A STUDIO is not a home without the people in it.
LOSTOSC is a recording studio in Leith, built as a place for music to live. It is a room where ideas turn into finished records, and is an address that The Muse knows how to find. But it has never been just a place. It is home to a vibrant, shifting community of musicians, producers and creative people who work here, rehearse here, build things here, or drop in to have a coffee and experience the Atmos listening environment.
In the building every day / 01
Dave Oscillation
Award-winning recording, mix, and mastering engineer (Gramophone, Opus Klassik) and record producer (SAMA)
Dave brings meticulous attention, a refined ear and technical precision to everything he works on. His work has drawn praise from Steve Reich, which is not a claim many engineers can make.
As well as being the technical brains of the operation, Dave writes and produces pop and alternative music with solo artists and groups, and is a classically-trained pianist.
In a previous life, he ran an electronics repair business (Lost Electronic, now under the careful stewardship of Campbell), and a number of the microphones and signal processing units in use here were built by him.
In the building every day / 02
Jack Elliot
Recording engineer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, release strategist
Jack works with artists to define what a record wants to be, to capture it properly, and to get it finished. Jack can also help you to get your records heard. His clients’ records have gone to radio, sync, and hundreds of playlists, including Apple Editorial and Nils Frahm.
Jack is a lifelong studio nerd and a working musician. As well as recording and mixing, he can play guitar, bass, keys or drums on your record, and help build the arrangements and textures you can already hear in your head. He has toured North America and Europe as a session bassist.
On the way to full-time music, Jack had a successful career as a lawyer and chartered accountant, giving him transferrable skills that artists often find very helpful.
BuILT BY FRIENDS
How the studio got here:
LOSTOSC was started by three friends with a couple of preamps, a few instruments and a dream. So it was that Dave, Jack and Fergus Cook built their first studio in 2015.
Our current is the third studio we’ve built. We outgrew the last, took on an empty industrial space in Leith, and built the latest ourselves, over about nine months in 2018. Walls, wiring, rooms, soundproofing, mistakes, do-overs and improvements: all of it. Dave led the build, ably assisted by his father (Papa Oscillation) and supported by two co-founders whose relationship with a table saw might be best described as enthusiastic.
The shape of our lives and work has changed since then; the studio has grown, developed and professionalised. However, the DIY, organic-growth, “if not us, then who?” attitude is still at the core of LOSTOSC’s DNA.
Co-founder / 03
Fergus Cook
Sound recordist and sound designer
A founder and instrumental part of the studio’s story, these days Fergus’ work takes him elsewhere. Since completing his Masters in Design in Sound for the Moving Image, he has worked primarily in audio for film: as a sound recordist and sound designer on acclaimed independent features, commercial advertising work, and his own projects.
He is still involved in life at LOSTOSC, but is around less than he once was. Without Fergus, there would be no LOSTOSC; and though his work takes him elsewhere, it remains home.
Work with us
It is a joy to have the story be part of more and more people’s stories. Tell us what you are working on and we will tell you how we can help.
The wider family
The studio has always been intended to benefit the community it exists in, rather than just its founders. Over the years it has been a working home to a rolling cast of musicians, producers and makers. We occasionally have new sub-letting spots open up, and have recently taken on a third space, creating a second mixing / mastering room. If you’d like to sublet solo time in one of our studios, please feel free to join our waitlist below.
Emma Lloyd
Violinist, violist, improviser and composer.
Proc Fiskal
Edinburgh producer and Hyperdub artist.
Bartek Lech
DJ, selector and Haptic resident.
Matt Belcher
DJ, promoter and EHFM co-founder.