Recommendations on the right studio?

[et1058]

Can anyone recommend any studio's in the North-West who would provide a great recording / production of metal music?

Thanks

Et

[Rimskidog]

www.myspace.com/circlestudios



[quote name='et1058' post='239382' date='Jul 14 2008, 06:08 PM']Can anyone recommend any studio's in the North-West who would provide a great recording / production of metal music?

Thanks

Et[/quote]

[cheddatom]

[quote name='et1058' post='239382' date='Jul 14 2008, 06:08 PM']Can anyone recommend any studio's in the North-West who would provide a great recording / production of metal music?

Thanks

Et[/quote]

Do you want to pm me details of the band? If I like the music you could come down to Stoke and do a couple of tracks for free. If you want to do a whole album or something then I don't have the time, but i'd love to do some metal stuff. I don't have an amazing set up but I can get a good sound myspace.com/nologorock for example.

[charic]

Chedda if you have the time to record but not edit I wouldnt mind giving a hand on the editing side

[cheddatom]

God - someone who likes editing? You're one of those are you!

Ta though, I will bear that in mind if I ever get anything. I've been offering to friend's bands for the past month and no-one has arranged anything yet.

[et1058]

we need to record a professional debut album for official release. We have somebody in the US who will fully master the Album. We dont need / want to much 'over-production' we are after the live / raw feel of our music. If the space and equipment is there we will consider very much because we have to have the stuff, recorded, produced and mastered before the end of september.

my band is Serotonal

www.myspace.com/serotonal (IGNORE 'Memory leaves' and 'Chosen words' OLD STUFF - Before I joined lol)

www.serotonal.co.uk

Some amatuer footage on youtube. Just type in Serotonal.

Thanks Rimskidog, I will check it out.

Also, Thank you very much for the offer Cheddatom, we can't really label our music. Suppose metal is the closest and easiest choice. It may be worth while if you have time for full album? But.......Im sure the lads, if you want, would record one track over a weekend with you? Dunno till I ask them I suppose.

[cheddatom]

Well, i'll have a listen and see. I would love to do a track over a weekend, but I don't think i'm set up well enough to do a full album for release, and I certainly don't have the time at the minute! I also don't think your label would like the inexperienced producer!

I like this "We dont need / want to much 'over-production' we are after the live / raw feel of our music." I wish more metal bands sounded live and raw, it gives rock bands' CDs so much more energy.

[johnnylager]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='240013' date='Jul 15 2008, 01:47 PM']I like this "We dont need / want to much 'over-production' we are after the live / raw feel of our music." I wish more metal bands sounded live and raw, it gives rock bands' CDs so much more energy.[/quote]
Indeedley-doodley young Mr Chedda. For a good exaple of over-production ruining a perfectly good track, listen to 'Wrecking Ball' at [url="http://www.myspace.com/evolvecore"]www.myspace.com/evolvecore[/url]

When I say perfectly good, I may of course be bending the truth somewhat, though the song is probably alright, it may well be the talentless w***ers playing that ruined it.

Edited July 15, 2008 by johnnylager

[et1058]

Label flabel.....were chosing were and who we record with lol....all they get is the finished product (as long as it sounds good)

you seem to be on the same wave length regarding recording. Don't even think about what experience you have had etc........im sure anybody who has an idea on how to work all 'that recording stuff' is capable of getting the sound requested.

What equipment do you have to record? home-based?

[cheddatom]

I have a big warehouse thing that's got no soundproofing so I can't record during working hours else you get lorries all over your tracks. I have cheap-sh*t mics and pre-amps, and a computer - that's it!

I've done a full album for the premature ejaculators, but that wasn't necessarily a serious attempt to produce a high quality recording, it was fun to do, and something i've always wanted to do. It sounds pretty good though, you can hear some stuff on the link in my sig. Since doing that i've aquired some condensors which sound pretty decent, so the vocals will sound a hell of a lot better than the PEs.

I want to start officially next spring, but I need to have some examples ready for then, so i'm trying to get bands in of all types to do a track or two. Like I say, I really wouldn't have the time to do a full album at the moment, and certainly not before the end of september! But if you want to do one or two tracks, or if you record somewhere but want someone else to change the mixes or whatever, that would be cool.

[charic]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='239806' date='Jul 15 2008, 10:32 AM']God - someone who likes editing? You're one of those are you!

Ta though, I will bear that in mind if I ever get anything. I've been offering to friend's bands for the past month and no-one has arranged anything yet.[/quote]

Its what I do best... by far! Its what I'd love to do for a living. Ive been known to do a full song in 30minutes or 4 hours depending on which way I want to go with it. Ive got mates who can tell which version of editing is mine just due to MY sound

[Rimskidog]

[quote]im sure anybody who has an idea on how to work all 'that recording stuff' is capable of getting the sound requested.[/quote]

Interesting idea but to be frank, you get exactly what you pay for in this game. If it was as easy as that why would the labels pay top dollar to go to abbey road if they could get a kid with an m-box for less than a hundred quid? Young bands usually find that out the hard way. Buy cheap, buy twice is a good adage because it contains more than a grain of truth!

To get a great recording you need to get great musicians playing great instruments through great sounding amps in a great sound room, the engineer needs to be experienced enough to select the right mics and put them in the right place and combine them with great preamps. Great EQs and compressors are a useful addition. A great console might be the icing on the cake. Great monitoring is an absolue requirement. Great production vision in addition to great production techniques are invaluable to really make a song come to life. As for editing, as my friend and mentor Michael Wagener once said, 'we sell emotions, there are no emotions in a grid". Furtehr, if you aren't going to tape then you'll need great converters. A great mastering engineer using great equipment in a great room with great monitoring will add fairy dust to the top of your mix. The cost of such greatness? You won't get much change out of £300,000. That's why making a great record costs so much.

[rant over - and chedda please don't take this as a slight at you as I can see you are offering your service for free which is laudable and IMO the right way forward until you've honed the art - it's more a railing against the idea that anyone can do this without knowing a damn thing about it which appears to be rampant nowadays and which invariably leaves young bands being disappointed at the product they are presented with in exchange for their hard earned!]

[charic]

What you say is totally true.

Quick question tho, what if a band cant afford a GREAT recording.. when for much cheaper they could get a good recording. Also listen to the recordings of the past. All done in great rooms. But comparably with today was it great equipment really?

[Rimskidog]

ask yourself this... would you rather have 5 at best mediocre quality recordings or one really great one that makes your band sound special?

[quote]But comparably with today was it great equipment really?[/quote]

Erm...yes. That's why vintage gear attracts such a premium now and companies are scrambling to make clones of the old gear AMS-Neve/Chandler/Telefunken etc) - because it sounds awesome.

Edited July 15, 2008 by Rimskidog

[ironside1966]

[quote name='charic' post='240465' date='Jul 15 2008, 11:12 PM']What you say is totally true.

Quick question tho, what if a band cant afford a GREAT recording.. recording. ?[/quote]


The record company won’t release it, and or radio stations won’t play it, people won’t buy it.
Tough but true.

If it’s for official release it need to be at least on par quality wise with other releases of the same type of Music.

Why spend a lot of good money on mastering and spend nothing on the recording.
In the tough world of rock and roll.
If you future depends on it why take any chances to save a few pounds.

[mike257]

If you want some decent recording doing in Liverpool, my good friend and ex-band mate John works out of Crash Studios in town, he's doing some very good sounding stuff these days. I've recorded with him on probably half a dozen occasions, with 3 different (and different sounding) bands, and always been more than pleased with the results. If you fancy a listen:

[url="http://www.myspace.com/theidiotrate"]myspace.com/theidiotrate[/url] - My old band, i think the first three tracks are his work.
[url="http://www.myspace.com/connectingflight"]myspace.com/connectingflight[/url] - John's band, also featuring my shoddy bass work

If you want to get in touch with him, you can book in through Crash's main phonenumber on 0151 2360989!

[cheddatom]

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='240453' date='Jul 15 2008, 10:56 PM'][rant over - and chedda please don't take this as a slight at you as I can see you are offering your service for free which is laudable and IMO the right way forward until you've honed the art - it's more a railing against the idea that anyone can do this without knowing a damn thing about it which appears to be rampant nowadays and which invariably leaves young bands being disappointed at the product they are presented with in exchange for their hard earned!][/quote]

Yeh, fair enough, but I think if you actually listen to my stuff you'll realise that I actually do know a damn thing about recording, mixing and mastering. Just because my gear's cheap sh*t doesn't mean I get a cheap sh*t sound.

It's not just young guys. There are people running studios all over the country that have been going for years (making money) producing the same sh*t sound, which winds me up more than young guys who are having a bash.

What about The Strokes for one example? They recorded both their first two albums on f*ck all cash, even though for the second one they had it. You don't need Great gear to get a Great sound, you don't need £300K or an experienced producer, but obviously it makes it a lot simpler if you have that kind of cash etc.

This is beside the point because I did recommend that he go to a pro studio.

Sorry if that seemed defensive, I don't know why, I realise you were "slighting" me!

[charic]

To me this doesnt sound like a record company deal though, this sounds like a guy wanting to promote his band. TBH I think rather than spending thousands in a studio, spending hundreds would be much more sensible.

A good recording will definately do a band justice. Ive had stuff come to me for editing from a london studio because they bodged it and I was asked to fix it. Which I did to the best of my ability.

Personally I dont think it sounds to bad but I lost the final finished copy after giving it to the band. If someone can tell me how ill upload it so you guys can here.

Comparably to today the equipment of yesteryear was infact fairly crap with a few exceptions. They had "that" sound but little variation. These days you can dial up many more sounds from equipment but it isnt "that" sound. I can honestly say this after using valve equipment for a time. I liked it but I still found myself only using it for finishing touches rather than entire mixes. Then we think of the recording equipment, 4 track tape recorder vs apple mac g5 equipped with protools HD3. Theres a pretty obvious winner. What today lacks most in comparison to the past is good sound engineers willing to push the boat out and try something which hasnt been tried before. Far to many people are learning how to record and edit via books rather than instinct.

Rant over.



For now

[cheddatom]

Charic - I totally agree.

If you want to upload, press the browse button next to "attachment" when you are writing a reply to the thread.

[et1058]

[quote name='charic' post='241501' date='Jul 17 2008, 08:53 AM']To me this doesnt sound like a record company deal though, this sounds like a guy wanting to promote his band. TBH I think rather than spending thousands in a studio, spending hundreds would be much more sensible.[/quote]

I came on with the simple question of recommendations for the right studio, without mentioning any band. When somebody asks to hear us, i posted the links? I can't explain to you how many sh*t studio's there are out there. I thought to myself, I will ask ppl on the trusty basschat website for help?

I don't need or want to promote my band. I just f*cken play mate, and Im happy with that. Im sorry for tryin to get some advice

So NOBODY PLEASE, CLICK ON THE LINKS....OK?!?

[ironside1966]

Its horses for courses.

If you want a professional recording go to the professionals with a proven track record, it cost money but you get what you pay for.
There are a lot of crap smaller studios and cowboys about who promise abbey road quality recordings, done in their garage or your rehearsal room.

I know what can be achieved on a home pc or Mac with today’s software, a set half decent monitors and a bit of acoustic treatment. and the results a very good but not as good as a experienced professionals with quality gear and great acoustic spaces.


Home studio guys can in many cases do you more fevers then a bad small studio,
Plenty of time to record in a relaxed fun environment, no need to clock watch no need to hurry the mix.
And like I said you can get some good result,

[mike257]

[quote name='et1058' post='242004' date='Jul 17 2008, 06:26 PM']I came on with the simple question of recommendations for the right studio, without mentioning any band. When somebody asks to hear us, i posted the links? I can't explain to you how many sh*t studio's there are out there. I thought to myself, I will ask ppl on the trusty basschat website for help?

I don't need or want to promote my band. I just f*cken play mate, and Im happy with that. Im sorry for tryin to get some advice

So NOBODY PLEASE, CLICK ON THE LINKS....OK?!?[/quote]

I don't think any offence was meant mate.... I think he was pointing out that what you're doing isn't a big budget record label project, it's more to promote your band to a label - which might be wrong, but it's how he's perceived it. He doen't mean you're just coming on here to promote your band!!

Did you get the chance to check out the studio I reccommended? John's a cracking engineer, and a good guy with it, he knows his shizzle!

[charic]

[quote name='mike257' post='242074' date='Jul 17 2008, 07:44 PM']I don't think any offence was meant mate.... I think he was pointing out that what you're doing isn't a big budget record label project, it's more to promote your band to a label - which might be wrong, but it's how he's perceived it. He doen't mean you're just coming on here to promote your band!!

Did you get the chance to check out the studio I reccommended? John's a cracking engineer, and a good guy with it, he knows his shizzle![/quote]

Yeah exactly, wasnt looking to offend. But I figured if you were asking for advice then maybe it wasnt a HUGE project and more to promote your band via cd (not on here). I was discussion the value of a good vs great studio and the appropriateness of it.

Sorry for any misunderstanding

[mr.sibs]

wow, this seems to have blown up

I have to agree somewhere between this lines, guys that work in/own studios will always promote the idea that there work will sound better, but alot of bands really do and up buying there own equipment and being a big part of the production process when they reach the "top" anyway, look at radiohead, kaisers, dandy warhols... massive list to go on but my fingers wont do it.

It all depends on your budget and what you want for your tracks. Some smaller independent producers will get you great results, some studios will get you great results, but you cant really pick either willy nilly, it has to be well thought out

[cheddatom]

[quote name='ironside1966' post='242043' date='Jul 17 2008, 07:04 PM']I know what can be achieved on a home pc or Mac with today’s software, a set half decent monitors and a bit of acoustic treatment. and the results a very good but not as good as a experienced professionals with quality gear and great acoustic spaces.[/quote]

Well, it's subjective. I think that a lot of the "benifits" of an expensive purpose built studio with expensive equipment are lost by the time a piece has been mixed, mastered, and burnt onto CD.

I'll take my guitarist's martin down to my room on saturday and do some samples with my cheap sh*t mics and cheap sh*t pre-amps etc. I'd be interested to hear an honest opinion of the "quality" of the sound.