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If you have a specific question and you don't see it here, please email us at: < info@guesthousestudios.com >. - How long have you been doing this type of work?  - How long does it take to record a CD? UPDATED! - How much does it cost to record a CD? - What's the difference between a 'demo,’ a ‘record’, and an ‘EP?’ - What is the recording process? - What is mastering? - Does Guest House Studios master? - Do you have any tips for preparing before committing to studio time? - What do we bring to the recording session? - Do you do Karaoke voice overs/vocals? - Do You Use Pro Tools? - What are your hours? - What kind of microphones do you use and how to you determine which ones to use? NEW! =============================== - How long have you been doing this type of work? In 1994, I started with a small, modest home studio hunkered away in a spare bedroom. It was a small Fostex 4-track recorder using Cakewalk 3.0, with a few Shure microphones and synthesizer. Simple, but effective enough to compose and write simple instrumental songs. I upgraded the home studio as technology improved and my wallet allowed. Additionally, I’ve performed music for about 30 years, which included a variety of styles in a variety of bands. In some of these bands I’ve had the opportunity to record demo CDs (uhh, cassette tapes in the mid-90s) and get a good behind-the-scenes look at how a recording studios operates and interfaces with its clients. See more info on my Bio page on the Guest House Studios website. Unfortunately, there's no standard time for recording a CD. It all depends since there are many variables that determine how much time is needed to complete a recording project. A 5-song, quick-and-dirty demo CD can take between 5 and 10 hours of recording time. Typically it takes about an hour or two for each song during the tracking process. Once the studio session is complete, it takes about 30 to 60 minutes per song to mix. However, the whole ball of wax to record a full CD (‘record’) can take months, while a demo can take 1 to 2 hours per song to record. An EP could take anywhere from 5 - 10 hours per song to record. Back to Top The actual cost varies from region to region and depends upon the size and capabilities of the recording studio. Just as with understanding how long it takes to record a CD, there are many variables that factor into the cost of completing a project. First, the engineer must understand the client’s goals and expectations. Second, the level of preparedness of the client varies as well. Most demo projects consist of 4 or 5 songs, mixed and express mastered, and cost approximately $150 to $300. Variables that influence the time and cost include the level of client preparedness before coming to the studio, as well as how well the client performs during the studio sessions. The goal is to get each track of each song recorded in one or two takes. Keep in mind that the cost for a full-service, well-polished commercial CD can cost anywhere from $1,000 and up depending on the number of songs and the actual approach taken to record (i.e., live as a band or record one track at a time). But don’t be afraid, for most Guest House Studio clients this is beyond their goals or objectives. - What's the difference between a 'demo,’ a ‘record’, and an ‘EP?’ A 'demo' is short for demonstration. They are also called “short-run CDs.” The primary purpose of a demo is to show the artist's or band’s abilities. A full CD or record is a complete finished work ready for mass distribution. An EP (extended play) is a finished work, but typically consists of 5-7 songs. Demos are usually good for getting paid gigs. Depending on the gig, demos can be sold along with other band merchandise. The EP however, is a more serious work of art, which takes longer to record, mix, and master. But the EP can be used not only to get gigs, but to sell at those gigs or sell online. An EP, just like a record, is typically professionally packaged. Before going into the studio, we recommend you determine your goals, budget, and end product (i.e., demo, EP, or record). A popular option is to do a demo first, then later on follow-up with an EP. Guest House Studios can provide you with inexpensive options to capture your sound and help you get some gigs and sales. Keep in mind, that the whole ball of wax to record a full CD (‘record’) can take months, while a demo can take 1 to 2 hours per song to record. An EP could take anywhere from 5 - 10 hours per song to record. - What is the recording process? There are three major processes to capture and produce your music: (1) recording (tracking), The recording and tracking processes are typically done in a recording studio, such as Guest House Studios. The mastering process can be done either in the recording studio or a separate mastering studio. The typical recording studio consists of three major areas: (1) the “live” room or "studio" room, where the music being recorded is performed Once you are done recording, the recording engineer takes over and edits each song to ensure it is mixed to present a clean balance and each instrument and vocals are all contributing to the overall song, and not competing with each other. Mastering is a complex process and too broad for this website to explain in detail, so we’ll discuss mastering as it pertains to Guest House Studios. Additional information can be found at: http://www.massivemastering.com/ Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring your songs from a final mix to a source (usually a CD) for duplication and distribution. The primary objectives of mastering are to: (1) Improve the sound quality (“add shine and sheen) of the songs. Also, mastering is a mix of technical and artistic processes. From a technical perspective, a mastering engineer edits minor flaws, reduces or eliminates noise, adds ambience, equalizes the level and feel of the songs as one compilation, to name a few. From an artistic perspective, the mastering engineer improves the overall quality of the songs themselves and to ensure the CD compilation sounds good in various environments on various media (as outlined above). The mastering engineer also determines the song order to ensure the songs flow and complement each other. After leaving the recording and mixing phases, your songs are mixed down to stereo WAV format and burned to a CD. The “mix down” or “final mix” are pretty good quality recordings at this point, but the songs have not yet been compiled onto a CD into any kind of order or any leveling done between the songs on the CD. If you played the final mix CD from the recording studio you may notice that the songs: (1) are not in the order that you would like them, This is where mastering comes in. Once again, the CD that comes straight out from the recording process may be good enough for short-run CDs for demo purposes, with some minor improvements, but not for anything more than that. “Express mastering” applies some last-minute touches and improvements (i.e., some EQ here, some EQ there, sequence the songs, apply a limiter to level the volume throughout the entire CD, etc) to your CD that provides an excellent product for promotional, gigging, and local sales purposes. Full-service mastering requires special studio equipment ($100,000 in equipment is not unheard of) and experienced mastering engineers to ensure your hard work sounds good no matter what it’s played on. The mastering studio bridges the recording studio to the duplication and distribution company/companies. The duplication and distribution companies have the capability to mass produce (thousands; millions if you need it) copies of your CD with the goal to sell them in stores or online. So, why is mastering so important you may ask? First, mastering applies an independent set of ears to your hard work. The mastering engineer can take an objective listen with a fresh set of ears to improve on the sound quality of your work. Second, the mastering studio has very expensive, specifically designed equipment to provide the highest quality mastering possible. The equipment can catch the most intricate problems or flaws that many recording studios cannot always discover Yes and no. No, Guest House Studios does not do the full-service mastering that a dedicated mastering studio with dedicated mastering engineers do on a day-to-day basis. We perform a basic capability we call “express mastering” that provides you with a “good-enough” quality mastered demo CD that allows you to copy, package, and distribute for promotional purposes, getting gigs, or selling at your local gigs. However, we do offer the option of sending the pre-mastered CD from Guest House Studios to an independent mastering studio for those who want to produce an entire CD for the purpose of mass distribution and sales. Keep in mind that the cost for this service significantly increases the total cost of your project. If at all possible, it is highly recommended that you have your CD mastered at a dedicated mastering studio if the CD is expected to be more than a demo, promotional, or EP CD. Yes, Guest House Studios provides a basic “express mastering” capability as mentioned above. We provide you with a quality CD that can be copied, packaged, and distributed for promotional purposes, getting gigs, or selling at your local gigs. We provide you with the master CD plus 5 copies on CD. We highly recommend you safeguard the master CD for future purposes. NOTE: If you're offered a Mastering service using the same recording engineer for tracking, mixing, and mastering....that is NOT true professional mastering. So please keep this in mind. If the same recording studio is "mastering" your songs in the same studio with the same engineer, then it is an "express" method of mastering. Guest House Studios provides two options for mastering: Express Mastering. We do Express Mastering in house using Sonar Producer 7, UAD Virtual Plug-ins, Sony SoundForge, and Sony CD Architect. The purpose is to sequence the songs, add some finishing touches, and to get the CD to a point where it’s listenable on a wide-variety of media. After the mixing is complete and the songs are in a stereo WAV file, we put it aside for 24 to 48 hours to give our ears a rest. A standard industry adage is that it is never a good idea to record, mix, and master on the same day. Once we’ve rested our ears, we re-listen to the songs to determine if there are any areas, glitches, or problems we may have missed during the mixing process. We use a combination of Sonar, UAD Plug-ins, and SoundForger to refine the songs. Next we group the songs together and determine the song order. We typically take your recommendation for song order as a starting point. If there are any major discrepancies between your preferred song order and our recommended song order we’ll contact you to discuss our rationale. Next we determine the amount of quiet space and fade-in/out between each song. Then we use CD Architect to group the songs together and establish the song order and the amount of quiet space between each song. After the songs have been properly sequenced, using CD Architect we adjust the volume levels of each song to ensure there is no discernible difference in volume between all the songs. Every song so be at the same perceivable level. The last thing we want is to have the listener adjusting the volume know between the songs on the CD. Once all the levels are set, we burn a pre-master CD to Red Book specifications. At this point we provide you with a copy of the pre-master CD to evaluate for yourself. We recommend you take a few days to listen to the pre-master CD. Listen to it on as many sound media as possible. If you feel some changes are needed, please write them down in as much detail as possible so we can quickly find the spots you are referring to on the CD. For example, if a song sounds good in all locations except for maybe the bass doesn’t come through on the boombox in your den, then we’ll do everything we can to figure out what’s causing that song to not sound good. In some cases it may be that the environment in which you are listening to the CD is not conducive to any music. If the pre-master CD is okay, then we’ll make five additional copies for you. Full-service Mastering. For full-service mastering, we send the final mix CD to a mastering studio that is designed, constructed, equipped, and staffed to handle all the tasks it is required to produce your material for wide-spread distribution, typically for commercial or indie release. The mastering studio takes this CD and uses its special equipment and experienced engineers to improve the sound quality, determine track order, and amount of quiet time between tracks. Once complete the mastering studio applies industry standard codes such as ISRC codes, PQ codes, CD text, index marker locations, hidden tracks, etc. Once this is complete, the mastering studio burn a final CD, which is called a pre-master. At this point the pre-master is sent back to Guest House Studios or to a duplication company, depending on your needs. If you decide to send it to a duplication company, ensure that you have your artwork ready to go. Boy do I. Here’s a list of key ideas all clients should consider before scheduling studio time. 1. Maintain a Good Work Ethic and Discipline. Get prepared. Rehearse and know the songs cold before coming into the studio. If you or your band cannot perform the songs without messing up, then you are not ready to record. Even if you are well-rehearsed and know the songs cold, there will still be problems, but they’d be manageable and not waste a lot of valuable recording time. If you can't perform the songs all the way through at rehearsal without screwing up, it definitely won't work here either. 2. Make Sure Your Equipment is Professional and in Good Working Order. For guitars make sure you change your strings before the recording session, but recommend not within 24 hours of the scheduled time to give your strings a chance to stretch out so you won’t have tuning problems. Also bring spare parts, especially for those drummers who bring their own drum kits. We don’t know how many times the drummer forgot the cow bell. For the vocalists, especially those who bring their own microphones, be sure they are quality microphones and in good working order. If any equipment is battery operated, please ensure you bring extra batteries. Yes, guitarists have been know to show up without guitar picks and drummers without sticks. 3. Have a Game Plan. Be ready to tell the recording engineer exactly what you want done, what your goals and expectations are, which instruments will be used for each song, and in what order you’d like to record the songs. This also helps you to determine what questions you may have ahead of time before getting started in the studio. It’ll help the session flow much better. 4. Time is of the Essence. Also, my grandma always used to say, “Time flies when you're having fun.” You’ll be surprised how fast the time flies during the recording process. It is recommended that you not request to hear the full playback of each song. The time adds up and you may find yourself not recording that last song because you ran out of time. Playing back each song also opens up the possibility of the band wasting time discussing their performance and whether they should do another take, especially the lead guitarist who always seems to want to do a dozen takes of his spectacular solo! 5. Don’t Bring Your Entourage. This includes your mom, sister, ex-boyfriend, your neighbor’s cat, etc. Only bring those people who have direct involvement in the recording session. They also can take away valuable time from the recording process, and as a result, you won’t get your money’s worth. 6. Turn Off Your Cell Phone. They only cause distraction before, during, and after the recording session. 7. Know the Kabuki Choreography. What we mean here is that the recording engineer has a job to do and the performers have a job to do. It’s important to stay out of each other’s way. This will help the session to go smoothly and not waste any valuable time. Know when the recording engineer needs to get things done, such as setting up microphones, running cables, checking instruments, etc. Try to stay out of the engineer’s way. Conversely, once everything is set up for the song to be tracked, the engineer will get out of the way of the performers as they do their stuff. - Do you do Karaoke voice overs? Rule #1: Maintain a good work ethic and maintain discipline, which includes coming to the studio well prepared to do some good work. The rule of thumb is: come prepared! Be ready to perform your songs well. What You Don’t Need to Bring: - Microphones & Accessories (unless the performers have a particular microphone that they are comfortable with; sometimes drummers will bring their own microphones with their drum kits) - Headphones. The studio will provide headphones for all performers (unless the performer has a particular headphone they are comfortable with). - Guitarists can run their guitars through supply of amplifiers in the studio. See equipment list on the Guest House Studios website. However, most guitarists usually bring their own amps. - Guitartists can use the supply of guitars in the studio if it’s determined a specific guitar will fit the song better. - Drummers can use the drum kits in the studio, but recommend they bring their own sticks. Sometimes a drummer may opt to use the studio’s drums but will use his/her own cymbals or snare. That works just fine. What You Should Bring: - Spare parts, such as strings, drum sticks, batteries, picks, guitar cables, guitar straps, guitar tuners, etc. This is also a sign of the client’s preparedness for the session. - Snacks. We highly recommend you bring your own refreshments or lunch (if working through lunch hours). We can provide coffee, water, and other bar-type snacks such as peanuts. Keep in mind that they are no convenience stores or fast food restaurants within walking distance of the studio. What You Need to Bring: - Money! Yes, bring money to pay the balance of the bill! J Back to Top Yes I do. I use a combination of Pro Tools and Sonar depending on the project. There are two versions of Pro Tools: a relatively inexpensive version and a astromonically expensive version. Even the inexpensive version (i.e., Pro Tools LE) costs about $2,000 with the mandatory proprietary DigiDesign 002 or DigiDesign 003, but is limited to just 32 recording tracks. So in my opinion it is not the "real professional studio version" of ProTools HD. In fact, Sonar Producer has many more features, capabilities, and power than Pro Tools LE does. The expensive version (i.e., HD) costs $10,000 or more. Adding the necessary bells and whistles can easily jump the cost to $20,000. Cubase is another popular PC-based multi-track recording tool developed by Steinberg. You can read more about Cubase here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cuebase> . We use Cubase on special request. Guest House Studios analyzed the tools in the market and determined Sonar Producer to be the best fit for the market it is expected to support. We felt that the Pro Tools LE version didn’t meet all the needs for running Guest House Studios as the primary software of choice. We felt that we needed more than 32 tracks of audio for some recording session. Some songs we've recently recorded had over 32 tracks. The Pro Tools HD version supports 192 tracks, but is too cost prohibitive for the mission of Guest House Studios. Guest House Studios would need to charge at least three times as much to recoup the cost of Pro Tools HD. Personally, I have been using Cakewalk products since 1994, so I am very familiar with the Sonar line of products. Additionally, Sonar works very well with the Microsoft Vista operating system. Bottomline: In the digital realm these tools show no difference in sound quality. - What kind of microphones do you use and how to you determine which ones to use? Microphones are a critical element in the overall recording chain. As I have mentioned before, a good end result from your recording project consists of many different elements. Recap: The microphone directly falls in the Good Recording Chain category. With a good preamp (which also fits into the Good Recording Chain category) and a good quality microphone that fits the performer (male? Female?) and performance (i.e., tired vocalist?, shows passion?, good mic technique?, good singing technique, etc), the chances for an outstanding end result are increased. As a result, it’s important for the studio to understand which microphones are best for any particular performer, performance, and room that it will be recorded in. However, the bottom line is a good sense of how to mix the science (acoustics theory) and art (subjective gut feel for what sounds good). ------------------------------------------------- Vocals: Mojave Audio MA-200, Shure SM7b, Neumann TLM103, Shure SM57, Sennheiser MD421, Rode NT-1a Kick Drum: Shure SM52, AKG D112, SM7b Snare: Shure SM57 (top and bottom) Toms: Sennheiser MD421, AKG D112, SM57 Drum Overheads: Rode NT-5s, Rode NT-1as Bass Guitar Cabinet: AKG D112, Shure SM52, Sennheiser MD421 Electric Guitar Cabinet: SM57, Sennheiser MD421, Shure SM7b Fiddle: Neumann TLM103, Rode NT-1a, Sennheiser MD421 Acoustic Guitar: Rode NT-5’s (stereo X-Y pattern), Shure SM7b ---------------------- Microphones come in many different flavors to meet all the studio needs. I won’t go into all the gory technical details on the differences between a small diaphragm condenser versus a large diaphragm dynamic versus a large diaphragm condenser microphone. I’ll attempt to summarize the features of some of my critical microphones in my cabinet. Shure SM7b: The workhorse in the studio. This is a large diaphragm dynamic microphone popular in many studios, including those in Nashville and Los Angeles. Most bands today will use the SM7b for their vocals. It’s especially good for loud or harsh vocals. The SM7b can also be used to record the kick drum or bass amp. Shure SM57: Another legendary workhorse in the studio. If you had one microphone, and only one microphone, in the studio, this is the one to have. It can practically do anything from vocals to drums to loud guitar amps, especially with a high quality preamp. Sennheiser MD-421: This is another legendary microphone in the studio. Studios use this microphone to capture floor toms or for vocals. This is another microphone that is hard to live without. It’s also great for brass instruments. This is highly regarded by the pros for toms, strong vocalists, woodwinds, and guitar amps. Royer Mojave Audio MA-200: This is an outstanding, high-quality condenser microphone for the most professional and discerning vocal performances. This is another versatile condenser microphone that can be used for vocals, acoustic instruments, piano, fiddle, mandolin, overhead drums, orchestral recording, gospel recording, and commercial voice-overs. Neumann TLM-103: This is another outstanding, high-quality condenser along the lines of the Mojave Audio MA-200. This microphone can also be used for high-quality vocal performances or on a variety of instruments in the studio. Rode NT-1a: This is a great all-around large condenser microphone. The NT-1 is a high performance professional recording microphone. This microphone is especially good at capturing vocals or as a room mic (i.e., capturing all the drums at once in addition to separate drum mics). But we need to be careful. This is a very, very sensitive microphone. It picks up everything. Even the smallest of burps! Rode NT-5: This is a great pair of small diaphragm condensers great for stereo recording. The NT-5’s are almost always used in pairs to provide a natural stereo recording, typically using the X-Y technique. We typically use these on the drum overheads or on acoustic guitar. AKG D112: This microphone is designed to capture a clean kick drum or bass guitar performance with a powerful, punchy sound. This gets a lot of use in the studio. Shure SM52: This is another studio standard microphone designed to capture a clean kick drum or bass guitar performance with a powerful, punchy sound. NOTE: We usually this both the AKG D112 and Shure 52 at the same time on the kick drum; one on the front in the hole (if there is a hole) to capture the boominess of the kick drum and the other on the kick pedal side to capture the attack of the kick drum. These are just some of the weapons we have in our studio arsenal. |
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