Question 1

AVAILABLE SERVICES

Accepted Answer

Writing, pre-production, producing, tracking, post-production, editing, vocal tuning, guitar/bass reamping, mixing, mastering, and lodging (available by request)

Question 2

ABOUT THE STUDIO

Accepted Answer

We have on and off-street parking with easy load-in through the garage.  The lower level contains the live room, vocal booth, band lounge, restroom with shower, and patio.  A fridge, dining table, and PlayStation with Netflix/Prime are provided for your convenience.  A full kitchen, guest bedroom, additional restroom, and laundry services are also available.  Gas, grocery, and food services are only five minutes away.  With enough notice, we can accommodate up to 7 guests depending on how cozy you want to get.

Please remember when scheduling your band mates for recording -  we won't need every member to be at the studio every day of the tracking process.

Question 3

TIPS FOR THE WHOLE BAND

Accepted Answer

Everyone needs to learn how to play to a click track.  All performances SHOULD be tracked to a click.  Record your live performances or band practices ahead of time to document song structure, tempos, and time signatures.  Send your demos to me at least a week before your session.

Question 4

GUITAR PREP

Accepted Answer

Please take your guitars and basses to a professional for a proper setup including new strings, intonation, neck relief, pickup height, string height, and new batteries.  Bring enough strings to change out all strings once per song to once per day.  We have a selection of guitars and basses for use if needed.  See the "Backline" page for details.  Only bring your guitars and pedals to the studio, we won't need any amps or cabs until we get to the reamping steps later in the production.

Question 5

VOCAL PREP

Accepted Answer

Get plenty of vocal rest before your studio session.  Please do not attempt to change your eating, drinking, or smoking habits before coming to your session.  Warm up 30 minutes before your session.   Let your vocals rest between tracking sessions.  Practice, practice, practice.

Question 6

DRUM PREP

Accepted Answer

All song structures, tempos, and time signatures should be finalized before arriving at the studio.  Replace as many batter and resonance heads as you can the night before.  Bring another member of the band to help with load in, set up, and support as you track.  Repair or replace all noisy hardware and broken cymbals.  Practice, practice, practice!

We have a wonderful house kit, a selection of choice snare drums, two sets of double pedals, and a variety of cymbals available for use.

Question 7

SENDING ME TRACKS

Accepted Answer

A quick note about guitar tracking on your own:  when you reach a spot in the song that the rhythm guitars should ring out, go ahead and let them ring out way longer than needed.  We can always cut them short later, but we can't extend them.

Turn off all effects and plugins on each track as well as the master bus.  Exception:  if your guitar solo is drenched in a super special delay/reverb combo that's part of your sound, leave those kinds of effects active when exporting so we don't have to start over from scratch.

Export each track as a single Mono WAV file. Exception:  again, a lead guitar with stereo effects should be exported as a stereo WAV file.

Name each of the tracks starting with the instrument such as Drum Overhead, Guitar Rhythm, Vocal Lead, or Bass DI...  Better yet, include any panning or wet/dry notes in the track names as well such as:  Guitar - Left Rhythm DI, Drums - Right China, or Vocals - Center FX Wet.

Export all tracks for each song starting at the beginning of the song and ending at the end of the song.  Bonus points if you track all of the songs in a single session so instead of one kick drum track per song you can export the kick drum track for the entire album as one track.

Upload all tracks into a fresh project and inspect before sending.  This will help you can't tracks that were accidentally muted, too loud, too quiet, panned wrong, and what.  Do not send tracks you haven't visually reviewed and listened too.

Question 8

MIXING

Accepted Answer

If working on multiple songs, I'll ask the band to select one song to start the mix process.  I'll fully mix this track before submitting to the band for review.  Use this track to take notes, compare notes as a band, and assemble me one single list of revisions you'd like made split into two sections.  First section is for revisions to make to the entire mix and the second is for specific revisions including timecode.

When your first song is complete, I will start on the remaining tracks.  This is a great time for the band to determine the final track names and track order.  Once tracks are submitted, you'll have 30 days to request as many revisions as you'd like.  When the entire project is final I will export and send you one high-quality lossless WAV file of each song.  Make sure to ask for alternate files like instrumental versions at this time.

For more detailed instructions, see the "REVISIONS" page.

Question 9

MASTERING

Accepted Answer

If you'll be submitting mixes for mastering, please export your songs as single stereo WAV files.  The maximum peak volume of each song must not exceed -6db.  Remember to remove any limiters from your master bus.  If you mixed through a mastering chain, please send a reference track for each song with your mastering chain engaged.  You will receive a high quality lossless 16bit WAV file of each song.