Recording studios operate in what is known as the service industry. This means that when you rent the use of our facilities and personnel, they are there to serve you. We work for you, not the other way around. So Rule No. 1 is: don't be intimidated by the surroundings or atmosphere of the hi-tech environment. You take care of the creation of the music and we'll make sure it gets recorded properly. Our goal is to help you realize your artistic "vision", the way you hear it in your head, as closely as possible. If you have a special request we will do our best to accommodate you.
Some types of services cost extra. There are additional charges for the rental of any equipment not normally on the premises such as extra samplers, synths, or exotic special effects gear; or if an extra engineer or technician is required.
Being sure that you know what you will be doing during your studio time will keep you from having unplanned extra costs. You don't have to know all the technical stuff to do good work at a studio today. However, a basic understanding of the recording process and the types of things that are possible at which stages of the recording are a big help if you want to avoid wasting time and therefore money! There is a saying that "Time Is Money" and that certainly couldn't be more true than in the recording studio where you pay by the hour. So after you're musically and mentally prepared, secure your booking date with us.
Studio Musicians
Studio musicians are available through us or by private contract. The actual rate is determined by the individual player contracted; however, most of them charge somewhere between $10.00 to $20.00 per song.
The Role of the Producer
Producer (pro-doo! cer) 'Someone who sits in a studio control room and periodically freaks out. Never eats, sleeps, or goes to the bath room. Occasionally will eat your pizza.'
But seriously, at most sessions there is one person who has the final word about musical things. A producer decides things like the tempo of the song, which take of a particular performance is the "keeper", what the general sound of each instrument should be, how are all the instruments best combined during mixing, and with what kind of effects. It is his job to oversee the recording project as a whole including the setting of budgets and devising a plan-of-attack to produce the recording within the time and financial constraints.
Hiring a producer can greatly enhance the quality of your project because he/she fucntions as an objective, fresh set of ears. The producer's job is to constantly evaluate the recorded performances with respect to how they fit together to create the best, most creative, end product. He is supposed to work with "big picture" in mind at all times, taking the information given to him by the performers as to what their overall intentions are with their music, and using that knowledge to create the final master tape.
Load-In & Set-Up
Load-in is done through the door at the far end of the building. The Rock has many musical instruments available to you. We have bongos, electric bass, hand percussion; as well as a fantastic drum set for your use at no extra charge.
If you are an electric guitar player we recommend that you bring your guitar and amplifier to the session as, in our opinion, the instrument of "electric guitar" really consists of a guitar and amp working together to create the sound. So there's no guarantee that you will be able to get "your sound" on just any amp. Bass players, however, do not need to bring their amps as they are most likely taken "direct" into the mixing console and heard through the headphones.
Keyboardists should bring their keyboards but may opt to use our weighted keyboard controller to play their own synthesizers via MIDI. Your engineer can help with this if you are unfamiliar with how to do this. We also have a wide variety of synthesized and sampled sounds available for use.
Drummers:
Do remember that the microphones will be very close to each drum and the smallest rattles and buzzes sound extremely loud on tape! Our set has been carefully maintained to eliminate all the noises, so all you hear is just the drum.
But, if you intend to bring your own drums, you make sure the heads are free of dents, are reasonably new, and are all of the same head style i.e. coated, pinstripe, oil filled etc.We will have to charge for the time to set up your set and tear down ours.
Studio Hints & Tips
Don't be intimidated. Be comfortable and stay loose. You can't create while you're uncomfortable.
Know what your project is and isn't. Is it an album, or a demo? If it's a demo then make sure you know what you are trying to demonstrate and plan accordingly. If you are demonstrating a song then make sure the vocal is well sung, up front in the mix; don't worry about a million keyboard overdubs or having the hottest guitar solo ever. In short, use some common sense and don't get bogged down on details which are not critical to the presentation of the song.
Make sure your instruments are in good shape. Guitars should be able to play chords in tune up and down the neck, no matter which fret you are on. Put new strings on your guitar two days before the session so they have a chance to stretch out. Make sure you tune the guitar several times in those two days so that they get used to being at correct pitch. Check your 12th fret notes vs. harmonics and adjust your bridges accordingly.
Basses should have new strings and drums should have new heads on snare and tom toms. Make sure the bass drum pedal does not squeak or rattle noisily when played.
Don't bring people to the session who are not directly involved with the project. They will just serve as a distraction and will end up costing you money in the long run.
If you have a home studio of any type, use it! Do your entire project (or as much as you can) on your 4-track at home. Doing this will uncover a lot of unforeseen problems and will provide a good starting point for the engineer to hear where you are coming from when you get to the session.
Know your music completely. The more prepared you can be, the more work you'll get done for the least amount of dollars. The studio is a very expensive rehearsal hall. Do your rehearsing at home. You can do a lot of recording in very few hours if you don't waste time by listening to playbacks of takes that are obviously not "keepers".
Know your background vocals cold. Over the years we have seen many projects that are proceeding right on schedule get bogged down during background vocal recording. If you have people singing background vocals who do not sing any lead vocals at all, then special attention should be given to this area during rehearsal. The problem is this: what sounds perfectly acceptable on the gig through the stage monitors is all of a sudden exposed to the intense scrutiny of the recording studio. A lot of times things that always sounded fine now sound pretty ragged. The most common problem areas are intonation (singing in tune) and ensemble (singing as a unit instead of 3 or 4 individuals). Pay particular attention to group cut-offs at the end of long held notes. Designate someone (usually the lead singer) to direct the cutoffs via a hand or some other visual signal.
If you will be working with synthesizers on your session, bring the owners manual; unless you are completely familiar with the all MIDI functions. Know what synth sound you are going to use for which part and make sure you know where they can be found in your synthesizer. You should be very familiar with the steps to assign your sounds to the various audio outputs, and how to turn off any reverb or other effects in the board. Making a list of these things before you get to the studio can mean big time savings.
Basic Tracks
When everything is up and running and sounding good we start doing the "Basic Tracks". This is where the basic framework of the song is recorded. You should know in advance the exact arrangement of the song and how fast it will go, and be able to start playing from places in the middle of the arrangement in case that becomes necessary.
If you are comfortable working with metronomes, it can sometimes be beneficial (although not absolutely necessary) to work with a "click track" which is recorded onto the tape and then played along with, to insure that the song does not speed up or slow down.
Working with a click track can be difficult sometimes so you might want to practice with a metronome ahead of time to feel comfortable. Basic tracks are also called "rhythm tracks" because you are trying to set up a solid rhythmic foundation for the rest of the song to be built upon. Usually you will have someone sing what is called a "scratch vocal" as the basic tracks are being recorded. This is a vocal that is not intended to be a final vocal; it is just used as a reference so you can tell where you are in the song while playing.
Overdubbing
Once the basic tracks are down on tape you will have to do "Overdubbing". In order to understand how overdubbing works let's look at the multitrack tape recorder's format for a moment. You can use up to 24 tracks. A track is capable of containing one separate musical performance in the song. It can contain anything from one instrument, drum or voice to a whole bunch of things mixed together.
Tracks can be recorded on in groups or individually. Some tracks can be played back while others are being recorded; this is called an overdub. When you record your basic tracks you will probably simultaneously record onto something like 12 of 16 tracks.*
Of course there are a million variations on this scenario but you get the general idea.
This leaves you 4 tracks left to overdub on. They can be used anyway you like! It is a good idea to know how many parts there are to your song in advance so you don't run out of tracks before you're finished.
This can be very frustrating and time consuming if you have to fix it. So figure out all the guitar, keyboard, vocal etc. tracks beforehand. If inspiration strikes at the session and an unplanned part gets recorded that's OK; just make a note that things will have to be worked around a bit to get all the parts on.
If you have any questions, E-mail us or give us a call and we will help you make sure that your plan will work. It's not hard to figure out and just requires a little thought. Overdubs generally will consume the single largest block of time used in an entire project. Planning is essential to avoid big cost overruns.
Mixing
After the overdubs are completed you will need to "mix down" the tracks to 2 track This is your final stereo master and will be the last chance to get everything sounding exactly right. After the mixdown there is no going back except for re-mixing, which is mixing the whole song all over again. This is very time consuming (read "expensive").
Mixing has three stages. First, you go through each track on the tape and adjust the sound so that the instrument (or whatever) sounds as good as possible.
Secondly, the effects are added. Effects are things like reverbs, delays, flangers, phasers, compression, gating, and all the other wonderful "toys" that modern technology has provided for us. Here at Group Effort we have a wide range of effects with two or more of everything so effects allocation is not a problem. A word should be said here about the difference between reverb and delay. Reverb (sometimes wrongly called echo) is what makes your track sound like it's in a large room or concert hall, while delay is the sound that causes echoes like you hear in the mountains. Short delays are called "doubles" because it can make one person on a track sound like two people.
The third part of mixdown is the actual balancing of all the tracks together to get the best blend. Levels will have to be adjusted, and some tracks will have to be turned off and on at particular times during the song. A typical mix for an album can take anywhere from two to six hours per song, while a quick demo mix might take only half an hour to an hour per song.
We've all heard the expression that you can "Fix it in the Mix!!!". To some extent this is true, but only certain types of things can be fixed in the mix. Mixing can fix things like uneven level changes within tracks or removing unwanted parts, or turning down noise on the track while nothing is going on.
Mixing cannot fix things like out-of-tune guitars or bad notes and sloppy singing in vocals. A common misconception is that a lot of reverb or delay will make a bad track sound good. Nothing could be further from the truth. An out-of-tune note with a huge amount of reverb on it gives you a lot of out-of-tune reverb! Remember: a bad track will always stick out. No amount of effects or anything else will make it sound better. The only way to fix it is to remove or replay it.
So there you have it. The recording studio can be an extremely flexible, creative tool for the person who knows how to use it effectively. It takes a lot of thought and time to become an expert at using a modern studio but anyone can get good results the first time out by following the advice and hints in this brochure.
Editing/Mastering
After mixing you will need to put all the songs in the correct order and decide how much space should go in between them. This is called "pacing" the album and is part of the process known as Mastering.
Sometimes songs will need an internal edit in order to reach a particular target length or shorten an intro. You can even combine portions of different mixes and takes to create a composite master performance.
You can also change the relative loudness of the songs individually, or tweek the tonal balance (EQ) so each cut flows smoothly into the next. All of this is done with our SoundTools digital editing system which can do some absolutely amazing things that were just plain impossible just a few years ago!
CD Recording
Recently, it has become possible to record your own CDs from a master DAT tape. They are made one at a time with the help of (what else) a computer, and some very cool software called MasterList CD. With this program and it's cousin, SoundDesigner, we literally have complete CD mastering capability. Take a more in-depth look at this exciting new technology.
Compact Discs have been with us for 15 years now, but for the longest time we wanted to record them too, as if they were cassette tapes, without the large expense of a huge production run at some factory. Up until recently, doing so was both cost prohibitive and technically a little shaky. That is, discs made in the one-at-a-time mode would refuse to play in some CD players and other assorted problems. But as the CD powers that be (usually referred to as "they") defined and refined the technical specifications for Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R), it became possible to make CDs at the studio that were good enough to send off as the masters for regular mass-production runs.
At this writing there are basically two approaches to personal CD recording. One is the stand-alone CD-R unit which works very much like you would expect an audio CD-Recorder to work, with Record, Play, Skip, Search, and Track ID buttons. Put in a blank CD, hit record, start your master and burn baby burn. Simple. On the surface, this approach has much merit, but as you dig deeper (as we are wont to do) you uncover a few things that aren't so hot.
The other is the computer automated approach, where you get the music on your CD via a computer data transfer after yu have arranged everything properly.
The Early Bird Gets the...
First of all, all CD recorders are what the computer guys call WORM devices, which is an acronym for Write Once, Read Many. This means you only have one shot per disc--one mistake and you have a useless $9 gold drink coaster on your hands! So the key to success is to have high accuracy and repeatability if you want to avoid the coaster syndrome.
The stand-alone units suffer a major design flaw in the area of the Track ID. You can either have them put on automatically, or manually. Automatic would be the way to go it would seem, but there's a catch--it uses music level sensing as the trigger for this process. If the sound level drops below a certain loudness for a certain period of time, the next time the level rises above a pre-set threshold you get an automatically placed track ID. This is great if you wanted an ID there, but there are plenty of musical situations that occur which will fool the recorder into placing an ID where you don't want one; and then it's coaster city! Also since the trigger is the music level, the IDs will actually be on the disc slightly after the first sound of a track by up to 1/5th of a second, due to the laws of physics. This is exacly backwards from the way it should be. A track ID should precede it's music track by a certain amount to allow time for the CD player to turn off the muting circuit that is engaged when you are between songs during playback.
So try the manual ID entry mode you say. Alright, but now you have to sit in front of the thing for over and hour, with your button push times on paper, pushing the ID button flawlessly with 1/10 of a second accuracy. If your attention wanders even a little bit at a crucial time--say hello to the golden coaster club again! I hope you have a lot of parties.
The next main drawback of the stand-alone units is in their inability to work in what is known as "disc at once" mode. A master quality CD must be recorded from beginning to end with no interruption; stand alone units work in the "track at once" mode where unpredictable errors and digital "garbage" can creep into the area on the disc between songs. Usually this doesn't present any big problem to a CD player since the output is muted anyway during that time, but the CD factories generally don't like to mass duplicate discs that contain these errors, for obvious reasons.
What's A Mother To Do?
So what is the alternative? Use a CD recorder that hooks up to your computer, instead of your DAT machine. These are called CD-ROM recorders and they offer the added benefit of being able to record both in the audio CD and computer CD formats. The incredible technical pace of computing today has brought the price of these machines into the affordable range. With appropriate audio CD mastering software you can transfer your music mixes to your computer's hard disk, arrange them in the correct order, put the right amount of space between them, adjust left/right balance from song to song, control placement of start IDs and then transfer all of the music and subcodes (IDs, timings, song start positions etc.) to the recordable CD resulting in a technically perfect master CD. If your computer and CD recorder are fast enough, you can even do this in 1/2 or 1/4 of the time it would take to play the CD from the beginning. After you are done with that, you can then use it to back up your computer's hard disk in the data CD format. Too cool.
Make a master CD for duplication. You can be present during the mastering process to answer questions and make decisions. This means more control for you, and that's good. Then take that CD and play it on as many systems as possible to get an accurate "real-world" check out of what your release will sound like. No more guessing what your CD will sound like based on regular cassettes, which are the bottom-feeder of the audio food-chain for sure. If everything's ok, send the disc off to be duplicated. The CDs you get back from the plant are sonically identical to the one you sent out and you have made your best effort at making sure your artistic intentions reach the consumer as intact as you can make them.
Put your club or wedding demo on CD and you can make quick, high-quality custom demos by using your CD player's track programming feature. Plus, cassettes made from a CD sound a whole lot better than cassettes made from other cassettes.
Get a copy of your cassette-only release or EP on CD and when you go for a radio interview take it along so you'll sound as good on the radio as the national artists.
Make a few CDs to give to local radio stations so they can play your stuff (radio stations don't play cassettes on the air as a rule) and promote your cassette-only release.
Save your digital audio master file as a computer CD-ROM for the ultimate in reliable backup of priceless data.
