Make it a retreat
Stay With Us.
Some records need a day. Others need to be lived in. Book a multi day block and the room stays yours from the first coffee to the last take, out where the loudest thing after dark is the river.
Why it works
Creativity does not run on an hourly clock.
Everybody knows the feeling of watching the time while the take is still not right. A retreat block removes it. The gear stays where you set it, the mics stay where they sound good, and you pick up tomorrow exactly where you stopped tonight.
Bands use it to cut an EP in a weekend. Rappers knock out a project without a commute breaking the flow. Writers come up alone with an acoustic and leave with eight songs and a plan. Stay two days or stay the week.
On longer blocks
Rates are negotiable once you get past a day or two. Tell us how long you want the room and what the project is, and we will work out a number that makes sense for both of us. If you need help sorting out where everybody sleeps, we do that too.
Where you actually are
Far enough to think. Close enough to get a sandwich.
The studio sits in the hills above New Milford, under ten minutes from the town green and Bank Street. Farms and river in one direction, a real downtown in the other. Quiet enough that the room stays quiet, not so remote that a coffee run turns into an expedition.
The area
Litchfield County, for the record.
This is genuinely what is around you. Farmland, covered bridges, the Housatonic, and a town that still closes its main street for a block party in the summer.
Where to sleep
Nobody is driving home at 1 a.m.
There is enough within ten minutes that a multi day block does not turn into a logistics problem. Tell us your dates and how many people, and we will help you sort it before you commit to anything.
The Homestead Inn
A New Milford inn that has been taking guests since 1928. Sixteen rooms across the main house and the Treadwell Annex. Walking distance to the green.
Rocky River Inn
Renovated rooms with views over the Housatonic. Straightforward, close, and comfortable.
Red Carpet Inn & Suites
The budget option, and pet friendly. River views, near Candlewood Lake. Rooms in town start around seventy dollars a night.
Airbnbs and lake houses
Litchfield County is full of them, and Candlewood Lake rentals are a short drive. Tell us your dates and we will point you at what actually works for a band.
We are not a booking agent and we take nothing from any of these. They are simply the places near us that work.
Where to eat
Session food, sorted.
Nothing kills momentum like a forty minute debate about lunch. These are the ones that get used.
Primo's Deli
38 Bridge StCheap, fast, and genuinely good. Burritos, Cubanos, and Caballitos. The default session lunch when nobody wants to stop for long.
River & Rail Cafe
21 Bank StSmall plates and lighter food downtown, for the day somebody decides a deli sandwich is not going to cut it.
Lucia
51 Bank StModern Italian on Bank Street. Where you go when the record is finished and somebody is buying.
The town green
New Milford centerOne of the longest greens in New England, ringed with places to eat that are not chains. Ten minutes from the door.
Between takes
What is waiting outside the door.
Sessions here tend to spill into the afternoon. There is enough within ten minutes to make that a feature rather than lost time.
Lover's Leap State Park
Minutes away, with the Housatonic running underneath it. Twenty minutes of walking fixes a bad take better than another hour of punching in.
Bank Street
A bookshop, a record-and-vintage kind of street, a cheese shop, an ice cream parlor, and the Bank Street Theater, a movie house that has been standing since 1902.
Live music down the road
The Abbey, O'Connor's Public House, and Fast Eddie's all run live music. New Milford also closes Bank Street for block parties with bands in the summer.
Farms and back roads
This is Litchfield County. Ten minutes in any direction is farmland, river, and not much cell service. That is the point.
A day here
Unhurried, then suddenly very productive.
Morning
Coffee and a slow start
Load in without a clock on you. Get sounds while the light is still coming through the trees, and let the first take be a warm up instead of a performance.
Afternoon
The work
This is where the record gets made. Beds, overdubs, vocals, whatever the day calls for. Break when the room tells you to, not when the meter does.
Evening
The good takes
Something loosens up after dinner. Most of our favorite vocals were cut somewhere between eight and midnight, when everyone stopped thinking about it.
Getting around
No car in the group? Uber and Lyft both run out here. It is a quiet corner of Connecticut, not the middle of nowhere. Once you are at the studio you will not need to move much anyway, which is the point.
Area photographs, in order: JustinMurphyIsCool (CC BY-SA 4.0) · HVIA1931 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Morrowlong (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Bob P. B. (CC BY 2.0) · CityLimitsJunction (CC0). Sourced from Wikimedia Commons and used under their respective licences. Studio photography is our own. Certified Entertainment Studios is not affiliated with any business named on this page.
Book the block, not the hour.
Tell us how many days you need and what you are making. We will hold the room, talk through the rate, and help you plan the rest of it.