CHARLOTTE’S premier
MUSIC RECORDING STUDIO
+ PHOTO & Video studio
Two professional music studios and a photography studio. World class sound. An experience you won’t find anywhere else in Charlotte — near uptown, built for artists at every level.
“Same walls as the original
Studio 1 - Abbey Road.
In Charlotte.”
✦ No experience required ✦ Easy online booking ✦ Bring your crew (max 5 people including artist)
Charlotte's Only Studio That Gives You All of This
✦ Two Music Studios + Photo & Video Studio
Record your music and shoot your press photos in the same visit.
✦ Offers Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Services
All your music production needs in one location. We can do it all.
✦ Live Special Effects While You Record
Hear custom sound effects in real time as you lay down your track.
✦ Beginners Welcome. Top Talent Treated Right.
We meet you exactly where you are, and help you go further.
✦ Lead Engineer Every Studio A Session
Jesse Samples personally engineers every Studio A booking.
✦ Shoot Amazing Videos with our Green Screen Backdrop
Make your videos come to life using our green screen backdrop in the photo & video studio.
✦ 16.7 Million Lighting Combinations
Set the vibe exactly how you want it. Every color, every mood.
✦ Near Uptown Charlotte
Conveniently located next to Bojangles Coliseum, Ovens Auditorium and The Health Club CLT.
THE acoustics
Samples Studios Was Built to Tell You the Truth About Your Sound
Most studios treat their rooms as an afterthought. We built ours from the ground up — combining professional custom acoustic treatments with 1950’s plaster walls and 1950’s solid oak flooring that most engineers would pay anything to record in.
The result is a recording room where what you hear is what you actually sound like
The standard every serious studio chases…
✦ Acoustic Monster Ceiling Bass Trap Clouds:
Eliminates vertical reflections overhead. Creates a reflection-free zone at the recording and mix position — rare at any studio price point.
✦ Acoustic 17” Soffit Corner Bass Traps:
Placed at peak pressure points in corners. Tight, defined low end. 808s, kick drums, and bass that translate accurately to every playback system. Unmatched performance across the frequency spectrum. It has been extensively tested in both laboratory and real-world rooms and is very effective in the 40Hz to 100Hz range. It also handles high frequencies smoothly, offering actual broadband performance from 40Hz to 5 kHz.
✦ Acoustic 6" Panels with 2D Diffusion — Front & Back Walls:
Two-dimensional diffusion breaks up sound waves in both axes simultaneously, enhancing diffusion without compromising performance. These panels scatter mids and highs while the panels beneath controlling bass frequencies. This dual-action performance creates a natural, balanced sound that’s accurate for mixing and looks amazing in selfies!
✦ Acoustic 6" Panels with 1D Diffusion — Side Walls:
Eliminates first reflections and provides comb filtering. Unlike plain porous absorbers that can leave a room sounding lifeless, Samples Studios uses custom panels to combine broadband absorption with integrated diffusion. This controls reflections, but preserves energy in the mids and highs while remaining effective bass traps. This hybrid approach keeps mixes accurate yet lively, delivering the best of both worlds.
✦ 1950's Plaster Walls:
Dense, hand-applied plaster — the same wall construction used on the original Abbey Road and Electric Lady Studios. Natural mass isolation and diffusion no modern material can replicate.
✦ 1950’s Solid Oak Hardwood Floors:
Old-growth oak provides controlled low-frequency warmth.
6" Panel Depth — treats lower midrange most studios ignore
4 Treated Surfaces — walls, ceiling, floors and corners all addressed
1950’s Plaster Walls & 1950’s Solid Oak Hardwoods — the same era and materials as the world's greatest studios
Zero Untreated Reflection Paths — at the recording position
"The same acoustic principles used at the original Abbey Road, Electric Lady, and Capitol Records studios
— in Charlotte, NC, at an accessible price point."
THREE STUDIOS. ONE DESTINATION
Studio A
Starting at $60/hr
✦ Lead engineer Jesse Samples
✦ Best sound quality & speed
✦ Premium Acoustic Treatments
✦ Premium Microphones & Speakers
✦ Live custom special effects
✦ Custom lighting — any color
✦ Friends welcome in session (5 max including artist)
✦ Best Choice for Top Talent & Beginners!
Photography Studio
Starting at $40/hr
✦ Professional portrait lighting (easy to use)
✦ Professional photo & video backdrops (white, black, and a green screen for videos)
✦ 16.7M+ color combinations
✦ Create your own album art & press photos with your photographer (even an iPhone looks amazing with our professional lighting and backdrops)
✦ Product & brand shoots with your photographer (even an iPhone looks amazing with our professional lighting and backdrops)
✦ Comfortable, creative environment
✦ Friends welcome in session (5 max including artist)
✦ Booking by the hour
Studio B
Starting at $60/hr
✦ Talented in-house engineer
✦ The original Samples sound
✦ Live custom special effects
✦ Custom lighting — any color
✦ Friends welcome in session (5 max including artist)
✦ Adds flexibility when Studio A is booked
“Same walls as the original Studio 1 - Abbey Road.
In Charlotte.”
Samples Studios has the same walls as the most revered recording rooms in history… the original Abbey Road, Capitol Records, Electric Lady Studios.
Strategically located music studio offering:
1950’s Plaster Walls:
Acoustic Advantages:
Less Coloration, Vibration. Better Natural Diffusion, Low Resonance: Extremely dense and heavy vs drywall. Mass is a key principal in wall acoustics. Most studios would need to spend tens of thousands to replicate what these walls do naturally… Natural diffusion and low resonance. The older style plaster process has so much mass it doesn’t vibrate sympathetically with sound frequencies like most typical studios that just use drywall. This means the room contributes less coloration to the recorded sound — what goes into the microphone is more accurately what the artist is actually producing.
1950’s Solid Oak Hardwood Flooring: Old growth wood from 1950’s — trees that grew slowly over decades have extremely tight, dense grain ring patterns compared to the fast grown and less dense woods used today. This was also the preferred flooring at the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium. The original Ryman Auditorium stage was made of oak planks. The oak stage used from 1951 until 2012 featured oak boards that witnessed performances by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline.
Acoustic Advantages:
Controls Reflection: Adds life and energy to a recording room. This is actually desired in a recording space. A completely dead room (all absorption, no reflection) sounds unnatural and is tiring to work in. The old hardwoods of 1950’s mixed with the 1950’s Plaster walls blends to add a natural “air” and brightness that acoustic engineers deliberately design for and spends tens of thousands of dollars trying to replicate.
Bass Coupling: 1950’s solid wood doesn’t flex or resonate at low frequencies. This give the low end of recordings a tighter, more controlled character. Especially important for Hip-Hop, R&B, and Rap where bass is central to the vibe.
Low Frequency Control: The combination of old dense wood floors and old plaster of paris walls creates a room that handles bass frequencies more predictably than modern lightweight studio construction. This means that what Jesse hears in the room is closer to what will translate to speakers and headphones outside the room — the standard every serious studio chases!
Natural Warmth Factor: Old growth oak has a warmth and resonance characteristic that adds subtle coloration to the acoustic environment in a pleasant way. Many engineers describe rooms with these old hardwoods as having a “woody warmth” that you simply can’t manufacture with today’s newer materials.
-
Studio A
Experience the best sound quality & fastest recording speed with our Lead Engineer, Jesse Samples. This is the best option for top talent & beginners.
Enjoy listening to your customized special-effects live while recording. If you’d like, your friends can hear it, too!
(Choose any color combo for the lights in the room to set your vibe)
-
Studio B
While Studio B is second to Studio A, it’s based on the original equipment that started our “Samples Studios” signature experience. It’s enjoyed as an extra option with one of our talented engineers when Studio A is already booked.
Enjoy listening to your customized special-effects live while recording. If you’d like, your friends can hear it, too!
(Choose any color combo for the lights in the room to set your vibe)
-
Photography Studio
The perfect place to capture a portrait, advertise a product, or showcase your talent in a very comfortable environment. Each of our professional lights can produce 16.7+ million different colors, which we combine to make your visuals look the way you want them to look.
Professional photography backdrops (white, black, green screen)
Frequently Asked Questions
-
If you're looking for the best recording studio in Charlotte NC, Samples Studios near uptown offers something no other Charlotte studio can match: 1950’s original plaster walls and 1950’s solid oak hardwood floors — the same construction found at the original Abbey Road and Electric Lady Studios — combined with professional acoustic treatment including Bass Trap Clouds and Soffit Corner Bass Traps, and Neumann Microphones. Add Pro Tools-certified lead engineer Jesse Samples on every Studio A session, starting at $60/hr, and you have a professional studio environment that's accessible to every artist at every level. Book online at SamplesStudios.com
-
No experience is needed to book at Samples Studios in Charlotte, NC. We welcome first-time recording artists just as warmly as industry veterans. Jesse Samples personally engineers every Studio A session and will guide you through the entire process — from microphone technique to playback — so you can focus entirely on your performance. Many of our most memorable sessions have been first-timers who walked in nervous and left with something they're genuinely proud of. If you can bring the lyrics and the energy, we'll handle everything else.
-
Mixing is the process of balancing all the individual elements of a recorded track — vocals, instruments, effects — so they sound cohesive and professional together. Mastering is the final step that optimizes the mixed track for distribution across all playback systems (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, car speakers, earbuds) so it sounds consistent everywhere. Both are essential for a release-ready song, and both are available at Samples Studios in Charlotte, NC. You can record, mix, and master your track in one visit, or bring a previously recorded track for mixing and mastering only. Text (704) 614-4473 to discuss your project.
-
Samples Studios is one of Charlotte NC's premier hip hop recording studios, with a room specifically designed to deliver the tight, defined low end that hip-hop, R&B, and rap demand. Our 1950s solid oak hardwood floors and 1950’s plaster walls provide natural bass coupling and warmth, while our professional Soffit Corner Bass Traps ensure 808s, kick drums, and bass lines translate accurately to every playback system — from club speakers to earbuds. Lead engineer Jesse Samples has recorded and produced over a thousand songs, with deep expertise in hip-hop and R&B production. Studio A starts at $60/hr.
-
Yes. Samples Studios offers recording, mixing, and mastering all under one roof in Charlotte, NC. You can record your session, have it mixed and mastered, and shoot your press photos or videos all in one visit — making us the only studio in Charlotte where you can walk in with an idea and walk out with a release-ready track and the visuals to go with it. Ask about our bundle packages and monthly subscription member discounts when you book.
-
Samples Studios is located near uptown Charlotte, NC — conveniently situated next to Bojangles Coliseum, Ovens Auditorium, and The Health Club CLT making us easy to reach from Uptown, NoDa, South End, University City, Ballantyne, Concord, Waxhaw, Fort Mill and Rock Hill. Parking is available on site. Exact address and directions are provided upon booking confirmation. For current availability and hours, visit our online booking page at SamplesStudios.as.me or text us at (704) 614-4473