I've been recording with Bryan Matheson and Skyline Studios for 30 years. Bryan knows the recording business inside and out, and has been invaluable to me on many levels--as a top-notch engineer, adding guitar, and recommending the perfect singers and other musicians I need for my songs. In addition to Bryan, I've been fortunate to work with his wonderful team, including Ben, Varun, Miles, and Darian. Everyone at Skyline is professional and friendly. Laid-back atmosphere. Great results! read more

Great space, excellent owner. There's parking, it's easy to get to, good food nearby. Awesome gear, good vibes, clean studio. Come record your music here! read more

Great studio with a super engineer. I have recorded at many top flight studios, and even though I was just playing my sax behind Larry Miles, I enjoyed the expert engineer, laid back vibe and ease of parking off street in a secure location . All in all, I recommend them. read more

Skyline is a absolute Bay Area gem. Super high-end equipment, beautiful space, awesome lighting, a wonderful place to record and do video. Highly attentive staff and Bryan Matheson studio owner cares about art and music and the people involved in his space. Cannot recommend more. read more

It was a pure joy to work in this studio. Bryan and Ben could not have been kinder or more professional. I am sometimes given the impression that my expectations may be too high in terms of the kind of care one can expect to get in a studio - but this was the first time in my life where there was NOTHING I could say could have gone better....they were consummate professionals and absolutely ON IT with EVERYTHING, even the nit-picky musician stuff! They care SO much about the music they are making and they are real musicians themselves, not posers but highly educated and skilled. I was so particularly pleased that Ben's knowledge of music was so extensive, coming from his education at Berklee in Boston...he was SO helpful and was able to use language in talking with my drummer that clarified and nailed down concepts I was struggling to express. He also came up with some brilliant ideas to save me loads of time (and money!). I can't wait to mix my recording here when I finally get it finished! This was hands down the best studio I've ever worked in. read more

2/20/26 Friday ... I reached out to Skyline Studios to find out what it would cost to schedule weekly rehearsals for one of my student bands. Bryan Matheson (owner) got right back to me and we talked over my requirements vs his availability for providing rehearsal space. Bryan was friendly, helpful, extremely knowledgable, as well as being a very nice guy! I appreciated his timeliness! I would not hesitate to recommend Skyline Studios/Bryan. A positive experience all the way around read more

Wonderful sound, team, and facility. I couldn't recommend higher. I've recorded and rehearsed there and Bryan runs an excellent studio.

I wouldn't be able to recommend Skyline Studios enough. Owner Bryan Matheson is a veteran in the industry, his knowledge and expertise is unmatched and he is a consummate professional. He and the Skyline team (Ben, George, Colin) went above and beyond, accommodating my team, rolling with every punch and delivering stellar results. If you want to feel confident, comfortable and work with a knowledgeable, hardworking (and friendly!) team, and are looking to shoot/record in the Bay Area, you'd be remiss not to go with Skyline Studios. Grateful for the work and experience, would love to return for future projects! read more

Thanks to Bryan Matheson's genius and creativity, I walked into Skyline studios a self- published author looking to record my Memoir and walked out with a Publishing contract that has forever changed my life. Skyline studios will go down in history as a pillar in a community who have yet to discover, the Treasure lying right at their feet. read more

I moved here with the goal to kick my music off the ground. After search here and there, near and far i finally found SKYLINE STUDIOS. Which is marvelously ran by the great Bryan Matheson. Also S/O to one of the most amazing engineer an artist could ever want, Miles. Yeah i highly recommend this to anyone with any style of music. The autmosphere is peaceful. The equipment is 1000% perfection and not to mentuon everyone you meet is as down to earth as you get. read more

I contacted David to help me get up to speed with my podcast gear. He did that easily and then spent time, energy and empathy walking me through Audio recording 101-master class. He has created a place of creativity and education. Thank you read more

The best studio to work at in the Bay Area, hands down. I had the best session. Extremely professional and extremely happy with the quality of sound I left with. read more

Bryan and the team at Skyline is a joy to work with--they are always accommodating, kind, and professional and consistently deliver quality audio for our podcasts. I highly recommend using Skyline for any of your audio needs! read more

This studio is awesome. I've recorded here several times, and have had a fabulous experience each time. The owner, Bryan, is super knowledgeable and efficient, but also a chill, laid back musician-type guy, so it creates for a nice, creative environment for recording. He actually knows about both equipment and music, which is rad. This studio has all the gadgets you would want when recording. Bryan (and his intern guy) were very accommodating to my requests and "issues". (Singers tend to have lots of "issues" when recording, ya know?) Skyline has plenty of parking and grub spots nearby if you get hungry during a long session. If you live in the Bay, go here first--it's a grade A studio with a great owner and very decent prices. Woot!! read more

Just completed a great recording session with my children and some of their friends. We recorded 23 tracks over two days and had a blast. Kids loved every minute of it. Bryan worked with us to record a wide variety of songs: piano solos, piano enriched with brass, percussion or other accompaniment, piano accompaniment to singing (where one of the moms first recorded the piano, then we recorded the kids singing), a capella singing, harp solo, and synthesized glockenspiel, harpsichord, trumpet and electric guitar pieces. There was a keyboard, sound proof room with a window to control room, and lots of sound equipment. It was very exciting for the kids to put on headphones in the sound proof room, sing into a huge microphone and be able to hear each other as well as the piano accompaniment. They also got an eye-opening look at the music manufacturing process to complement their previous experiences with live music. Bryan is a wizard at post-production -- he was able to clean up a few notes, pauses and volume without robbing the track of the child's voice and personality. If you've never seen music go through some post-production work it's really cool. Think photoshop for music. At the end of the session, you walk out with a finished CD! Instant Christmas presents this year for family and friends. I must admit that originally I was only planning on spending an hour there to record a few piano solos, but once we all got into the creative process -- picking out accompaniments, trying out different instruments, doing multiple takes to get "just right" -- and set a high bar for the final output, it ended up going six hours (three hours each day). How much time you spend will depend on number of pieces, how prepared your child is (1 take vs. 10 takes), how much pre-recording planning you do and how much post-production clean-up and enhancement you want. Bryan has a pure love for music and his enthusiasm is infectious with the children. There is also a vegan-friendly, gluten-free bakery next door, Mariposa Cafe. Excellent place to grab a quick bite and keep the energy flowing. I plan to go back to Bryan in a few months to capture the next set of pieces the kids learn. When I do, there are probably a few tweaks ... 1) rent a weighted keyboard (Bryan can get one next door at Leo's Pro Audio), 2) wait until kids are really ready (will complete a "keeper" take in 1-2 tries), 3) have a POV about what kind of accompaniment we want, if any, for specific songs. Now that the kids have been through it, I expect they will be more efficient as well. Overall, highly recommend Bryan and Skyline Studios. read more

I highly recommend Skyline Studios. My tech. Bryan was very helpful and knowledgeable. No stress environment, and my track sounds amazing! A minor mix-up with a scheduling error but Bryan came in and got the job done! read more

We were In and out, everyone was friendly, did not cost an arm and leg. Engineers were on top of Pro Tools 9. Very convenient location. read more

Bryan is an incredible engineer and also extremely willing to teach you what he knows about recording and music in general. Very personable and accomodating. Extensive mic collection and top notch preamps (including full racks of neves when we were there!) live room sounds amazing for drums. Iso booth is great for guitars and other acoustic instruments. Nice setup with a go pro feed from the live room to the control room. Bass through the API pres sounded sweet! Great places to grab lunch within walking distance. Overall, a great experience. read more

I have used Skyline Studios for two language education projects and the results have been outstanding. Bryan is knowledgeable about all aspects of audio recording and reproduction, and he gave us invaluable advice on both recording and editing. His staff of audio engineers for the recording sessions (we did at least 20 sessions) is always professional and helpful. And a great location, easily accessible to our actors (also a hidden bonus: a great bakery, cafe and coffee shop right next door!). read more

Great space! Brian is awesome! I highly recommend for your next project!

I have had the good fortune of doing two fairly large projects, very different from each other, at Skyline Studios. The first was a complete CD with my a cappella band, The EDLOS. A cappella recording is rife with challenges -- technological, musical, and vocal. Bryan approached and overcame all of these potential pitfalls masterfully. An accomplished a cappella singer, composer, and arranger himself, he was able to apply his expertise (and his rock-steady hand and killer ear) to every aspect of the project, resulting in what I believe to be far and away the best CD The EDLOS have ever recorded. Throughout the process, Bryan provided invaluable input and creative assistance while remaining sensitive to the artistic and musical concept of the band. The second was a video shoot for a jewelry art instructional DVD my wife co-produced. Although my wife is an artist and not professionally experienced as a video presenter, Bryan patiently and professionally coached her and succeeded in capturing her at her best. I wholeheartedly recommend Bryan and Skyline Studios to anyone with a project of any size in the audio or video realm. Avi Jacobson The EDLOS read more

Do not go here for VOICE OVER! This place is great for music or doing demo recordings but it is not the place for CLEAN, roomless, dead room sounding recordings. The room that he records vocals in has plenty of treatment but I don't think the engineer understands that he has brick walls. Reflections / slaps are horrible. Sure a vocalist with music behind them it wouldn't matter as much but when you need QUIET!. For some reason there is some sort of trend in the studios around east bay where the engineers have awesome gear and great music and producing chops and as soon as someone wants to come in a get a clean, completely quiet, very low noise floor recording with no room reflections at all, well... they seem to f*** it up. At least thats my experience Go do voice over here and have it mastered, you'll see. read more

I've had great experiences at Skyline, and I've been in that studio in a number of different situations: as a band manger with a band client being recorded by an outside producer and Skyline staff engineers, as a producer with my own independent engineer, and as a producer with owner Bryan Matheson and his staff as engineers. It's a well-outfitted, comfortable studio, low key and not intimidating, and economical. Matheson has a notable skill set as a vocal arranger and vocals producer. He has deep experience working with a wide range of music styles (along with voice-overs, soundtracks and advertising music) and is quick and knowledgeable on the technical side. The studio is clean and organized if a little funky (with some warehouse-vibe in the walkway to the door), and a high end studio will have a more impressive selection of gear and technology (but their rates reflect that). Matheson is good at helping you figure out what you need to complete your project, handling the producer or engineer role himself as a talented pro or directing you to staff or freelancers who know the studio if he thinks someone will be a better match for you. And the talent of the recording team and the rapport with the performer is always primary in determining how good the audio sounds, more than any technology or equipment. Matheson knows a lot about the mental process of musicians and performers in the studio, so he develops easy and productive communication with his recording clients read more

Bryan Matheson, MJ and the team @ Skyline did a superb job during our recording and rehearsal sessions last week. They are professional, flexible, and provided the ideal setting to bring the best out of the musicians and musical end product in a short period of time. We will certainly be back and am very thankful for Bryan and the team! read more

I book voice over sessions and analyze audio for a tech company and part of our requirements include a high signal to noise ratio. We went through at least four other studios and were not able to achieve our desired SNR (we need at least 40dB of isolation). Brian's vocal booth is extremely well constructed and offers a very low noise floor. The equipment is all top notch (Neumann, Neve, Avalon, etc.) and most importantly Brian and his staff are all extremely knowledgeable, competent, hard working and friendly. I would recommend this studio to anyone looking to get a top notch recording. read more

Great experience! Our engineer Scott was a total rockstar; competent, enthusiastic and very generous with his advice. Would give 6 stars if I could. read more

Bryan Matheson is a super accommodating recording engineer, and his rooms and equipment are fabulous for the size studio he is running. The larger room captures some of the BEST drum sounds I've ever heard! Video screens show the recording rooms from the control room, and the mics available are top quality. Great food nearby as well. And an affordable price tag to boot! read more

If you're looking to record and/or produce music, voiceovers, commercials, etc. at reasonable prices in Oakland, Skyline is about as good as it gets. Chief engineer/producer Bryan Matheson is a total professional and will give you a great session no matter what your recording needs are or what genre you are working in. read more

Skyline Studios has been one of the bay area's best kept secrets for 20+ years. It's an incredibly flexible space to record featuring 2 gorgeous tracking rooms (one of them large enough to mic an orchestra), over 20 pairs of classic Neve modules and a mic collection that would make even the biggest name studios jealous. They have not one but 2 Brauner mics in addition to a ton of the standard high end fare you'd expect to see in a top facility, need I say more? The larger of the two tracking rooms is also one of the best sounding large drum rooms in the bay area and with out a doubt the best in the east bay. If you need a place to track or mix professionally with the aid of very experienced and friendly staff at prices are competitive Skyline is your best bet in the east bay. I've been working there on and off as a producer / engineer for over a decade, I'm a voting member of the Grammy academy and my work has hit the Billboard charts 14 times. read more

Skyline did a fantastic job helping me complete my album. Bryan, the owner/engineer, is great to work with. He knows ProTools very well, and has a fabulous ear. He was able to catch me whenever my pitch was bad or tempo off. The atmosphere is more friendly than any studio I've ever been in. Other projects were going on, and there was a real sense of community, unlike the typical isolation of recording studios. Along with all of this, the cost was very competitive. read more

FANTASTIC STUDIO, FANTASTIC CREW. My band just recorded there and everyone at Skyline was wonderfully professional, extremely talented, and super cool to work with. Their equipment is amazing; they've got all the state-of-the-art digital stuff but also beautiful vintage gear as well. They plugged my guitar into a crazy old beat up tube amp and it sounded sweeeeet. Excellent, excellent studio. read more

Great studio! I have recorded here time and time again. Since back in the late 90s from tracking demos and then in 2001 when Bryan came in and saved a full length recording that was going sorely off kilter, I was very glad that Skyline Studios was there. Great gear! Great rooms! Good reasonable rates! Especially for what you get. Home recordings are great for demoing and getting ideas. Leave it to the professionals to make your musical vision sound the way you want it to and better! read more