PIRATE.COM - Rehearsal Studios Avis 

It’s dismaying to see some people’s negative reviews.

Take the person from Glasgow for example who said he couldn’t record because he could hear the band next door. Did this person book a Rehearsal room which I highly suspect.

They should have booked a recording studio, Pirate has both.

Do you really expect a block of rehearsal rooms to completely block out the noise of loud bands.

Maybe you know turn your own amps up and practice, record when you are in a Studio not in a practice room.

If we didn’t have Pirate studios musicians would have to pay huge amounts of money to rent professional studios out and bands would have to pay exhorbitant fees for rehearsal rooms.

Just record in your bedroom the guy from Glasgow said, maybe instead be a bit more sociable and join in the fun, accept everyone’s creativity is different but still legitimate. Everyone is at different stages with their music.

If you seriously prefer your bedroom then Pirate isn’t for you ha!

Absolutely awful.
I went into a Pirate Studio in Glasgow to do some recordings of vocals and acoustic guitars. I couldn't record anything at all because all I could hear was the terrible band next door murdering Smells Like Teen Spirit amongst other kiddy-covers.

The studios are not sound treated - they're only made to look like they are. I could honestly hear the band in the next studio almost like they were playing right next to me.

Pirate Studios might seem like a good deal, but you don't actually get anything for your money. My spare room is a much superior recording studio and it's barely sound treated at all.

It seems they are quite used to offering refunds if the studio isn't up to scratch, but make sure they pay you for your transport to and from the studio if you find yourself in the same position as me.

If you want a studio experience that's more than just messing about in a pretend studio, go somewhere else.

Avoid at all costs and use your bedroom instead. You could live in a warzone and still have a quieter experience than at Pirate.

good concept but very poorly executed and a virtually non existent customer services and site managers are very poor at their jobs. after having issues with a speaker i was told its blown and to move studios. in the rush of moving i left my laptop charger behind. i contacted live chat who told me to fill in a form and the site manager will contact me. i filled the form in a month ago and no one has contacted me. terrible customer services, even non existent. been here twice now and ive lost time on my booking due to technical issues and access door issues, its a shame this concept is so poorly run

I went to rehearse with some friends, and honestly the place was never hoovered and was smelling. The toilets were in terrible state as well. I cannot understand the logic of just getting a space, throw an old drums in and some speakers and just expect to get paid without ever giving a thing again. If you want to have a business, then take care of it.

I find them unwilling to help out or break away from their rigid policies when a customer needs support. Not very human, empathetic or kind customer service. I’m put off by ever booking there again as they have done nothing to help me in both customer service chats last night or this morning.

Greenwich Pirate - negatives: 1) Poor lighting is a pain when setting up. 2) Only one mic, stand and cable. There was a 2nd broken mic. Couldn’t get a replacement as not allowed to borrow from unused studio and nothing in the spares room. 3) Large studios are not large - ok for 6 piece band maybe but not the 9 people they say. 4) Toilets are absolutely disgusting. 5) Studios are not soundproofed by a long way. There’s a lot of bleed.

Positives: 1) PA / amps were decent 2) Parking is very good. 3) Close to Sainsbury’s / M&S if hungry. 4) Location suits my spread out band!

Overall, we'll probably use again just because the location suits & parking is good. If it were cheaper I'd be less bothered but actually the price is no better than other, better rehearsal studios we use.

The studio itself is fine just DON’T leave anything behind- if you do, you’re not getting it back, as I found out the hard way. Left a pair of headphones in the Leeds studios and filled out a lost property form same day, after 5 days of silence I messaged again, and found nobody had even been to check. Went to check myself and the headphones had been stolen. Don’t recommend- would go somewhere with a proper front desk/staff instead.

Top Räumlichkeiten !

I've used Pirate studios a few times and while I've had some good sessions, I've also had a lot of problems with equipment and room. I'd say about half of the PA systems only have one channel working but it's such a faff to report on the app it's a waste of rehearsal time. I've also had faulty amps and air con not working (with 7 people in a room that was horrific but we simply had to rehearse so we had to carry on). My last experience was really bad though and this is what I wrote: I arrived 15 minutes late for my booking, my bandmates got there on time and were setting up but by the time I’d arrived it took me and it took me another ten minutes to get set up and when I did I found the bass amp provided in the room was faulty - it was too quiet and distorted. I called the number on the wall and spoke to Marco but he said I’d have to put it to customer support on WhatsApp. By the time I’d done this it was getting on for 17:42 and it took another 20 minutes of back and forth for the person on the phone to agree I had a problem.

What I wanted was a working amp - we were set up and had limited time and didn’t really even want to decamp to another room, but I was told there weren’t any spare rooms available and there weren’t any spare amps I could have and there was nobody available to help. This is really not acceptable. You had a complex completely booked out and you didn’t have anyone onsite? You don’t have a kit room with, say, a snare, a guitar amp and a bass amp in case of failure? All it’d take would be a cupboard and a code on the door for goodness sake.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve been at a Pirate space when kit has gone wrong and I’ve had to change rooms, I’ve also used spaces where the the air con isn’t working and that’s absolute hell when you’re 7 people in a room, but this is the first time it’s happened with MY booking and I’m not prepared to accept this level of customer service. Here’s what I’d like:
A credit note for last night’s booking - a 20% discount is an insult. I’ll give you one more try but after yesterday I’m not risking paying for it.
Employ more humans for god’s sake. When you’ve got a facility totally booked have a person onsite, even if you need to charge a bit more I’d pay it for the security of knowing there’s help available. And make it so your team can solve problems when on the phone instead of just by WhatsApp text - it’s infuriating and has never solved a problem when I’ve had issues at Pirate
Have some spare backline, even if it’s in a remote-locked cupboard - you can just give people access when they need to swap over faulty kit and monitor it with CCTV.
They responded saying the the bass amp sounded loud enough on the WhatsApp message. This is ridiculous - phones compensate for audio so you simply can't tell by listening to an audio clip that's been shared in this way how loud it is. They also said it'd be too expensive to employ people - this isn't creditable as I've used plenty of rehearsal rooms that have actual people onsite and they're around the same price. Pirate also said they'd had equipment stolen when they'd given access to the store room, but surely they could build cupboards with a single piece of kit in for situations like this? Just big enough for a bass amp or guitar amp or even snare drum? I find their approach very much exploiting the fact that when you're at a rehearsal you can't really do anything other than put up with the situation and that's why I'm leaving this review. By all means, use Pirate but know that if anything goes wrong (and there's a good chance it will) they won't be able to do anything about it.

Probably the worst rehearsal place in Glasgow. Mediocre equipment, awful sounding rooms, no real isolation between rooms. So if you’re rehearsing you are hearing every note of every other band around you. They also have ‘production rooms’ which are as much of a joke - what’s the point in recording in a space where you are just going to record the sound of everyone around you? If they were cheap maybe it would work but they really aren’t. There’s loads of other studios in Glasgow with Actual Human Beings running them, go use them!

be carefull the service is very bad and they dont help if you stuck with anything

Booked a session, it gets cancelled 4 hours later no explanation, no credit refunded, then told it cant be refunded to card. Told it is a security issue with studio, then something else, then told those that made the decision work mon-fri 9-5 yet the booking was made outside this session. The support team unproductive and very little help regarding SAR or any other data protection for people with special needs or learning difficulties. Not happy at all

I’m extremely angry to have received a parking ticket from Pirate’s parking supplier Parkingeye. Pirate’s has a policy apparently that whoever is sent the confirmation email with booking details has to tell the rest of the band and singers (if they remember to), that their vehicles have to be registered. Instead of having decent and well displayed parking signs expressing this information, they would rather punish you for using their studios.

Notting-hill Pirate studios!!! i have been hit with a unfair parking fine. When i called pirate studios, they said there was nothing they could do. But i had to do all the leg work and get the details of the original confirmation email from the person it was sent to. The thing is I’m a session musician, i don’t know who it was sent to and there was about 25 people in that session. I only know the artist’s name Its a terrible policy and completely unfounded. There were no signs displaying this and if there was i would have NEVER parked on Pirates
premises. It was a late session, dark, and poorly lit area anyway. Parking registration signs needed to be places somewhere more obvious (like the front gate before entering), what you are currently doing is scamming people out of their hard earned money, who are trying to have the escape of music and provide your company with business! Only for you to kick your customers in the teeth with a parking fine. Disgusting!!! The decent thing to do is to cancel my ticket and get parking signs up and stop hiding that registration requirement!

Everyone is always so helpful when I use the pirate studios WhatsApp chat! Thank you for always accommodating me. You guys rock.

For the most part the studios I have visited have been okay. As mentioned in a lot of reviews here, the gear is sometimes faulty - but that’s what you get with unmanned spaces so to be expected to a certain extent.

However, I (accidentally) double booked a session due to a glitch on the website and could only refund this in the form of credit. I don’t use pirate often but figured it would come in useful in the future. Just logged in to use it and I have found out that they wipe any credit you have in your account after only 3 months!! Considering musicians are hard up against it as it is, this just feels opportunistic. Incredibly disappointed and for this reason I won’t be returning.

Best customer service by Roberto in Camden’s pirate studios.
Super helpful, offered me coffee and helped with cables, all with a big smile on his face. Give this man a raise!!!

I’ve been using pirate studios for a few years now, although the equipment may sometimes be slightly used and show some signs of wear and tear, the support team are always there to help 24/7 and they’re a pleasure to deal with. Never had any complaints.

Hallo Leute,

Ich habe gestern meine erste Studiozeit bei pirate.com verbracht.
Wollte dort zum einen die Räumlichkeiten und technische Ausstattung ansehen bzw. testen sowie zum anderen gleich ein paar Sprachaufnahmen für ein Hörspielprojekt machen.

Hier mein Erfahrungsbericht:

Anreise: die war leider sehr schwierig.
Laut Internetseite befindet sich das Gebäude in der Griegstraße 75.
Die Adresse läßt sich dort aber nicht finden, denn die Einfahrt befindet sich im Friesenweg.
An der Straße (große Hinweistafel) und auf dem gesamten Gewerbehof gibt es keine Ausschilderungen zu pirate.com.
Das Gebäude auf dem Gelände hat die Hausnummer Friesenweg 26a/32a (Gebäuderückseite)!
Dort gibt es eine kleine Tafel mit pirate.com am Türeingang.
Ohne google.maps hätte ich die Studios wohl kaum gefunden.
Parkplätze sind leider Mangelware. Und das bei über 30 Raumeinheiten! Kosten wohl zu viel.
Die internen Hinweistafeln zu den einzelnen Räumen sind gut gemacht.
Alles läßt sich schnell finden und das Öffnen der Türen mit den Pin-Codes funktioniert sofort.

Technische Ausstattung:
Diese ist zwar nicht auf höchstem Niveau, dem Preis und für normale Anwendungen angemessen. (Lautsprecher, Mikrofon, Audiointerface)
Ein Lesepult oder einen Notenständer gibt es im Aufnahmeraum leider nicht. Schade.
Also: mitbringen. Man hat wohl Angst vor Diebstahl.
Immerhin: es gibt eine Klimaanlage, die man allerdings wärend der Aufnahme ausschalten sollte.

Studio:
Das von mir gebuchte Studio (23) ist, wie die anderen auch, relativ klein, aber ausreichend.
Der Aufnahmeraum ist schon eng, aber für eine Person (Sprecher/Sänger) ok.
Die raumeigene Akustik ist gut bzw. relativ trocken. Gefällt mir.
Allerdings gibt es zwischen Regieraum und Aufnahmeraum keine Tür!
Nur ein Vorhang trennt die Räume voneinander…
So hat man bei Aufnahmen die Geräusche des Regieraums (Gespräche etc.) immer leise mit in der Aufnahme. Nicht professionell.
Und: es gibt kein Talkbackmikrofon in der Regie. Um dem Sänger/Sprecher Hilfestellung zu geben, muß man entweder in den Nebenraum rüberrufen oder ein eigenes Talkback mitbringen!

Aufnahmen:
Die Aufnahmequalität mit der vorgegebenen technischen Ausstattung ist in Ordnung.
Standard, aber kein High End. Also wie erwartet.
Aber: meine Sprachaufnahmen konnte ich leider nicht realisieren!
Im angrenzenden Raum (Studio 21 oder 20) probte gerade ein Drummer!!!
Seine Drums (besonders seine Bassdrum) waren in Studio 23 sehr laut mitzuhören und die Aufnahme damit völlig unbrauchbar.
Obwohl die Räume 20/21 laut Lageplan als Studios ausgewiesen sind, war die Raumbezeichnung and deren Tür: Proberaum!
Hätte ich das gewußt, hätte ich sicherlich nicht Studio 23 gebucht, sonder einen Raum ohne angrenzenden Probenraum (z.B. Studio 30-34)! Dort wäre es hoffentlich ruhig gewesen.
Die akustische Trennung der einzelnen Einheiten ist also nicht professionell realisiert.
Somit ist ein Nebeneinander von Aufnahmestudio und Proberaum eigentlich undenkbar.
Den Preis für meine Buchung müßte ich eigentlich zurückfordern.

Ich werde wohl noch mal eine Testsession buchen müssen.
Eigentlich hatte ich 15-20 Tagesbuchungen oder mehr pro Jahr für Sprachaufnahmen (Hörbuch, Hörspiel) angedacht, da mein eigenes Studio außerhalb Hamburgs liegt.
Ob das etwas wird? Mal sehen…

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Laurence at pirate was extremely helpful and considerate in helping me register, verify and book a room for our first practice, thanks! 🙂

The company's customer service is abysmal, and their practices are riddled with fraud. £50 has been illicitly charged to my credit card.

Following the end of my studio session last Saturday, I received an email from their security department, alleging that one of my party members interfered with a CCTV. Regrettably, there exists no substantiating evidence for this claim and nor were provided when requested. Consequently, my account was summarily erased / deleted from their website by Pirate Studios, and their services were retracted.

A mere 24 hours later, a Pirate Studios employee unilaterally accessed my personal information and payment details, resurrecting my account without my consent or acceptance to their terms and conditions. This maneuver served only to facilitate an unauthorized charge to my credit card, under the pretense of a penalty fee for which no proof was ever provided. Taking the timeline of events into consideration, encompassing my account's deletion and the unsanctioned use of my private information for financial gain, it becomes apparent that these actions exemplify fraudulent behavior. The mishandling of sensitive personal data during this ordeal further underscores a breach of GDPR regulations.

I've already lodged a formal complaint with the Pirate Studios CEO, and I intend to seek a chargeback from my credit card provider. Furthermore, I am committed to reporting this GDPR violation to the ICO.

EDIT 23/10/2023: To this day no evidence of any tampering was provided to me. This should have been provided prior to charging my card as this makes your practices fraudulent. Screenshots I provided you clearly say my account was deleted (by you) therefore your right to use my personal or financial data was void and only way for you to seek any financial reimbursement from me is by going through civil court case not by opening new or reopening old account without my consent. In fact it was confirmed by my bank during chargeback process who took my side and dismissed your counter claims. Therefore this review has accurately represented your company fraudulent practices, it has also proved how shocking your customer service is and how keen you are to steal people's money without providing any evidence whatsoever for the alleged CCTV tampering.