It occurs to me I don't have a website. Why, you might ask? Are you stupid? How can we see my pictures of blinky lights and weird microphones if you don't have a website? More to the point, are you stupid? The answer is yes, I don't know you'll have to come over, and yes. I've built a few, and I know just enough to know one spends a lot of time figuring out how to make thingymabobs do stuff. Then you have to convince people how great you are. Then after all that self aggrandized truth stretching and thingymabob manipulation you have to figure out google analytics to get your stuff anywhere near the first page. Then at the end of it all the site looks kind of crappy because I'm not a website builder. I suspect that time spent raving on craigslist is better than time spent building websites..... Or not. That's where the stupid comes in. I'm gonna have to one of these days. Which leads me to this weeks rambling flappy fingered blitherment. How to choose a studio. First off, don't pick one that doesn't have a website. They're obviously idiots. The next thing you do is listen to their samples. Seems obvious, but samples can be fraught with peril. After you've heard the samples you need to determine if you'll be getting the guy who mixed the samples. If you like a sample you need the same people recording your stuff. Then you should find out if it was produced and by whom. Smaller setups are usually just one or two guys doing it all, so it's easy to determine. As you move up the food chain your chances of getting the guy who mixed the samples goes down, so you'll need to check. Same goes with mastering. Where and who. It's always the ear before the gear. Round up some samples and put them on your phone or mp3 player or whatever, then go listen to them on a good stereo. Then listen to them on good headphones. Some of the earbuds are okay but the stock iphone or Samsung ones are crap. The good stereo is more important than the headphones to judge quality. Headphone are great for picking out detail but the stereo is where you get the full story. Ignore whether you like the song or not, just listen to the sounds. Try to find samples in the genre you like. Some audio engineers and producers are better at heavy rock, and others are better at acoustic genres, and others are better at the mechanics of loops and samples. This is where gear doesn't make a bit of difference. So far we're still in pretty obvious territory. Most of you will probably listen to the samples for 10 seconds on your computer speakers then look at the pics of blinky lights. The gear is maybe at most 20%, and the guy recording it the other 80% of the sound. Engineering and mixing is a skill like carpentry. An experienced carpenter with a crappy hammer is better than a novice with an Estwing. Better gear does not mean better engineer. Better gear does not indicate success as a studio either. All it means is the dude started it with more money. Sometimes a well equipped studio will attract better engineers, but that doesn't mean you'll get one. The gear can get expensive and cool looking but what you should do is listen. At the end of the day it's always what you hear. That's what you're paying for and that what you take home to live with for the rest of your life. In ten years remember this moment when you ignored all my sage advice as your shopping cart falls off the curb spilling your empty dreams all over the street. I will be laughing heartily from my dumpster. Something else to consider is price. The theory being price is somehow related to quality. It's not, for a veritable whack of reasons. Veritable vegetable? I wonder what a vegetable whack of reasons would look like. Ha. Jeez I'm kinda hungry. You can get pretty good deals from some of the high end studios around town like The Warehouse and The Armory, I'd include Vogville and a few others in that list of high end studios too. They have a pretty good setup there. The price goes up with the potential to get a quality recording. Quality recording doesn't mean production or performance or song quality, which are key elements to a successful song. But as far as quality recording goes, what you need to consider is who will be recording and mixing. If you're on the cheap and doing the midnight shift at a high end studio it's unlikely you'll be getting their best engineers. It's often an intern trying to learn the ropes, and it will sound accordingly. I've heard it with my own ears many times. The biggest weakness the high end studios have is time restrictions. You get what you booked. Vastly speaking, you'll need more time than you thought. A recording played and crafted well beats a recording recorded well. Having the ability to stop everything for an hour or possibly days while you figure out a problem or completely rewrite the verses because of a sudden inspiration can be invaluable to the success of your music. For all that, recording at the big studios has some great points. It's pretty cool shrieking into the same mic Brian Johnson sang Thunderstruck into. The bigger studios also don't want crap sound out there ruining their rep, and you'll at least get decent sounds. Another advantage is all the tracks will likely be well recorded, so if the mix sounds like ass you can always save up more money and get it mixed again by someone whose fingers don't reek of Pinesall from cleaning studio toilets. If you have the tunes down cold, and you get a good engineer and mix, the sounds you get from a high end studio will surpass most small setups. It'll cost a little more, but it may be worth it. The serious top end albums are usually recorded in somebody's basement first to work out production and performance details, then practiced and tweaked for a while before taking it to a high end studio. They'll often transfer some of the tracks to the high end joint that turned out well. For serious top end albums that somebody's basement is likely a very nice setup, and they may just record it there with only a few tracks done at a high end joint. Then they send it out for mixing and mastering. Okay, ignore everything I ever said about the importance of the song in the grand scheme of things. I've just been listening to stuff. Check out of how production can make or break a tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si7gu9yGz64 The dude who tracked the harmonica must cringe every time he hears that opening note. The recording is grim because of the era, 1969, but the production and performance kick ass. Here's the original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlvifsYSafc Both versions have full production and were recorded the same year. Mine brain hath explodated. One version is great and the other is not. Mainly because of production and performance. Here's a great tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIuCwnnDq8k the original version of Hallelujah, written by Leanard cohen. Great song, but here's how far you can take a great tune with performance and production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE K.D. Lange singing it live at the Junos. I've been raving in past blatherments how the song transcends all, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe the song doesn't transcend production. Maybe not performance. Hell, after listening to these I may have to re-evaluate my blather. I guess you need all four elements of song, production, performance and recording. Fuck. Anyways... I've side tracked myself. What you get from a higher end studio is the time you pay for. What you may not get is production or performance. I've seen it many times where the singer isn't in top shape the designated day of vocals and we put it off. I've also seen it where an inspiration hits and we stop recording and rewrite parts. That's harder to do when you have time or cost restrictions. I think letting the song and inspiration guide the production and performance is more important than the quality of recording. So and however, if you're doing it on the cheap there's only one way to wade through the crap. Go to the studio. My setup is total ass, but I'm getting good sounds because I'm good at the four elements of a successful recording. .....Okay, my setup isn't exactly total ass, but it ain't fancy. My gear is decent but about 20-40 grand short of top end. Functional but not golden. Most cheaper studios don't have top end gear. They'll try to convince you they do, but they don't. Lots have one or two expensive blinky lights, but there are many parts in the path from source to wav file. Studio gear is only as good as it's weakest link, and in most cases better gear doesn't help the music at all. A final note about gear, everything I'm talking about is within reason. A 150$ A/D converter doesn't count as gear in any studio. They're great for getting down ideas, but not anywhere near pro quality. Mind you, I've heard some great stuff come from prosumer crap. Some of the small studios around town are getting excellent quality. Some are way not. The quality can't be determined easily via samples or gear or website pics of blinky lights. The only way is to go for a visit. If you like the engineer, like the sounds, and like what they have to say constructively about your music, then there's a good chance you'll get a good recording and mix. If you don't, at least you're not out a billion dollars. Be careful though, even the small guys have ingenious ways to grind the wallet. Once you've settled on a studio don't be afraid to stop the whole process and take your tracks elsewhere. Mention that when you're talking to them too. Any studio can export the raw tracks in industry standard wav format to take anywhere. You can't expect them to ship it out half mixed with EQ and compression applied, and the new studio wouldn't want that. Or they shouldn't. It's worth mentioning right off because I've heard of studios who won't let you take your own tracks home. Bizarre but true. Personally, my goal is to help in any way I can in the creation and development of your music. Music is a personal journey that should be respected. If you're not happy I'll gladly send you off to another studio with all your tracks and notes. I've done it before. In fact it sometimes happens that a CD will be tracked at one studio and mixed at another because of cost. To sum up: trust your own ears. Check thoroughly and ponder. Don't listen to your buddy's glowing recommendation of Tex and Edna Boyle's Recording Emporium. For some reason the first rule of recording is everything is awesome and many people wouldn't say their recording was mediocre even if their ears were on fire. Ears on fire is often a good indicator of a bad recording. Wherever you decide to record, may all your tracks be music to our ears.
cosmictunes7