Starting from the very conception of your project, we can help with the following things to keep things going smoothly, and get really good professional sounding results:
- Guide you through each step of your recording project, helping to keep it on track and on budget.
- Help with song selection and arranging.
- Help get everyone well rehearsed and ready to record.
- Help choose the right studio to fit your specific needs and budget.
- Provide an assistant engineer to facilitate the efficient use of studio time.
- In some cases, we may provide some quality microphones and other gear should the necessity arise.
- Schedule studio time and manage setup for basic tracking and subsequent sweetening and over dubbing.
- Oversee proper microphone selection, recording levels, EQ and compression during basic tracking and over dubbing.
- Manage track assignments, track charts and keep a running punch list of recording tasks to complete.
- Oversee proper file management in whatever DAW we’re working with, Pro Tools, Logic, or Cubase.
- Keep an ear on tempo and performance during basic tracking.
- Take notes and help with selecting the best takes.
- Provide an objective ear to help with instrumentation and arrangements during the sweetening/overdubbing stage and subsequent building of tracks.
- Help keep the artist and musicians relaxed, focused, on track and productive during the recording sessions so as not to waste valuable and expensive studio time.
- Sometimes a great basic track happens across a few different takes. For example, Take-1 has the best verse and Take-3 has the best chorus. If the tempo is consistent enough, we can edit those parts together to make a solid basic track to build on.
Finally and possibly most important, keep it fun! We do this out of the love of music, so let’s have some fun doing what we love. But remember, turning your recording session into a party is a waste of time and money and in our experience almost always results in a mediocre recording.
SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES ON RECORDING: If you have a preferred studio you like, we can work with you there as long as they have the studio space and gear to get the job done. We may provide mics if need be.
We can also do some overdubbing and editing in my production office to save money. We have a fine selection of quality microphones and some vintage gear. Below is a short list:
MICROPHONES:
- AKG Tube Mic
- Neumann TLM 170 (2)
- Audio-Technica AT4051 (2)
- Sennheiser MD421 (4)
COMPRESSORS:
- Tube-Tech CL 1B (1)
- Universal Audio 1176 (2)
- Universal Audio LA-4 (2)
HOME STUDIO: If you are an individual artist and have an adequate recording system at home, we may work with you there if you just need help with writing, arranging and recording. Formats we’re familiar with are Pro Tools, Logic and Cubase.