Why Us Over Other's...

 

 We are the middle ground between the high-end commercial facility and the guy with the bedroom studio.  We have many of the features offered at the large places, including the years of experience (often, more then a number of their staff has combined) while offering rates that are reasonable.  While compared to the bedroom operator who will try to convince you, room acoustics really don't mean much when recording or mixing....just wait until you take that finished disc out and listen to it elsewhere.  That is where 'good translation' is important.  A finished mix needs to come from a studio that has a monitoring system that translates well on most any system.  Anyone that try's to tell you having acoustically correct rooms aren't important, is someone who doesn't understand acoustics!

We are in a time of great change in the recording industry.  The days of monster consoles and analogue multi track machines are becoming more and more of our past.  If our facility sported a SSL or Neve or API console, then you bet we would be hard-pressed to not continue to use them.  That's a lot of money spent still sitting there and the same thing applies to the sweet Studer or even MCI 24 track machine that can rip thru a roll of 2 inch tape @ 30 i.p.s. in under 30 minutes of full on recording.  We love the quality and 'the sound' we achieved with such.  But when compared to the tools of modern studio's today, we are actually capturing more the sound of the instrument or vocalist than ever before.  That is, it is less...much less influenced by the media it was recorded on, than back when we recorded on tape.  Tape had a way of 'rounding' or 'warming up' the sound more than it was, making it seem bigger.  Early digital recording equipment tended to make things 'edgy' , 'tinny' or 'cold' and didn't capture sound much in the way it was.  So we didn't jump full into digital until higher bit and sample rates became available (at a market price we could afford).  It wasn't as painful a transition for us as it may have been for many others.

In studio, our console is a digital Tascam 32 channel unit, (which, more often than not) is used as a monitor or playback feed to our Stereo & 5.1 surround Event 20/20 monitors and LFE.  We track into our DAW using outboard mic pre's that are made up of Avalon, Anthony Demaria Labs, Joe Meek, Focusrite ISA 828 8 channel, Focusrite Octropre 8 channel, and Focusrite Voicemaster Series (the same everyone has in their Control 24, at ProTools studios).  We host a custom built DAW(we call 'Darth Vader' for it's menacing look) loaded with a Hammerfall 9652 audio hardware that's recorded into Nuendo.  Also, Tascam MX-2424  and Roland 1880 recorders, plus our newest addition 'The Capture System' DAW for mobile recordings.  Wow, some guys have all the toys!

While many home recorder's offer in-the-box recording, we offer Nuendo as our platform of choice, that uses a very powerful DAW to perform its duties.  We also prefer using a control surface for mixing over the usual 'keyboard and mouse' method.  If you notice in our pictures (shown in the 'more pictures' heading), at mix time we have our HUI controller on 'rails' flying right over our Tascam DM 3200 at the console.  Yes, the old fashion 'hands on knobs and faders'.This way, we can make automation moves much easier on the fly, when doing a mix!

We have many nice plug-ins and with two flat screen monitors (one atop the other) we can view a number of plug-ins and tracks simultaneously. Tho' we often go back to 'why' it's called AUDIO recording and turn off the video screens and just listen to what we're going (imagine that)!!!  All too often today we feel people get too caught-up in the graphic video of the music, which takes away from proper decision making, via our ears.  When you walk in a recording studio and see more VIDEO monitors than AUDIO monitors, something is wrong with that picture....err, sound.

And lastly, what makes us different is you receive both an Audio Engineer and Producer as one.  The degree of the second hat worn will be dictated by your openness or need for such.  But you aren't charged extra for the extra work involved.  All too frequently you (as an artist or musician) are standing too close to know the full presentation of your very own music.  This is where we can 'help' to bring out the best in you. 

Realize, the "prints". That is, who you chose to use will have a impact on your sound, your song, and you.  We believe wherever you go to record, it will have who's ever fingerprints you use, directly on the finished product.  We hope you let it by ours.

 


Last Updated: February 15, 2014