The Studio

"How can less be more? More... is more!" - Yngwie Malmsteen

Who is The Panic Room?

The Panic Room was founded by Thomas "Plec" Johansson in 2001 where the main focus of the studio resided in the black arts of mastering.... since that's pretty much what no one else on the local scene knew how to do. And, it seemed quite cool!

The studio was branded "Criteria Mastering" and a lot of electronica and metal oriented projects came through at the time. After a couple of years it became apparent that the success of any given project was not just up to proper mastering. So in order to help artists improve their overall production quality, focus also started to take place on the mixing side of things. As time went by this as well proved to be only one piece of the puzzle.

In 2004 "Panic-Room Productions" started to take shape with the ultimate goal to work with artists during the entire production process, all the way from arranging to mastering.

Success!

People showed up from all walks of life. Metal, EDM, Pop/Country, Electronica, Rock etc..

After many years of experience and multiple grammy, platinum and gold awards we still feel like we've just got started!

Today, Panic-Room Productions or "The Panic Room" as it's credited, is now offering some of the best facilities and gear known to man for creating music and maximizing production quality. Add to that a huge network of musicians and professionals around the world, and there's really nothing that's impossible for us to accomplish.


What's in The Panic Room?

We have one dedicated Mixing Studio, and a separate Mastering Suite.

For recording of larger projects we work with Studio Gröndahl in Stockholm run by master producers David Castillo (Ghostward) and Jens Bogren (Fascination Street Studios) also Nordic Sound Lab in Skara which are both residential studios.

Mastering Suite

The mastering suite is where it all began at one point. Built in 2001 and has since seen quite a few changes in gear, acoustics and monitoring. Today it's a hybrid system making use of the very best of analog and digital processing.

With a full spectrum of processing capabilitites going from pure to colored signal paths all captured in their full glory by the very best AD/DA conversion known to man by Lavry Engineering, the possibilities are endless.

For monitoring we run PMC MB3 XBD-A's

Equipment List View Gallery

Mixing Studio

The mixing studio is designed by Swedish acoustician Johan Jernstedt and houses the latest generation SSL Duality Delta 48ch console in conjunction with a no compromise, custom built "Lindell Audio" MM24-monitoring system with speakers and power amps designed by master producer/mixer and pro audio engineer Mr. Tobias Lindell (Serial #001-002). Yes, these will blow your head clean off if that's what you're going for. Doesn't help that the monitor gain on the SSL goes to "11" either... geeeez! ;)

Add to this a nice selection of outbard gear and we're good to start mixing!

The studio is located by the town center of Skˆvde just 200m from the train station which will take you to Stockholm in 2 hours and Gothenburg in 1 hour. Real easy if you'd ever need to fly in!

Equipment List View Gallery

Online Mastering

Only 39EUR + VAT!

We also offer an online mastering service where a REAL mastering engineer will handle your project and optimize it by ear.

This service is ran under the branch of The Mastering Collective, and is intended for single songs only and will result in an optimized master at 16bit 44.1k for "Digital Distribution" (iTunes, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud etc...).

Find Out More

The Mastering Collective

Testimonials

"There are few studios in the world that make me comfortable. The Panic Room is one in a million – excellent monitoring, a beautiful console and some tasty outboard! A world-class mix-room run by world class people!"

/ Max Norman
(Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, Lynch Mob, Y&T)

"It is a true pleasure working with Plec. He always brings such a positive energy with him in to the studio. A true pro is an understatement, he keeps me on my toes! An overall great engineer, musician and person. I love that he is such a gear geek as well."

/ David Castillo
(Opeth, Bloodbath, Dark Tranquility, Katatonia)

"Soilwork handed Plec the tricky job of mastering a compilation spanning six different recording sessions. Not only did he do an absolutely terrific job, he was also a breeze to work with. All hail Plec!"

/ Dirk Verbeuren
(Megadeth, Soilwork, Scarve)

"Plec is one of the Real Guys out there with infinite sonic knowledge. I searched high and low for someone with monumental, liberal musical ears who could treat my home-brewed music the right away, to really get under the skin of each strange tune. Needless to say, Plec pulled it off in a grand way!"

/ Mattias Eklundh
(Freak Kitchen, Freak Guitar)

"Plec keeps pushing the limits and making great noise at The Panic Room. Very happy to be a part of that with the Lindell MM-24 active speaker system. The setup and room sounds insainly good."

/ Tobias Lindell
(Mustasch, Europe, Hardcore Superstar)