Hi I may be a little late with this but try Chris Dagley. He has a UK based remote studio company.
He has also played for many Top UK bands including Take That & Gary Barlow
Email me if you need his details & i'll send them on :-)

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Paul :-)

I've been doing quite a bit of Fed-Ex studio stuff lately, mostly mandolin family tracks (mando, mandola, and mandocello). It's a good thing, too, 'cause I live on an island out in the middle of nowhere...
Anybody need a mandolin track out there?
I'm DA-88 and ADAT compatable, and take VISA or old beat-up microphones...

I know this is a dumb question, but work with me here: A remote session musician is a guy who you send the ADAT or equivalent to, and he puts his part down and sends it back? Is that it? If so, then how do you know you'll like the track, or the way it's mic'd? And is the track recorded dry? Forgive me, but... it's my first time... :o

I usually have folks stick a guide mix on tracks 1/2, and then load them up with options. I'll do fills on tracks 3/4, rhythm on 5, solos on 6/7/8, and they can fit it all together pretty easily on their own in the end. The solos are the only part that's time consuming, and they're also the most fun...

I usually use a KM84 through a John Hardy, almost regardless of the acoustic instrument, unless they want me to improvise with mic selection. The KM84 seems to be a good middle-of-the-road mic that never seems to go wrong in the mix, and seems to please everyone. I can see why Grisman used that mic for the "Tone Poems" CD...

And in terms of payment, I don't charge/trade anything if you don't like it...

Intriguing concept. Must be lots of folks out in cyberspace doing this. Does anyone know of a referral website of some kind?

I think it could happen here...
Check out my post under "topics you would like to see"...
A forum for Fed-Ex session players would be a welcome addition...

>>A remote session musician is a guy who you send the ADAT or equivalent to, and he puts his part down and sends it back? Is that it? If so, then how do you know you'll like the track,<<

Though much disliked in the end result could some kind of discourse working around MP3 at least be good enough to get a sense if the player has nailed the part?

>>Intriguing concept. Must be lots of folks out in cyberspace doing this<<

Hmmm. here I am on another recording related
BBS.

I'm an recording info addict.

I've been recording drum tracks remotely for others also. For now, I've been doing it ~$50 a track, drums and percussion. I have a day gig, so I record the stuff at night. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy it.

Originally posted by Cymbals:
I've been recording drum tracks remotely for others also. For now, I've been doing it ~$50 a track, drums and percussion. I have a day gig, so I record the stuff at night. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy it.

What kind of setup do you have? i.e. How do you mic your kit and what does the signal path look like? And what recording medium?

Originally posted by Innermusic:
What kind of setup do you have? i.e. How do you mic your kit and what does the signal path look like? And what recording medium?

I've had good results and compliments from folks. First I must mention that the kit was custom made for me (Fortune Drums), and just sounds fabulous. Live audio engineers have told me it was the best kit they've heard when I've used it on gigs.

I recording everything digitally, using an Senn e602 on bass drum (Very similiar to the AKG D112 after the mids are cut). In fact, at a gig at Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, we compared them both, and preferred the e602. SM57 for most everything else. Lately I've been miking only the top head of the snare, but I've miked the bottom head as well, depending on the song.

I've done different things for different folks, and try to be flexible. One person wanted absolutely no bleed, so I recorded the hi-hat on a different take.

The signal path is typically the mics straight into the soundcard. For drums I don't believe a pre-amp isn't necessary. Sometimes I'll run it through a noise reduction first.

People will often send me an mp3 without drums. We use http://www.freedrive.com to post the files and retrieve them. Sometimes I'll receive multiple wav's on a cd-r. I use Cakewalk to record it, I'll do a rough mix, repost it with drums as an mp3 for general approval, and then send a cd-r with the individual tracks - wav files tend to be most compatible, or in a cakewalk bundle if they prefer.

I'm proud to say that any money made off this goes to a good cause - gear for me! :)

Hope this helps. I could probably send ya a song to check out if you're interested.

If nothing else, hopefully my post gives other people ideas how to accomplish this remotely.

[ February 16, 2001: Message edited by: Cymbals ]