history

Founded in the early 1990s by producer and engineer David Crafa while attending New York University, The Cutting Room Studios began in a loft space on West 25th Street in Manhattan. What started as a small recording setup quickly became a hub for electronic music production, MIDI programming, sampling, and recording, reflecting the rapidly evolving music culture of New York City at the time.

Our early years were closely connected to New York's club and house music scene. Through work with various DJs, producers, and artists, we developed a growing client base that spanned electronic music, hip-hop, and R&B. As projects increased, we expanded our capabilities with additional samplers, synthesizers, and analog recording equipment, eventually moving to a 24-track tape format that allowed us to collaborate more easily with larger commercial studios. Word-of-mouth referrals fueled much of this growth, as one client introduced the next and recording sessions steadily became a full-time operation.

In 1996, we opened our first commercial facility at 678 Broadway in Manhattan. Located on the building's 5th floor, the studio operated there for approximately a decade and hosted recording sessions for artists including Big Pun, Mobb Deep, Big L, SWV, and The Roots. During this period, The Cutting Room grew from a single-room setting into a multi-room recording facility serving a limitless range of artists, producers, and record labels, and future stars such as Just Blaze and Ken Lewis made names for themselves as in-house engineers.

After a decade long run at 678 Broadway, we moved around the corner to the historic Silk Building at 14 East 4th Street in NoHo, home at the time to Tower Records, and across the street from indie institution Other Music. TCR was now in the heart of the Lower Manhattan Indie scene, and soon partnered with KEXP radio to provide space and technology for artists to connect their live performances with listeners around the world. Today, TCR is one of the last owner-operated spaces of its kind still standing from this era of New York history.

As both neighborhood and the music industry at large evolved, so did our services. In addition to music recording and production, we expanded into voiceover recording, audiobook production, podcasting, ADR, film and television audio post-production, and immersive audio mixing. The NoHo facility remains our primary destination for post-production and Dolby ATMOS work.

In 2023, Crafa and managing partner David MacLeod opened a second Manhattan location on 24th Street in Chelsea, designed specifically for large-scale and commercial music recording, production, and mixing. Combining Crafa’s 30 years of experience with MacLeod’s fresh perspective, the Chelsea studio was the most ambitious build to date, and quickly became a hotbed for a new generation of artists. With a larger live room and several ISO booths, the Chelsea studio expanded our capabilities, allowing us to record larger scale bands, as well as jazz, classical and Broadway ensembles.