5 Sitting atop 20 acres of Malibu real-estate Marco Beltrami’s studio contains 2 isolation booths and a studio space capable of hosting an entire string section.

4 With an entire wall of lights and dials, Tom Holkenborg’s shrine to all things electric is the patch-bay from heaven. Or hell, depending on the deadline. 

3 True Blood composer Nathan Barr has such a huge studio that he installed a 1366-pipe Wurlitzer theatre organ at the centrepiece. 

2 It’s almost impossible to spot the actual instruments in the studio space of the late great James Horner. The thousands of models, toys, sculptures and automatons are packed floor to ceiling. 

1 With monster synths galore, a grand piano and that plush leather finish, Hans Zimmer describes his sumptuous studio as a “Viennese brothel”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.