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Thirty-five minutes from Vancouver and surrounded by tall trees and bird feeders, it provides a comfortable, relaxing setting for creating music. Every client and session player who has worked here has commented on the pleasant change from windowless, hermetically-sealed city studios. Paul is available as producer at his studio, or in other studios depending on necessity and preference. For a list of gear listed below. There is also a list of Equipment for sale The section below contains a detailed description of a typical session and what you should do to prepare for that session. The info here was modified with permission of Mark Plancke of Soundtech Studio. Visit his site for other interesting info.
PREPARING TO RECORD: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 MusiciansStudio 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 $150.00 to $350.00 per day. THE ROLE OF THE PRODUCER: Producer (pro-doo! cer) n. '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 functions 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 AND SETUP:The time taken to setup the right microphone through the right preamp will take time, but it will assure the sound is premium and wont need as much tweaking in the mix stage. This a time when patience is required and clock watching will create tension that will ruin a good days performance. Drum setups (this includes the time to mic and eq.) typically take a few hours, so it is best to have the drums come earlier than the planned recording time. 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 , although there is a Fender Blues delux and a pod on the premises. 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.
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 TracksThe next few pages will walk you through a typical recording session, one step at a time. We will talk you through each step and try and shed some light on why things are done in a particular way, or point out certain common pitfalls that have made themselves apparent over the years.
Sound CheckOnce everything is set up we begin the "Sound Check". The studio session clock for billing starts now. Sound check is to make sure everything is working and sounding good before rolling tape. Drums are usually checked first since they are the most complicated. The engineer will start with the bass drum and get the preliminary sound on that and each of the other drums and cymbals. If you have a special way you want the drums to sound, tell the engineer as he goes through each of the drums and cymbals. If the sound you describe can be found only with lots of special effects (as are a lot of today's snare drum sounds, for example) it will be better to just get the basic drum sound for the present because a lot of extra effects in the headphones can make it harder to hear yourself while laying down the basic tracks. You can always add the effects later when mixing down. After checking drums, we'll check the bass and guitars, keyboards, vocals and whatever else needs to be recorded during basic tracks.
Cutting Basic TracksWhen 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.
OverdubbingOnce 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 15 of your 24 tracks. Of course there are a million variations on this scenario but you get the general idea. This leaves you 9 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 DownAfter the overdubs are completed you will need to "mix down" the 24 tracks to 2 track DAT or analog tape. 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 Soundtech 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 and MasteringAfter 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 tweak the tonal balance (EQ) so each cut flows smoothly into the next. We can do in house mastering if your on a super tight budget or are doing a limited distribution. We do not recommend mastering a project at a friends house or someone who decided to set up a mastering suite in their bedroom. Most of the time this will do a lot more harm than good. You owe it to yourself and your project to master at a professional mastering studio, we think the cost vs benefits are excellent in the hands of a pro. Below is a post excerpt by Jay Frigoletto of Atlanta Digital that is the best summary on the true value of mastering that I have come across. Mastering is more than a fresh set of impartial ears, although this is certainly one advantage. It's the experience of the ears in mastering which is different from mixing. The best mix engineers still get all of their work mastered. It's a different discipline, however related. It's the training of the ears, knowing what to look for, knowing how far to go, knowing how it will translate, knowing the monitors, the experience with so many records that have come through, with what works and what doesn't. It's the training, the knowledge that has been passed on by somebody more experienced, learning the aesthetic and technical details that aren't obvious or seem counter-intuitive to the lay person. It's the gear. Its the well designed and implemented monitoring environment, the high definition full range monitors, the knowledge of when and how to dither, what type, what gain, noise shaping or not, which curve. It's having the highest quality processing gear and the cleanest signal path. It's having digital gear that processes at a high enough resolution for the resolution of your project, and gear that doesn't truncate, and offers you dithering options when you need them, and has tried and tested quality algorithms and proper DSP practice. It's quality A/D and D/A and properly maintained and calibrated tape machines. It's understanding PQ codes, ISRC codes, noise reduction, and different master formats that will come in and be delivered. It's having the proper gear to make masters that glass can be cut directly from. It's knowing what glass mastering is in the first place, and why that's not done at the "mastering" houses we are talking about, It's knowing the difference between mastering and pre-mastering. It's knowing when to use analog or digital, how to get to and from digital with the least degradation. It's not getting carried away, it's restraint, but it's not necessarily timid. It's attention to detail, cleaning heads and tails, adjusting fades when necessary, making the album even from track to track, not thinking normalization will do this for you, understanding emphasis, not losing bits of data that are important or passing bits of data that are incorrect, knowing what to do about DC, phase relationships, balance, clicks, pops, dropouts, and how to prepare a proper log for the replication plant. It's all of this and more. It is NOT putting an EQ and a limiter on the mix bus so your CD is loud and bright. If you don't understand the difference yet, keep working in the business and eventually you will learn. And if you don't learn, you are sadly missing out on one of the most valuable assets in the completion of your project that you have put your heart and hard work into. GearThe studio is equipped with: Microphones:
Mixers:
Computer:Recorders:
ADA Converters & Preamps:
Monitoring:
Recording and mastering software:
Amps and Instruments:
Equipment for sale:
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