Frequently asked questions
Before coming to record...
- Practice, practice, practice. If you and/or any of your band members are not properly rehearsed, don't have a song fully written or don't know your part(s), you'll be spending a lot more studio time dealing with that, which is likely not what you want. Not to mention the burn-out that you'll experience with is never a good recipe for an exciting, emotional and solid recording, nor creativity. The studio is not intended to be a writing/rehearsal space, unless you have the budget for the extra time involved.
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If you can, please send a demo of you and/or your band playing through the song(s) you want to record. This will give us an idea of what style of music and production would suit your music the best.
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We always encourage having a round-table discussion between you (and/or your band) and us. This can be in person, video chat or over the phone. We can go over any questions you might have, we can ask you questions regarding the production style you're after, set expectations, and get a general feel for how you want the sessions to go, to make you feel as comfortable as possible, enabling you to stay in the creative state of mind.
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Come in prior to the main recording date to record some "scrtach tracks" that the drummer and/or band can play along to in their headphones for reference while recoding. Usually this consists of just a vocal and a guitar or keyboard track recorded to a click.
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Please provide the following ahead of time: -
List of song titles (digital is fine or on paper is ok too) -
Lyric sheet for each song (on paper is preferred, but digital is fine) -
Song Key and Tempo (you can have each of these listed on each lyric sheet)
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For acoustic drum recording: -
Make sure your drummer is well rehearsed with playing to a click track (aka metronome). If you wish to have a modern sounding production, playing to a click is a must, at least for the drummer. If you choose not to record to a click, be prepared for a more retro sounding production, but likely not in a flattering way, since timing becomes very difficult to adjust later (if you ask for it later) and will cost you extra studio/editing time than you had originally guesstimated. -
We recommend you use our house kit (we can tune it according to the style of music/sound you're going for - just tell us how you like them). You can bring your own snare drum(s), cymbals, pedals and sticks if you like. Using the house kit will save you time and money, to avoid lenghty set up times the day of recording. Usually, we will prep the kit for each project before you come in and best of all, we do not charge you for that time spent! :) -
If you'd prefer to bring your own drum kit, please arrange to bring it in a day or two before the scheduled recording session. We'll help the drummer get all set up, re-arrnage microphones and dial in a good drum sound as well as recording sound.
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If you're recording anything with stringed instruments, we strongly recommend you do the following beforehand: -
Make sure to put on a new set of strings a couple days before recording. Stretch them mutliple times and break them in a little. Please do not change them the day of or the day before...You'll be spending a lot of your paid studio time re-tuning your instrument during takes. -
Please ensure your instrument is properly "set up" and intonated. If you can't do this yourself properly, you can bring it to a variety of local shops to get this done for cheap. This is a must.
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Please don't bring in extra guests with you unplanned. If you wish to bring someone who will not be recording anything, please notify us ahead of time. Be aware that they will, more than likely, have to spend most of their time in the lounge area if the recording space is tight with other band members.
For Mixing Projects...
If you are sending us tracks to mix remotely for you, please ensure the following:
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Please provide a lyric sheet with song sections identified, song key and tempo
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The preferred file formats for sending out for Mastering are as follows: -
Wav or Flac files are a must. Please...NO MP3s! (if possible) -
Bit Rate: 24 bit or 32 bit floatSample Rate (kHz) for music recordings: 44.1, 88.2 -
Sample Rate (kHz) for music recordings that will be used in a video: 48, 96
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The file formats you will be delivered are as follows: -
16 bit, 44.1 kHz wav file (Standard Commercial Audio File, same as CD) -
24 bit, 96 kHz wav file (or whatever the highest native bit and sample rate that was provided to us) -
If you wish to have any other file formats, for example, a file intended to be used in a video or an MP3 file, please let us know beforehand.
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If you wish to have any alternate mixes done, please let us know beforehand. For example, "TV" mix, "Vocal Up" mix, Acapella mix (vocals only), Instrumental mix (no vocals), separate stems (drum stem, vocal stem, guitar stem, fx stem), etc.
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Please send (or just tell the Engineer) any commercially released tracks for reference when mixing. Think of what band/musicin was inspired you at the time when you wrote the song. Think of any songs that you really like the sound of, any song(s) that have a similar sort of feel, style and tempo. The Mix Engineer will not be attemoting to copy the sound of the track verbatim (impossible), but it is simply just something to reference every nowe and then, to make sure the mixed track is within the ballpark of the sort of sound you want.
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If you are sending any guitar or bass tracks, please also capture a DI of those instrument(s) as opposed to just a recording of the amp(s)
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If you are sending a keyboard track, if you have the raw midi file, please also send that.
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If you already have a rough mix you've put together of all your raw tracks, please also send that so the Mix Engineer has an idea of the importance each element has within the final mix.
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Please "consolidate" each track so that they all start at the same time when imported into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This will ensure that any parts that come and go throught the song all fall pefectly in place. If you don't know how to "consolidate", there are plenty of YouTube tutorials on thow to do this. Just serach for "How to Consolidate tracks in (enter your DAW name here)."
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Be aware that if there is any element that you are very unhappy with in its raw state prior to mixing, know that while the Mix Engineer can try their best to "fix" it or make it sound better, you can't polish a turd. You can roll it in glitter, but it'll still smell like a turd.
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Please name your tracks before you send them. Example: "Lead Vocal", "Backgroud Vocal", "Guitar", "Lead Guitar", etc. Having track names like "Audio 1", "Audio 2" or the names of the band members is not of any use to anyone. It makes for a very unorganized session, which in turn makes the mixing process much longer, which will eat up more of your budget. It is unnecessary and definitely avoidable.
For Mastering Projects...
If you are sending us tracks to master remotely for you, please ensure the following:
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The preferred file formats for sending out for Mastering are as follows: -
Wav or Flac files are a must. Please...NO MP3s! (if possible)
Bit Rate: 24 bit or 32 bit float -
Sample Rate (kHz) for music recordings: 44.1, 88.2 -
Sample Rate (kHz) for music recordings that will be used in a video: 48, 96
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The file formats you will be delivered are as follows: -
16 bit, 44.1 kHz wav file (Standard Commercial Audio File, same as CD) -
24 bit, 96 kHz wav file (or whatever the highest native bit and sample rate that was provided to us) -
If you wish to have any other file formats, for example, a file intended to be used in a video or an MP3 file, please let us know beforehand.
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Please send (or just tell the Engineer) any commercially released tracks for reference when mixing. Think of what band/musicin was inspired you at the time when you wrote the song. Think of any songs that you really like the sound of, any song(s) that have a similar sort of feel, style and tempo. The Mastering Engineer will not be attemoting to copy the sound of the track verbatim (impossible), but it is simply just something to reference every nowe and then, to make sure the mixed track is within the ballpark of the sort of sound you want.