Studio Time

RATES:

Mon-Fri: $45 (Woodgrain)
Nights & Weekends: $35 (Tony)(2hr minimum)
Blocks: $50 discount if buying 10hrs

PRICES:

CDs: $3
Email: $3

DUPLICATION:

100 Disc Package(100 white printable cds, burned, 100 slim black cases): $70
100 Discs Burned(you bring the discs): $40
100 Discs Burned(white printable discs):$60
100 Slim Back Cases: $15

POLICY:

Canceling: $5 for every hr
Late: $5 after 20 minutes


I don't record "funk/beef music"
NO DRUGS in the studio what so ever
NO SMOKING in the studio
Anyone being disrespectful has to leave
No bathroom
Limited parking (3 cars)

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I have been recording with Steinberg products since 2000. With almost 10 years of experience, anything is possible.

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Here is one of the many great features of Cubase 5. Does your DAW do this?

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Avalon 737sp (Tube Preamp/compressor):

What is a "Preamp?" Now only does it power the studio microphone, the preamp colors it. This is an authentic high-quality Tube Preamp and compressor. People like tubes because of their "warmth." Tubes typically are described as "noisy," but this Avalon is one of the cleanest sounding ones. Avalon 737 is good for rap because it also has a smooth compressor that will capture the quiet and loud parts of vocals without noticeably smashing the sound. With this preamp, harsh sounding vocals are a thing of the past.

Used by Dr. Dre on 50 cent's vocal on the song 'In Da Club'

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MASTERING:

Mastering changes the sound of your mix about 3 percent. Why is mastering such a big deal? Mastering makes your music overall competitive with mainstream music. When you are in your car listening to mainstream music and you change CDs, you shouldn't have to adjust your volume, treble, or bass. Believe it or not, mainstream music all has a similar "volume" that isn't too "smashed" sounding or too "rough" and quiet sounding with volume spikes. Every frequency in a song has "volume" setting that mainstream music has agreed on. This is why you don't have to adjust the bass and treble when you change songs or albums. Although there is no rule-book or documentation about where your levels are supposed to be, it is observed when you listen to mainstream music.

How much does it cost to master?
It is the same price as studio time.

Can you master a song you didn't record?
Yes, but the master only changes the mix ~3%. If you are not happy with your mix, then you probably won't like the master either.

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HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE STUDIO:

Tell the engineer your budget and what you want to get done, so they know how much time to spend on things to meet your needs.

Make a list. If you have a lot to get done, write down the order you want to record in, where the beats are, the track numbers, and edits.

Name your songs before you record them! Engineers will ask for the ARTIST name, the ALBUM name, and the SONG name to put the song under.

Write down your ideas. If you want artwork done, draw what you want the art to look like. Email text such as track listings, credits, features, etc so they can easily be copy and pasted in to the design. You don't want to spend a lot of time or money for the designer to type.

If you have a CD badly scratched and this is your only copy, don't think it will be okay if you burn another copy on your computer. Most of the time, the audio will be recorded with the glitches and skips. Bring in both CDs anyways. Different CD drives behave differently to different types of CD-Rs and scratches, but be sure to bring the original. Sometimes ripping the track off of the disk at a very slow speed will correct these problems. If you aren't aware how to do this, the studio can. I use Audio Grabber because you can select the read speed.

MP3's usually sound as good as CDs except they are missing some of the high frequencies (treble) in the music. Once a song has been converted to an MP3, the lost data can not be re-created. Burning MP3s to an audio CD doesn't bring the quality back. High frequencies move faster and therefore it takes a lot of data to convert their analog signal to digital 1's and 0's.

Don't burn CDs with Windows Media Player. By default, Windows Media Player burns CDs as fast as possible. This can lead to missing data which results in glitches in your audio. There is also a default setting that smashes the songs down to "80% RMS volume." The songs will sound like they are too loud, but their levels will be low. Once the volume dynamics have been damaged, they can't be un-done.

If you have MP3s or other audio files that you are wanting to record on, bring them to the studio in the same format on a data CD or USB storage device such as a flash drive. Sometimes your burning program can distort the audio. Another thing, audio CDs skip when they are scratched, but a scratched data CD doesn't make an MP3 skip.

Work efficiently and effectively. The average song takes about 45 minutes from start to finish. Singers usually take longer to record. If you have multiple people on a song, it will take longer to record. If you bring people to the studio, your session will be less productive because of distractions to yourself and the engineer. Engineers are like artists, they like to work fast so the songs stay fresh. If you spend too much time on a song, your ears start to get "tired" because you get used to listening to the song the way it sounds before it's finished.

Communicate effectively. Engineers rarely pay attention to minutes and seconds. We normally speak of music in terms of measures or "bars." Verses are usually 16 bars and choruses are usually 8 bars. Learn some of the terminology so the person responsible for how your music sounds can understand what you want. If you bring people to the studio with you, it may make it hard to communicate with the engineer because of background noise, phone calls, and other distractions.