It looks ok ... not great but ok .. (from the gear list and pics on the site) It is absolutley worth what they are charging if they know what they are doing ..

When I had my commercial studio, with new clients I would make this offer, "Come in and we will track basics for one song. If it doesn't sound good, we can cancel the rest of your session(s) and I will refund all your money. I never had to do that but it really created a comfort zone for them to know I was that confident they would be happy.

Ask these guys if they are willing to do that for you...

Also listen to some stuff they have done, of course.

Hey Kurt thats a GREAT advertising ploy ! I think I'll use that

I wouldn't offer mastering if i were you, you can really land yourself in a hole if you don't know what you are doing... 8-)

(No offence at all intended there, ive been doing it for 5 years and i still don't feel ready to charge, plus you have event monitors)

(No offence at all intended there, ive been doing it for 5 years and i still don't feel ready to charge, plus you have event monitors)

all depends on what event monitors he has. the asp8's are great to mix on and master. far better than the hr824's..
a lot of studios here in atlanta are using the 1031 or asp8 as their main nearfield monitors.
personally i know a lot of ppl that have mixed with 1031's, mackies, adams, westlake etc.. everyone of them were impressed with the asp8's in a side by side a/b test.
so you can't even go there really...
but with the st8's. i wouldn't try mastering

as of mastering.. yea, its an art.. can't just tern on ozone,t-racks, or some waves plugins and call a song mastered.. i learned that a long time ago after i sent some of my artist songs to really get mastered.

It sure looks like a live room, and a little boxy, too. I have never seen a recording studio with mirrors on the wall - tons of reflection.

cruisemates wrote: It sure looks like a live room, and a little boxy, too. I have never seen a recording studio with mirrors on the wall - tons of reflection.

:lol: Yeah, and the sound will bounce around a lot too!

In all seriousness though, I'm digging the 18 foot ceilings. One thing that I would look into if I had those rooms to work with is all the even numbers 18 x 16 x 10 or 18 x 14 x 12 I hope are like approximations because just at glancing at the numbers I'd suspect there is some serious harmonic nodes (I guess that is what their called).

While the quality of the studio is of some concern, the people doing the recording have much more to do with your final results than any other factor. I've heard some terrible recordings from some incredible studios, and have heard absolutely fantastic results from very basic studios. The key is finding the right people who really know the room they're working in.

So, back to the obvious..... request demos of recordings by the engineer that will be working with you, and be sure the demos were recorded in the room you are considering using.

Dave Goodermuth
http://www.thegaragestudio.com

Don't forget plain ol' pre-production - Get YOUR SOUND ready. If you throw a 57 in front of your guitar amp and record it onto a cassette deck, it should sound good. If it doesn't, it probably won't anywhere else.

Do the toms sound like the hammer of Thor? It's not something you "dial in later" - It's about having the right heads, tuned properly and being hit like you're angry at them.

The point is, that there is that nasty Law of Dimishing Returns out there -

Let me put it this way - I've done several (read: dozens and dozens) of live-to-two-track recordings right off the FOH console for artists. When I've got world-class artsts with world-class sounds, the recordings almost handle themselves, even through less than "stellar" gear. Sure, when all is said and done the "bass could be a little louder" or "that guitar is a little hot" or what not, but the point is that when the sound is great at the source, the mix turns into a choice of flavors instead of a battle to make things fit.

And of course, repeating the same thing using an SSL console instead of an Allen Heath or something will obviously make the recording better. However, very fine recordings can indeed be made on inexpensive gear IF the SOURCE sounds right.

The studio and the gear are important. NOTHING is more important than your sound.

I have a little studio in Goodyear Hts. (about 30 minutes from Cleveland) if you're interesting in checking it out. Email me at dtmail255@aol.com and I'd be happy to show you around...