RECORDING STUDIO

Guidelines :

A Deposit of 50% of total scheduled time is required when booking dates

Cancellations allow full refund unless within 7 days of booked time

If artist cancels within 7 days of booked time the studio retains initial deposit

Charges begin at the scheduled start time whether artist/band arrives on time or not

4 hour minimum for booking any sessions. No Masters (Hard Drives, Session Files, DVD’s or CD’s) leave the studio until the balance is paid in full. 

Once session and payment is complete, the artist will be responsible for their session files. (Please bring hard drives or request a download link when session is complete) 

Notes from producer, Mike Abiuso to make the most of your studio experience

Hey all! From working in home and portable studios in high-school to studying audio production in college, to recording with various producers for 10 years to now running my own commercial studio, I’ve had experiences all across the board and in my opinion, the most important thing is feeling comfortable and creative in the studio.
I can definitely do my best to provide you with that, but likewise there are things that you, the artist can do as well to feel comfortable. I’ve found that preparation, and setting goals and expectations are extremely important.  Here are a few bullet points of some steps I suggest you taking:
 
Prior to booking your studio date, feel free to email me over:
Demo recording of what we plan to record, decide the instrumentation you’d like to use Let me know if you’d like/need me to perform and instruments Get a tempo map together for each song (time signatures, BPMS). Put together a list of detailed reference tracks that inspire you. Prior to entering the studio:
Show up on-time and start the day relaxed as opposed to frazzled. Let me know if there are specific requests (coffee creamer, tea, etc.)If bringing your instruments be sure they’re working properly. String players, have your instrument setup, re-stringed and broken in. Percussionists, same deal with drums heads Be sure outside amps are working, biased, tubes burning bright etc. What makes us different than most studios?

Hmm, your mind, my mind, our skill sets, journeys, experiences, imaginations. I want to create something that has never been created before testing the ear of all listeners, make them wonder, “what the fuck was that?”. With the love of both modern technology and the vintage analog world, the studio is hybrid so I can track/record/mix/master with, without analog gear or combine the two which is my go-to. Take a gander at our gear list HERE and notice a ton of analog gear in addition to outboard and plugin amp/mic modelers and emulators. With that same mentality, I likewise appreciate virtual instruments, but never rely 100% on them. I can program instruments, drums etc. in minutes, but I like to use them more as inspiration and take little sonic elements from virtual instruments and pair them with something real and organic. 

Graduating with a college degree in Music Education, I studied music theory, composition, arranging, performance, and I had to purchase and learn how to play a plethora of instruments (all of which are located on our gear list HERE). I’m no prodigy, but there’s a good chance I’d be able to perform many of these instruments on your record if need-be which is a nice segue to saving money which I haven’t heard anyone being opposed to thus far.
 

Saving Money

In a lot of instances, artists have to rent out a studio space, hire engineers, producers, writers/composers, arrangers, instrumentalists, mixing engineers, mastering engineers. etc. In this case, we provide a flat hourly or daily rate to which I am happy to take on these rolls where all will be included. I am totally open and encourage bringing in any/all of these people into the studio, but for those who may be on a budget or are just more comfortable with a more personalized and focused experience, I am happy to provide these services. 
 
I’m a big advocate of moving quickly. I’ve been to studios that try to keep artists paying hourly forever…Fuck that. We are a referral based company and there are endless amounts of artists to work with, music to record and absolutely no reason to slow down the process of creative flow. With that said, I often do 90% of editing, aligning, tuning and mixing as I go. I found that if you leave small errors, it quickly becomes a domino effect as you continue the recording process and could lead to far more time spent on these processes and a hindered end product if waiting till the end. 
 
Save on revisions/alterations by considering all potential requests:
Instrumental bounces with no vocals. Instrumental bounces with backing vocal pads. If explicit language, do a vocal take with altered lyrics for radio edits Radio edit bounces (replace explicit lyrics w/ beep, reverse vox, drop out, or altered vocal take)Bounces is MP3, WAV and/or AIFF format. Bounces of stems (mixed, unmixed etc.