I, and others, compose and record in a fully soundproofed and air-conditioned building at the rear of my house in south west London. I rather like it.
The studio itself is a very pleasant brand new room containing my trusty 20 yr old Young Chang baby grand piano, a Mac Pro running Logic Pro 9 with a whole host of wonderful software instruments including the Vienna Symphonic Library, plus a host of microphones, com-pressors and external synth modules and keyboards. There's also my Yamaha bass guitar and some comfy chairs, with two pairs of monitors (by PMC and Tannoy) powered by a chunky power amp and Yamaha mixer.
Generally these days, everything gets recorded to hard disk and despite not using them, I do have a DAT machine for my archive and for occasional backup, plus some of my ancient recordings can be brought back to life from their original ADAT 8 track recordings if I wire up the ADAT machine if needed! Mostly though it's the Mac and its hard disks which get the job done.
I run Logic Pro with Peak Pro for two track editting, though must be said Apple's Soundtrack Pro comes in handy too. For video editting, and several pop videos have been shot in the studio already including these by Jake Benson namely (1) and (2). I use Final Cut Pro and iMovie from Apple.
Depending on who may be asking, the studio is occasionally available for hire provided feet are wiped. See contact page for how to get in touch here.
Oh. And the coffee's good.