Rates
We are currently accepting bookings for October 2004 and beyond

Studio sessions are typically scheduled evenings until 3 A.M. as well as 24/7 weekends.
We tend to discourage 8:00 AM sessions for your safety and ours.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED?

How to determine how much time you need 
If you want us to organize and produce the session please let us know 
and we will setup what is recommended below plus more that we know.

1. Preparation:
   

   1. Know what you will be recording before you come in. 
      

   2. Decide before hand if you will be recording 1,2,5,10 or 15 songs
      

   3. Determine instrumentation before deciding on tracks needed. Trust us when we say that often getting quality session players to perform instead of trying to overlay 5-10 keyboard produced synthesized parts will actually save you money unless you are a keyboard god and have mastered the nuances and subtleties of all instrumentation and can mimic that on keys.
      

   4. If this is a songwriter demo don't get over elaborate. A basic instrumentation works best for this purpose.
      

   5. Bear in mind that it takes as many hours to mix/master as it does to record if you want it done right (and you do - trust me!) So whatever estimate you come up with for recording - double it for the session time needed for recording, mix down and mastering.
      

   6. Schedule recording tracks one day and mixing down another day. If it is a large arrangement, Live with the raw tracks on tape/burned CD for a few days between.
      

   7. Rehearse at least several times with musicians - recording should be final step, not first step for maximum cost efficiency. If you are a performing band - play the songs out live for at least a month before recording them. It will make for a tighter record, and a better performance from all.
      

   8. Evict your ego and select the track level you need , not want. A standard demo typically is no more than 8 tracks likewise for a standard 4 piece band. Sometimes a 4 piece will move to 16 track when complex keyboards and/or drums/percussion is involved. Rarely does anything but a commercial CD project that is a major investment need to track all 24 tracks. So while saying you're recording 24 track sounds cool you may actually be wasting a lot of money to do so.
      

2. Plan the sessions:
   

   1. Get the drummer there at least 30 minutes ahead. He/she has the most setup/tweaking of all the musicians. Convince the drummer to use the studio kit to avoid several hours of burn time used to get his/her own kit up to studio quality and tuned in for recording. Negotiate the snare and cymbals. Usually a drummer will agree to a good studio kit as long as they can use their own snare and cymbals.
      

   2. Know how you will track the sessions. What order of instruments, vocals, etc.
      

   3. Keep things relaxed and everyone knowing who is in charge. Democracy is a good thing - just not in a recording studio. Many times musicians will ask for new takes over and over again to try and do better (watch your lead guitar for this especially) with no attention to the cost. While you definitely want the best take for each track, make sure someone in the band is the band "producer" who will decide if a take is the right one. If you have an outside producer or are having us act as producer we would do the same. If the player insists we would put off doing so until all other tracks are laid down and time permitting, allow another tack providing it is not a destructive (replacing an early take) take. Side note: Whenever possible, don't let the engineer produce the session. Producing is best kept a full time dedicated job. If it can be afforded, use someone other than a band member or songwriter to produce the cuts. Fresh outside ears will give you a better assessment.
      

   4. Limit playbacks between takes for your instruments. Everyone should know they get one playback after their take and should be listening attentively. Horseplay and talking while listening to playbacks are never a good idea and result in enormous time wasters. Each track and playback should respect the musician tracking their instrument. You'll find your resulting sound is much better.
      

   5. Respect. Respect. Respect. The studio is no place for overblown egos, bad attitudes, prejudices and tantrums. A studio session must be free of these poisons. Bad attitude can poison an entire album and make it a useless product and an embarassment for everyone involved.  Every band has egos - we wouldn't be in this business if we didn't. IN the studio you are not on stage. You are not performing you are creating and documenting forever the quality of your playing and songs.
      

   6. Prepare band members who have never recorded before to have constructive direction provided. If the players are such that they refuse to be directed and refuse to cooperate together on the project, consider replacing them for the recordings and only use them live. Having band members arguing with engineers and producers is a major problem that should be avoided if a quality end product is expected.
      

   7. Never, never,never,never...did I say NEVER... allow friends and family into the recording sessions, even if they promise to be quiet and sit in the corner. If they want to experience it, set up a video camera out of the way and let them watch the tape later. This should be a rule that is put in stone well before the session. The recording studio should be a sacred refuge and haven for your musicians. They should have no other focus then the music at hand while in the sessions.
      

   8. Turn off ALL cell phones and pagers. Period. In fact collect them all from everyone and put them in the trunk of your car. You will need 100% focus from everyone to deliver the quality you imagine from your studio session.
      

3. Recording: (Tracking) 
   

   1. Drums with scratch bass, scratch lead vocal and scratch rhythm (guitar or keys). the bass, vocal and keys will be redone so the focus is solely on the drums for this take and only mistakes or dissatisfaction with the part/sound in the drums should lead to re-takes. The live drum part CANNOT be re-done once put down and overdubs done against it without re-doing the entire cut - the timing would never match. Every once in a while you hit a miracle take and the scratch tracks are keepers. Don't expect it though. It is a lottery win if it happens.
      

   2. Bass - again don't let the bass player obsess over the tiniest of errors that no one can hear but him/her - they tend to do this. Make them hear it in its entirety.
      

   3. Rhythm tracks - Guitar(s), Keyboard(s). To save time you can track both guitar and keys at the same time as keys are DI typically (the exception being acoustic piano or Leslie Cabinets) and guitars are amped/mic'ed in an isolation room. Also, guitar players tend to feed off other musicians energy and will usually lay a better rhythm track with someone else playing along.
      

   4. Lead Tracks - Lead Guitar, lead keys or both one at a time. This is where you will experience the second greatest number of re-takes. If recording 8 track you will not have the luxury of saving multiple takes and picking from the best one(s). Also beware an engineer who says they can fix it in the mix... that is an urban legend that is best shunned like leprosy.
      

   5. Vocal tracks: Lay your harmony tracks first using the scratch lead vox as reference.
      

   6. Lead vocal - if you can afford to - track this on a separate day after the lead vocalist has had a reference tape/cd to sing along to in the car, home, whatever for a few days. Your result will be much better and have more energy because, as we all know, the more comfortable a singer is with a song the better they perform it. If you are pressed for expense, this is where your rehearsals paid off and the lead vocal track will usually come out well. You should track a minimum of two takes of the keeper lead vocal tracks.
      

4. Mix down:
   
   Mix down is where the raw materials delivered to the 'factory' (the recorded tracks) are handed over to the craftsmen (or women) who will create the finished product for you. Most musicians believe that once the track recording is done, the end product should be able to be slammed out in minutes. Not true if you want a quality result you would listen to years down the road. 

   During tracking the engineer is working non-stop to get as flat a response and as pure a sound on tape (or hard disk) as possible for each take of each instrument. During mix down the engineer and producer are working together to 'season' and 'massage' and 'accentuate' that sound to highlight the performances and the songs in an appealing and intelligible manner. The mix down engineer is more focused on signal response, frequency loads, harmonic distortions and artifacts and all the other myriad of technical details that go into a great mix.

   Tracking and mix down are two uniquely separate jobs. If your budget permits you should seriously consider having separate engineers for tracking and mix down - or at least a team of two for both who work together to compliment each others' skill sets. This is not to say a single engineer cannot do both, and in most cases, do both well. It is simply a preferred method.
   

   1. Everyone in the band will want to be present for mix down. Avoid this from happening if possible. Mix down is a VERY tedious process for everyone but the people with hands on the board and ears on the line. Every player will believe that their part is not loud enough in a mix - or too loud in a mix. Inevitably your engineer or producer will eventually throw everyone out of the studio because the random and subjective input is counter-productive. Likewise do not let the engineer convince you that he works better if he mixes alone. This is about as practical as having the printer edit a book for an author. 
      

   2. Your mix down session should be the engineers, the producer, and the best set of ears in the band. If you have a live sound engineer for your live shows invite him/her in as well as an advisor.
      

   3. The band ears are there to help keep the sound true to the group sound, the engineers will do the manual labor and keep the sound technically in line, and the producer will be massaging the sound to bring it from a work of art to a commercially viable product. 
      

   4. Remember, commercial is not a bad thing - selling out is - but having a product that people want and will pay for is not. Music after all is expression and communication. if no one wants to hear your cuts, it is the same as shouting into an empty pit - useless. It is the producer's job to help your sound go from tracked quality raw takes to finished, ready to master quality performance. 
      

   5. The producer MUST know the difference between compression, gating, reverb, delay, EQ and all the other standard polishing effects that are put on a raw tracks mix during mix down. If you have the luxury of having two producers bring in the second only during mix down without having sat through the arduous recording and tracking process. These fresh outside ears will help with the product.
      

   6. Remember that the more complex the instrumentation the longer mix down will take.
      

   7. Shoot for 2 mixes of each song - if budget permits, go for three or more. Your mixes should be: 1. At least two quality all purpose mixes, one real HOT mix with levels exaggerated, one radio friendly mix that does not stress the audio of the typical car radio or portable player.
      

   8. If you intend to have the project mastered, ensure the mix down does as little alteration to the color and timbre of the music as possible. You will also need a minimum of two mixes to provide the mastering engineer. Things like compression and reverb can be easily overdone - watch these carefully. What sounds right during the heat of a mix often sound overblown a couple days later during a listen.
      

   9. Try not to mix more than two. tops three songs in any session unless you are seriously budget strapped. Giving ears a break and keeping minds fresh is very important at this stage if you intend to get your best result.
      

   10. As an artist, plan on being nearly sick to death of a song by the time you finish. In most cases you will have heard it hundreds of times during the tracking and hundreds more during the mix down. You will be aware of every little nuance and hypersensitive to every aspect of it. Take a break from it. Don't even listen to the final mixes for a day or so. Let yourself become normalized to it again, then listen. The closer you are to how your intended audience will perceive your sound, the better. Focus on the next stage of packaging and  marketing your product instead. It will not have left the studio if it were not quality product if you had the right musicians, the right engineer sand the right producers on the project.  

Call us at (336) 629-7111 or (336) 302-1519 
to book your session

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(336) 629-7111 or (336) 302-1519

Located centrally in downtown Asheboro, North Carolina

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