by e-mail, and they would review it in days. So I lost my money for the time being. I had already lost 2 hours of my time too.
Also, I have to say that after filing a very long e-mail complaint, I was contacted back about 5 days later and the money was sent back to my credit card and I was given a very substantial refund, so I appreciate the last gesture.

Great everything at your fingertips and easy to deal with. Will be our new permanent home for music

We had initially booked a room without cymbals but our drummer forgot to bring them. We got in touch with the customer service on WhatsApp via the number provided in the room (very convenient) and got assistance right away. The person helping us was able to find another room that had the equipment we needed within seconds. Our original booking was cancelled and we were able to book the new room with the credit we were given. Our evening was saved thanks to this 5 star customer service! Many, many thanks again!!

I'm a fairly frequent customer of Pirate Studios. I've attended both the Notting Hill DJ Studio and the Earlsfield Recording Studio many times. The equipment doesn't always work perfectly, which is to be expected with their unmanned 24h space business model, but customer support is always willing to help and make it right. My reason for this review is due to my current experience. The booking system on their website has messed up my booking date, which would've made me lose my booking, however Pete on the Whatsapp support chat (massive shoutout) has been able to refund my credit and let me fix my booking. This does mean a lot, especially from a big company.

Good service and good session
Great creative space

I just find it confusing, not very ethical and a bit immature of whoever’s involved in their management… Dalston Rehearsal Studio is a different studio, that’s their domain name, why would Pirate Studio call themselves with the name of a neighbouring business who have been there for years before them? Let alone the difference in quality, Pirate is like McDonalds and Dalston Rehearsal Studio is like a nice nice restaurant!

I always use the Whatsapp number to get help on bookings or damaged equipment.

Always fast replies, and give you the help you need.

The bathroom was unusable it was so dirty. Absolutely disgusting. Which also makes me think you’re not doing any Corona cleaning or precautions. I won’t be practicing here again.

Room was cancelled last minute with credit offered instead of refund. Musicians had already begun travelling from opposite ends of the country to attend the rehearsal.

Wasn’t made aware that alternative rooms were available an hour later.

When I finally arrived to an alternative room. Room 11, salford (the premium, most expensive room in the building) it was in such a state that it took almost 90 mins (half of the session) to get the sound set up. Leads everywhere, leads missing, on stage monitors were very crackly, power lead for one of the monitors missing, Snare skin was worn past being usable.

The room was advertised as having adjustable, coloured lighting which we were intending to use for recording footage.

Unsure if the footage will actually be useable as the state of the room in said footage is bordering on embarrassing and may be damaging to not only my brand, but also Pirates.

I’m not a high maintenance artist in comparison to a lot of my peers, I simply expect what was advertised and what I had paid for - a premium industry standard rehearsal space. This was not what was on offer and that is not acceptable.

Will be advising all musician friends not to use this site as it was a total waste of my money and more importantly mine and my musicians’ time.

For the first time, I booked a larger room for a group rehearsal. I specifically chose one with seating for the singers and that would accommodate us dancing as well. The ONLY way to determine that is by using the photos you have posted online. When I got to the facility, the room was NOTHING like that online. There is ZERO seating for anyone except the drummer. The room is FILTHY. To make matters even worse, the help number on the door is out of service, which was confirmed by Pete, who I had to wait six minutes to chat with through your online “chat now” system. I am infuriated and have no choice but to stay here for this rehearsal, because I have coordinated multiple schedules. I want a full and complete refund and for you to update the photos on your site so that others aren’t bamboozeled!!

Pirate been brilliant for the short term turn around with me finding a spot to finalise mastering. In the event any technical problems live in the room the team are good to go and at hand to deliver live support.

They're a long stay for myself and provide the right things so long as you know what you need and are not unprofessional and flakey going about things.

This location must be the worst Pirate studios in Europe. There is never toilet paper, the toilet is clogged with what toilet paper there was. There is rarely soap which is extremely unhygienic considering people are touching equipment for hours and use the washroom several times in that time. The kitchen sink has been flooded for days so you can’t even access water to drink. The place is filthy. The AC is always broken so after a few hours hours you are boiling in the small room. The coat hooks are broken and there is nowhere to put your things in a room supposedly for 5 people with 5 coats. Often knobs on the mixer are loose or completely broken. It is absolutely ridiculous how poorly managed this venue is considering how expensive it is to use the equipment - something which is supposed to facilitate a livelihood for many artists.

I love that they finally have an on site guy that can help with any queries.

Don is GREAT. Very helpful. Also though, this is not the place to record in my opinion there isn't soundproofing... Great for practice but you can hear everyone else's instruments.

I have visited Pirate Studios in Birmingham 5 times with a new band I’ve joined.

We usually go on a Sunday morning which is quiet and studio 14 is a great rehearsal space when everything is working.

Last two occasions we have had issues with equipment.

Problem is it is unmanned which seems like a good concept as you can access the studio 24/7 which is great. Problem is when something technical goes wrong there is no way to resolve it.

Last night we attended (Thursday 7-9pm which isn’t our usual rehearsal time)

I was shocked how much of a dive the studio becomes after 6pm.

I walked past a group of youths all smoking weed outside the main entrance doors (doesn’t usually bother me but these were youths all hoodied up. Not your typical rocker whose abit of a pot head). Our singer bought his 9 year old son to come along and watch live music so i thought this was abit shocking this was allowed to happen.

I also walked past 3 hoodied youths drinking with one vomiting thinking he was dying with his friends laughing at him drinking.

Tried to ignore it as we just wanted to rehearse.

Got into our usual studio 14 and found that we had no power to the sockets. We rang customer help and the advisor said they can’t do anything as it requires a technician. We offered to flip the breaker back on if they told us where it was but they couldn’t allow us to do that (fair enough I totally understand).

We were told we can either get a refund for the session and head home or we can accept a considerably smaller room with our rehearsal payment reimbursed for the inconvenience.

We accepted this and carried out our rehearsal in the smaller room as we came a long way as most of us are in Dudley/wolverhampton.

Our keyboard player who booked the room had an email this morning to say we will not be refunded for the rehearsal as mentioned on the phone.

Considering we were having to accept a major downgrade to what we booked and put up with all the youths doing drugs and drinking in gangs of hoodies everywhere we thought this was an unbelievable resolution to abit of a crap evening.

I think the studio needs to look into manning the complex with security and an on hand technician At the very least.

We enjoy using the studio on a Sunday morning but it would be nice to have the option to use it if an evening without it being used as a youth centre and the rooms being check after each have been used to ensure everything is working correctly.

I think the management need to look into the behaviour of an evening when the sun goes down as I wouldn’t bring my kids anywhere near the place of an evening.

We have unfortunately decided to attend our rehearsal booked in a weeks time (only because we feel we won’t get refunded due to this mornings email) and then look for another studio to use instead.