Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What should I bring to the recording session?
Q: What about food and drink?
Q: How many songs can I record in one session?
Q: Why isn’t my CD as loud as commercial releases?
Q: What is Mastering and why is it important to me?
Q: What about Payment?
Q: Studio Prep
Q: What should I bring to the recording session?
A: First and foremost you should bring anything that you want recorded. We have various keyboards and synths as well as a drumkit that you are welcome to use, however if you have specific cymbals, drums, effects pedals or amps etc that you want to use for your recording then you should definitely bring them with you.
You are more than welcome to use our Marshall Vintage Modern Valve amp (in fact we encourage it!) and we also get great bass tones from the Sansamp para driver, so unless you have a super boutique bass amp, you can usually leave that at home….
Q: What about food and drink?
A: We will provide a selection of hot and cold drinks including tea and coffee. You should bring a packed lunch with you. Alternatively there is a variety of local pubs and cafes that serve hot meals that are a short distance away by car. There is also a local shop where you can buy hot and cold snacks and drinks.
Q: How many songs can I record in one session?
A: This depends on many different factors. The most important factors are how rehearsed you are and how you want to record; all at once or overdubbing. People also regularly underestimate how long it takes to mix and to burn CDs at the end of the session. This is something that is equally as important as the recording, yet something clients frequently don’t budget enough time for. Please take time to read our studio preparation below for more information as to what you can expect and how you can help make the process run smoothly.
Q: Why isn’t my CD as loud as commercial releases?
A: The main reason for this is due to the fact that nearly all commercial releases are Mastered by a professional Mastering engineer at a dedicated facility.
As recording engineers we are tasked with recording a great performance to the best of our ability and then balancing the result to provide a dynamic record where all parts can be heard. There is a so-called Loudness War going on in the audio industry at the moment which stems from artists’ and producers’ desires to create CDs that sound as loud as possible or louder than CDs from competing artists or recording labels.
However, as the maximum amplitude of a CD is at a fixed level, once that level has been reached, the overall loudness can only be increased by reducing the dynamic range via hyper-compression and limiting. This is done by amplifying the lower-level program material, while the loudest peak sounds are either destroyed or severely diminished. Certain extreme uses of dynamic range compression can introduce distortion or clipping to the waveform of the recording.
A recent example of the loudness war going to extremes was the release of the latest Metallica album “Death Magnetic” which was hyper-compressed to sound louder and more forceful at the expense of sound quality. In fact a version of the album on Guitar Hero 3 was deemed to sound better because it was compressed less than the CD release…
New measures are being implemented to bring dynamics back to music:
Turn Me Up!™ is a non-profit music industry organisation campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records. It’s not their goal to discourage loud records; they are, of course, a valid choice for many artists. They simply want to make the choice for a more dynamic record an option for artists.
Something else that is being implemented to minimise the effects of the loudness war is the use of Replay Gain which is a proposed standard published in 2001 to normalise the perceived loudness of computer audio formats. Various audio players have implemented the standard which will output the audio files at a similar perceived volume, hopefully negating the need for over-compressed master recordings.
Q: What is Mastering and why is it important to me?
A: Mastering is a process that is often overlooked and/or misunderstood. Every major label release is mastered to prepare it for radio play and retail sale. The reason? In the studio you may record one song at a time, resulting in songs that could all peak at different levels and have different EQs. This is also potentially the case if tracks have been recorded or mixed at different studios. A CD mastering engineer can unify your album with skilful use of EQ, gain, and compression to give it a consistent sound from track to track.
A fresh pair of ears can be the difference between a good-sounding CD and a great one. A real advantage of post production is that an unbiased sound professional has the opportunity to evaluate your master and determine how to get the most out of your production. After you’ve spent days, weeks or even months in a recording studio listening to your CD over and over again, a fresh pair of ears can put the project into perspective for you and let you know whether or not your CD will benefit from post production.
The mastering engineer, to improve your recording, can:
• Raise the overall level.
• Even out song levels and EQ individual tracks for cohesion.
• Correct minor mix deficiencies with equalisation.
• Enhance flow by changing the space between tracks.
• Eliminate noises between tracks.
Q: What about Payment?
A: We accept payment via cash, cheques or PayPal. We apologise but we do not accept card payments.
We do expect payment to be settled before any CDs or MP3s are handed out and may ask for up to 50% deposit for longer bookings.
Studio Prep – Things to Know and Do in Advance
Nobody likes rules and regulations, but in the recording studio, unless you are the Rolling Stones or U2, time is short and is usually costing money. How are you supposed to know what to expect if you’ve never done any recording before?
General Points for Everyone:
The one thing that is very important is your level of expectation.
You may have a favourite album or band that you want your recording to sound like. While this is great and gives us a clear idea as to what your influences are, what you have to understand is that some records that are noted for their sound often took months and thousands of pounds to make.
Know the songs inside out.
You must know the arrangement for your parts even when playing by yourself. Can you play the song without the singer? It’s not easy to remember arrangements without the vocals and the other musicians to follow. Practice this and it will save lots of time. Write out arrangement sheets if necessary.
Be realistic about your technical abilities.
If you have written a part that is too tricky, make it simpler. Keep it as simple as you need to get it right every time and the recording process will be much smoother. If you make a mistake, I am going to make you do it again and this will start to annoy you after the tenth take! Recording is not like playing live. It magnifies every mistake and captures them forever. If there are obvious mistakes on the finished recording you will not be happy that I let them through.
We politely suggest that no girlfriends/boyfriends/mates/pets are invited to the session.
It is not a social event. Obviously if you need to bring someone for a valid reason (photographer/driver/proud parent etc) then please do not hesitate to speak to us prior to your session.
Get a good night’s sleep the night before.
Please do not turn up drunk or high.
No eating or drinking in the control room or nearby any equipment please.
Singer
You must at the very least know the words and be able to sing in tune. You may have heard that studio techniques are used to correct bad tuning and, yes, this is possible, but it is much easier to get it right first time. And you don’t want to cheat, right? Print out any lyrics you need and bring them with you as well as other singing aids (vocal zones, honey etc).
Vocals are often recorded last of all so don’t be too upset if you don’t have a lot to do at first. Help and encourage your band mates as they record their parts and they will do the same for you.
Drums
Depending on the song, it may be of benefit to record the drums whilst listening to a click track.
Practice playing to a click beforehand.
If you contact me beforehand I can supply you with an mp3 of a studio click at a desired tempo for you to practice with. Be aware that most modern pop/rock/metal is recorded this way as amongst other things it helps with editing and adding time-based effects like delay.
No amount of studio trickery can improve bad sounding drums.
If your kit is not up to par, consider borrowing/hiring a better one. At the very least you will need new heads on the drums and for them to be tuned properly. If you don’t know how to tune your drums get on the Internet and learn or find a drum teacher. I have drums and cymbals that can be used if required. Talk to me in advance if you think you might need these.
When recording, try to go easy on the hats and cymbals.
This may not be something that is natural for you but it will improve the balance of the drum recording. Practice hitting hats and cymbals more gently than the rest of the kit. This means that they will not be as loud in all the other drum microphones and we can get a more balanced kit sound as a result.
Guitar & Bass
Make sure your guitars are set up properly.
Fit new strings and stretch them in.
Get used to playing with less distortion – less is more when recording.
Bass players – don’t get upset if I ask you to DI your bass when you have a sweet amp that you love.
If you use pedals, get new quality batteries for each of them, even if you have mains adapters.
Buy a guitar tuner and learn to use it.
Don’t forget your plectrums, although we always have spares if you need them.
