Services

Here are some of the many services that are available:

Music Pre-Production

This is where it all starts. You may have only one song you want to record. Or you may want to record a small project CD, which might contain 4-5 songs. You may even want to record a full-length album containing 10 songs.  We listen to your demo and discuss, review and/or prepare music charts for the studio musicians. Next, once we understand your vision and expectations, the character of each song begins to take shape. We help you determine instrumentation, arrangements, solos, lyrics and harmony placement, and all of the many elements that play into the song’s sound and structure. It is during this stage where an idea is turned into a reality and a relationship is born…between the artist, and the producers, engineer, and musicians.

Music Notation

Our studio musicians have created a lot of incredible recordings. But most of them refuse to play if they don’t have acceptable charts. Good charts are critical. They provide the exact information needed for a group of musicians to play a song that they have never heard before. Our chart writing service results in charts written in the Nashville number system.  We believe that this is the most efficient way to chart your songs. Some of the top studios in Nashville use these types of charts as their universal language.  In order for us to provide this service, you’d need to simply submit rough recordings/demos of your song(s) a week in advance and we’ll have the charts ready for your session.

Music production

Every recording needs a producer. This is the probably the service that we offer, that we are the most proud of. Our in house producers have many years of experience in playing the role of music producer for many CD projects. Beginning in the pre-production phase and beyond, a producer will listen to your ideas and help you create the sound that you hear in your head. Here’s a partial list of things that your producer will help you with: finding your direction, helping with song selection, budgeting, booking the right musicians for your particular instrumentation requirements, arrangements, helping you achieve your best vocal performance, helping you and the engineer achieve the best mix.

Tracking

This is where we begin to create the music tracks. First, we simultaneously record the studio musicians and create what we call, the rhythm tracks.  For example, this might consist of drums, bass, acoustic guitar and piano. Next, we usually add any individual tracks that are needed.  For example, electric guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, mandolin, dobro, strings, synthesizers, banjo, percussion, etc. To allow each musician to hear exactly what he or she wants, we also support independent headphone mixes.

Editing

When all the tracks are complete, editing is required to make sure that every detail is perfected. During tracking, there are usually a lot of overdubs, which must be examined and repaired if necessary. This can be as simple as removing noise during rests in the music, or completely rearranging parts of the music to suit the artist’s vision. This is where all of the tracks are made to be “clean” and made ready to bring your music to it’s fullest potential in the mixing phase.

Mixing

In this phase, all of the individual tracks are mixed to optimal levels and relative volumes balanced. Vocals and instruments are equalized, panned, compressed, and processed.  All tracks, including the fill instruments, are automated to achieve an overall desired effect.

Mastering

Your CD is not really ready for duplication until it is mastered. This is the final process that smoothes out the rough edges and makes all of the songs sound consistent. It is a process that makes the loud spikes less loud, the softest passages more audible, it evens out the EQ from one song to the next. This is the process that makes it so you don’t have to reach for your CD player in your car to make an adjustment when going from one song to the next. Mastering makes your CD ready to take to the market and gets it ready for airplay.

Audio Books Production

We have done a lot of work with authors who have written books that they desire to bring to life in an audio book.  There are thousands of people who prefer to “read” their books while driving around in their cars.  We have both male and female in-house voice professionals available to do Full Readings, or Chapter Intros Only (when the author prefers to read their own content). For your convenience, you can find an example of one of the audio books that we have produced on the Our Work page.