FAQ: Frequently (and Freakwently) Asked Questions

Do you do mixing of projects that were recorded elsewhere?
How much do you charge? What will it cost to do one song, a three song demo, or an album?
Is it extra for the engineer?
How about for the producer?
Do you charge extra for the use of special gear?
We're on a tight budget. What can we do to save money, but still get a good recording?
Why should we record with you, as opposed to doing it ourselves or with another studio?
Will we be able to meet with the actual engineer we'll be working with when we tour the studio, or do you surprise us?
Can we all record simultaneously?
Does the studio feature fully recallable automation, and why is that important to me?
Do you do duplication?
What about media costs?
Do you give free tours of the studio?
Do you have a drum kit?
Do you have an acoustic piano?
Do you have a demo reel of music you've recorded?
What are your hours?
Can we come in early to set up? Do you charge for set up time?
Do you do mastering?
Do you have a beat library?
Can we use karaoke CDs for vocal demonstration purposes?
Do you do voiceovers, audio books, or radio commercials?
I think my significant other is cheating on me, and I made a tape recording of them talking - but I can't make out everything they're saying - can you clean it up and make the conversation audible?
I have a record / tape / DAT / wax cylinder that I want to have transferred to Pro Tools / CD...
Any pet peeves?
Can we bring friends / children / spouses / pets to our session?
Is it OK to have a photographer shoot pictures at our session? Can the band take snapshots or shoot video?
What if we break something?
Do you have session musicians available, and if so, how much do they charge?
Can we bring our own engineer?
Do you hire outside engineers, have intern positions or assistant engineer positions available?

Do you do mixing of projects that were recorded elsewhere?

Yes. File transfers can be handled via parcel delivery of physical media such as hard disks and DVD-R's, or online via our FTP site.

How much do you charge? What will it cost to do one song, a three song demo, or an album?

Each project is different, and rates and total costs will depend on many factors, such as services and session musicians required, number of hours needed for completion of the project and other factors. Please call us to discuss the details of your specific project. While we may be able to give you a ballpark estimate, it is impossible for us to know exactly how many hours will be required to complete your project in advance, and all estimates are exactly that - only estimates. We normally do not work "on spec", or provide any sort of "entire project completed for X dollars, regardless of the time required" type services.

Our basic rate structure is as follows:

• Current studio rates are $75 per hour
• For projects that utilize ten hours or more of total time, we offer a discount rate of $50 per hour

IMPORTANT NOTE! We base our billing on the time being cumulative over multiple sessions. In other words, if you use five hours today, and five next week to finish, you'd qualify for the "discount" rate of $50 / hr. We're also able to set up special pricing packages based on your needs, and the way you like to work. So call us, let's talk about your project, and put together a plan that's right for you.

Is it extra for the engineer?

No, a staff engineer is included with the studio rental.

How about for the producer?

Co-production services are included. This is where we, at whatever level and amount you're comfortable with, will offer suggestions regarding tones, levels, and musical arrangements, performance critiques and other production assistance at the actual sessions. If you are interested in hiring Phil to serve as the producer for your project, and having him participate in all the aspects of production, from helping with song selection and writing, pre-production rehearsals and arrangements, managing the budget and hiring session players, etc. please give us a call or drop us an email.

Do you charge extra for the use of special gear?

No! Every instrument and piece of gear in the studio is available for clients to use, just as long as they're reasonably careful with it - we don't believe in extra "rental charges" for our high end gear. Additionally, we beta test and review new gear all the time, so you may even have access to stuff that's not listed here on the website, or even on the market yet, and yes, we always test and evaluate it ourselves before deeming it worthy of being unleashed on a client's session. If you want a specific piece of gear that we don't normally have onhand, we can probably rent it for you; in those cases, the rental charges would be extra.

We're on a tight budget. What can we do to save money, but still get a good recording?

The number one thing you can do is to be well prepared. The better prepared and rehearsed you are, the fewer takes you'll need to get a pass that everyone is happy with. The more editing, pitch correcting, comping and other corrective measures that are required, the longer it will generally take to complete the project. You can minimize that if you are well rehearsed, have worked out your arrangements in advance and are not shooting for lots of parts that are at the edge of, or beyond your capabilities.

Why should we record with you, as opposed to doing it ourselves or with another studio?

We don't discourage DIY recording, nor do we diss other studios. When you're good at what you do, and clients like working with you, you don't have to. Also, unless you were present at a session, it's not fair to criticize another engineer's or studio's work - you don't know what they were given to work with, or how little time was available to do the recording, editing and mixing. The selection of the "right" recording facility and people can be very important to the success of your project, and we work very hard towards that end. Working with a good engineer can free you from the constant left brain (engineering) right brain (creativity, performing music) mental "switching" that is normally a part of recording yourself, and free you to concentrate solely on the music, which can result in better performances. Additionally, our knowledge and experience, well equipped studio and great acoustical environment can often result in better recordings than what you may be able to achieve on your own at home, or in a low cost, low experience, poorly equipped budget "startup studio". However, some clients do choose to perform some of the recordings for their projects at home or in other locations in order to save money. One common scenario is for keyboard parts and sequencing to be performed at home by the client, and then brought to the studio for overdubbing live instruments and vocals. Another would be coming into the studio for tracking drums and basic tracks, then doing overdubs at home and returning to the studio to utilize the great monitors and acoustics, exensive plugin collection, processing power and automation for the mixdowns. Whatever you decide, we'll do our best to accomodate you, and will even offer you tips and pointers to help you get the best from your DIY contributions. While there are many fine studios and engineers out there, our chief producer / engineer, Phil O'Keefe, is an acknowledged industry expert who, in addition to making good sounding recordings, writes gear reviews and how to articles for various industry publications, and answers questions about recording and production from people all over the world via his forums at www.harmony-central.com, so he's always happy to offer you suggestions and advice. Our staff is dedicated to making sure your recording experience has a great vibe, and is fun, relaxed and productive. Some people will go out of their way to tell you how good they are at what they do... we prefer letting our reputation and work speak for itself, and leave the kudos and compliments about our work to our peers, clients and listeners.

Will we be able to meet with the actual engineer we'll be working with when we tour the studio, or do you surprise us?

We believe that it's important to make sure everyone feels comfortable around, and confident about the people they'll be working with, so the person who gives you the studio tour and discusses the details of your project with you will be the same person engineering your session. No bait and switch, no surprises.

Can we all record simultaneously?

That will depend on the size of your group and the degree of isolation you desire, but we can normally accomodate two electric guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and scratch vocals all at once while still maintaining excellent isolation and minimizing "bleed" from one musician's parts on to the tracks of the other musicians. While it is possible to record all instruments individually as separate recording "passes", we feel it is normally better to get at least the rhythm section down together as a unit, with all of them playing together simultaneously. This is far more familiar and inspiring for the drummer than tracking alone or to just a click track, and the real time interaction between the musicians often results in more "musical" sounding performances. Even when working this way, we can normally still "punch in", edit or comp tracks to fix mistakes on one player's part without requiring everyone else to perform the song again. But we're flexible, and prefer to work in whatever way makes you the most comfortable, so please let us know if you have specific preferences regarding working methods.

Does the studio feature fully recallable automation, and why is that important to me?

Nearly every key component of the studio is fully automated. We can work on your session one day, then save everything and recall it weeks later, and quickly get right back to work from where we last left off as if we'd never stopped. The mixing console layouts, headphone cue mixes, volume, effects, panning, plugin and other automation data, and even some mic preamp, EQ and compression settings can all be "restored" to their previously saved states. One big advantage to this sort of recallable automation is the ability to change only one or two parts of a mix without having to start it over from scratch. Recallable automation can save you considerable time and money in terms of not only setting up, but when requesting changes or modifications to mixes.

Do you do duplication?

No. We will usually provide you with a few copies of the final CD - enough for everyone in the band - but we're not set up to duplicate large numbers of CDs for clients. We can recommend several duplicators and graphic artists if you need suggestions about who to contact to handle your duplication, printing, design and manufacturing needs.

What about media costs?

If you occasionally need a few CD-R's of your rough or final mixes run off, we won't charge you extra beyond the basic studio rates. Blank CDs are inexpensive, and we don't believe in nickel and dime billing. For backups and long term data storage, we recommend clients bring in an external hard disk drive (either USB 2.0 or Firewire), formatted as either a FAT32 or NTFS drive. These drives are available at any electronics or computer store, and even a small 120GB drive can easily store all of your data for an entire album project. If you prefer to use DAT or analog tape for your mixdowns, please let us know in advance so we can either have tape stock available or advise you about what you'll need to bring with you.

Do you give free tours of the studio?

Certainly. Give us a call at (909) 489-2361 (if we're in a session and unable to answer, please leave a message) or drop us an email at info@ssrstudio.com. Appointments for studio tours are scheduled around our booked sessions, so times and availability for those appointments can vary, but depending on what your schedule is like, we can usually accomodate you reasonably quickly.

Do you have a drum kit?

Yes, we have a Pacific FS series 5 piece birch kit that records beautifully. If you want to use the studio kit for your project, please let us know in advance so we can have it prepped in advance for you. While we do have cymbals, stands and other hardware available, we normally recommend bringing any of your own cymbals and stands that you really like, as well as a few alternative snare drums if you have them.

Do you have an acoustic piano?

No. We use a Kurzweil SP2X weighted hammer action 88 key controller for the majority of our acoustic piano sounds, and have even fooled music magazine reviewers and music critics into thinking they were hearing a "real" recording of a "real" piano with it. We also have various other piano sound modules and "softsynths" available for even more tonal options.

Do you have a demo reel of music you've recorded?

Not at this time, although we are happy to play music we've worked on for you when you tour the studio. We'd also advise you to bring a CD or two of your own, or of commercial releases that you're very familiar with so you can check on the accuracy of our studio monitors and control room acoustics. We also usually have clips of some of our recordings up on the website or on our MySpace page.

What are your hours?

Sound Sanctuary is "by appointment only", and our hours vary with the booking schedule. We can accomodate you no matter what time of the day or night you prefer to work.

Can we come in early to set up? Do you charge for set up time?

Pleaase do not come in early. Sessions begin at the scheduled time. Arriving a few minutes early is OK, but please do not show up a half an hour early and expect us to drop everything and start your session. While we usually don't charge for load out time (as long as you don't take forever to pack up), we do start the clock running at the scheduled session start time, and since a big part of the recording process is setting up, placing microphones and "getting tones", those activities are always "on the clock". However, as long as we know the agenda for the day in advance, we'll usually have the rooms ready to go, and the microphones out and ready to be placed when you get here.

Do you do mastering?

Yes, we do mastering of home recordings as well as recordings done at other studios. Occasionally, due to budget or time constraints, we are asked to master projects that were recorded and mixed here, but that is never the ideal situation. Take a look at the credits on some of your favorite records - most of the time, a different engineer and studio were used for the mastering than those who recorded and mixed the record. Ideally, you want a separate additional, knowledgeable and trusted pair of ears to serve as a crosscheck of your work. For projects recorded and mixed here, whenever possible, we recommend using an outside mastering engineer. Bill Dooley at Paramount Mastering in Hollywood is our preferred "go to" mastering engineer. Bill's a serious cat with incredible ears, and he does outstanding work.

Do you have a beat library?

No, we do not maintain a library of pre-produced tracks.

Can we use karaoke CDs for vocal demonstration purposes?

Yes, we can record your vocals to pre-recorded "tracks" that you provide, whether they be stereo instrumental tracks you recorded at home, had custom made for you, or even karaoke CDs you purchased. Licensing of the material and royalty payments for any commercial use of pre-recorded tracks and / or "cover songs" are the sole responsibility of the client.

Do you do voiceovers, audio books, or radio commercials?

Yes, we can assist you with radio commercials, audio books, audio recordings of sermons or lectures, and voiceover projects, but our emphasis and speciality is music production and recording for bands and solo artists.

I think my significant other is cheating on me, and I made a tape recording of them talking - but I can't make out everything they're saying - can you clean it up and make the conversation audible?

While we have tools available that might allow us to accomplish that, for various reasons, we decline all jobs involving domestic disputes, or anything that was recorded without the knowledge and consent of all the parties on the recording. If that's what you have, then we recommend looking in the phone book or on Google for a forensic audio facility. However, if you have a tape of a music recital, relative's birthday party or a family holiday celebration that you want to clean up in order to make the music or dialog more discernable, we can probably assist you.

I have a record / tape / DAT / wax cylinder that I want to have transferred to Pro Tools / CD...

Depending on the type of media the orignal is recorded on, we may be able to help you with that - as long as we're not being asked to copy or transfer a commercial recording that you do not hold the copyrights for. In other words, no - we can't transfer your Beatles LPs to CD for you, but yes, we can transfer the DAT tape your old band did back in 1991 to CD for you.

Any pet peeves?

A few. Please don't "pick at" or touch the acoustic materials in the studio. It's there to make the rooms sound good, and it's fragile and expensive to replace. Please do not disturb the engineer while he's working and listening. Feel free to ask questions or discuss matters that are related to your project, but if you want to make a phone call or have a laugh with your bandmates, the control room is normally not the place to do it - please take it to the lounge area. Drinking or eating in the control room is forbidden; please limit food and beverages to the lounge. We do allow bottled water to be kept and used in the studio and tracking rooms. Smoking is only permitted outside.

Can we bring friends / children / spouses / pets to our session?

We'd prefer you didn't. Ideally, you want to limit the amount of outside people you bring to the session so that you're not distracted from the task at hand - making and recording music. If you absolutely must bring someone with you to the session, please notify us in advance, and remember that we reserve the right to ask them to leave if they become disruptive or get in the way of the work being done.

Is it OK to have a photographer shoot pictures at our session? Can the band take snapshots or shoot video?

Yes. We do ask you to remember that we're here to make records, and while we understand and appreciate that you may want to take some pictures for your website and promotional materials, we ask that it be done in a way that is not disruptive to the audio recording process. Just let the engineer know that you'd like to take some pictures, and ask when a good time would be to do so. If you would like to bring in a professional photographer to document your session, or for a photo shoot, please specify that when you book the session.

What if we break something?

Accidents can happen, but generally we have a "if you break it, you bought it" policy, so please be careful with the equipment.

Do you have session musicians available, and if so, how much do they charge?

We can usually refer you to talented outside musicians if you need additional parts for your project, and occasionally our staff is called upon to contribute vocal or instrumental parts on recordings for clients. Charges vary, depending on the musician, and those negotiations are left to you and the musician - unless we're given a overall project budget and are producing the record, we do not negotiate musician's fees for you. Typically though, the rates for session musicians range from $50-$100 per part, or per song, and can go up from there.

Can we bring our own engineer?

Outside engineers are subject to review and require advance approval; the answer to this question will depend on who the engineer is and their level of competence. Usually no discount is provided when you use your own engineer, since a staff engineer will still need to be on hand to assist them with the operation of the room.

Do you hire outside engineers, have intern positions or assistant engineer positions available?

If you're an outside engineer who is looking for a studio to use for a project you're working on, please give us a call and we can discuss the details. All such work would be done on a "independent contractor" or "studio time rental to a freelance engineer" basis; we do not hire outside engineers for "staff" positions. This includes seconds and assistants. While we occasionally train interns, and may one day start looking for the right apprentice again, only the most exceptional candidates would have any chance of acceptance, and we are not taking applications at this time. When we do have interns or apprentices in training, we reserve the right to occasionally send them out to the local electronics store to pick up a bag of nanowebers. If you don't know what a nanoweber is without having to do a Google search, please do not bother inquiring about an apprentence position.