I understand how the session booking estimate works but have 2 questions:

1. What about post-production/editing/mastering, is that done here? I am told Steve doesn't like to "produce."

2. Is post-time, NOT in a sound room per se, calculated the same?

3. (Cardinal Richeleu inquiry) Is it possible to book Steve for the first day of set-up and then work with staff for the rest of the necessary days?

Boombats,

I don't work at the studio, but did record there in 2004. The only question I can answer is that they don't do mastering at their facility but they will give you suggestions for a suitable mastering engineer with your needs/budget in mind once the recording and mixing of your project is completed. Steve is a recordist/engineer: you either produce your own material or bring somebody along to serve as the 'producer' if that is desired. In our case we made decisions for ourselves regarding arrangements and the production and Steve did the recording and all of the duties associated with engineering a record.

Good luck, it's a great studio and a wonderful experience.

etch wrote:Boombats,

I don't work at the studio, but did record there in 2004. The only question I can answer is that they don't do mastering at their facility but they will give you suggestions for a suitable mastering engineer with your needs/budget in mind once the recording and mixing of your project is completed. Steve is a recordist/engineer: you either produce your own material or bring somebody along to serve as the 'producer' if that is desired. In our case we made decisions for ourselves regarding arrangements and the production and Steve did the recording and all of the duties associated with engineering a record.

Good luck, it's a great studio and a wonderful experience.

But did you do that post work there or take it "home?" Thanks

We recorded and had our record mixed there, so we did everything at Electrical, except for the mastering and the process involved with the actual pressing of the record, which you might not do, if you are going to release on CD or another digital format.

We had the record mastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road, he did a great job and is a very nice bloke, I'll warn you: a little pricey because of the exchange rate.

After the record was mastered, we sent the direct metal masters that Abbey Road made to Europadisk to press the record. It had been awhile and the correspondence was a little iffy with those guys, until finally they stopped returning calls. Next, I call them up and get a message saying they had gone bankrupt and there was a padlock on their front door, somehow, some way, the masters and the stampers showed up in the mail a few weeks later. Of course we lost over $2000 in the process, the money we gave Europadisk was gone forever but at least we had the masters!

Steve and John at Electrical were super helpful in talking me through the process and helping us out with all of the particulars as it can get very confusing, especially if something goes wrong like it did with our project. They did all of this for me long after the session had ended, so I'm very appreciative of their help and understanding.

I forgot to mention: one way you could save some money would be to record in the A room and mix in the B room, or of course you could do everything in the B room to save money as well, but the A room is very tempting for recording, (at least basic tracks) there are not many studios around these days with recording spaces like that, at least that I've seen.

Let me know if there is any other info I can provide that might be of help.

Forgot to include that before Europadisk went under they also 'lost' our copper masters somewhere in their warehouse... what a nightmare, I still shudder.

Also, after the record was done, the artwork printer guy flaked and the record presser shipped the records in such a way (couple of boxes taped together) that they bounced off the UPS truck and were lost forever ( a third of our records), I won't even go into how many copies showed up warped...

You have to keep telling yourself that this is fun, which ulitmately it is.

And what's your band called?

Europadisk's pressing plant is in my neighborhood.

Or, was.

When I was unemployed, I went there looking for a job, because they were always hiring people (big turnover.) The person I talked to besically talked me out of working there because some very bad things were happening.

Sad, really, because the pay was decent, and I could walk there.

I wonder if all the machines and such are still in there. I have to see if I can see in the windows as I pass by on the subway.

Boombats wrote:I understand how the session booking estimate works but have 2 questions:

1. What about post-production/editing/mastering, is that done here? I am told Steve doesn't like to "produce."

2. Is post-time, NOT in a sound room per se, calculated the same?

3. (Cardinal Richeleu inquiry) Is it possible to book Steve for the first day of set-up and then work with staff for the rest of the necessary days?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "post-production" since this is a term usually associated with audio/video projects. If you mean mixing, then both mixing and editing are part of the process and you should consider this when booking time - unless of course you are going to have someone else mix it, I don't know Electrical's policy on this, or if they even have one.

Why would you book steve just to setup? This seems counter-productive.

Jeremy

Jeremy wrote: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "post-production" since this is a term usually associated with audio/video projects.

*Busted* - Freudian slip. I have spent many moons in a collaborator's post-production film sound studio working on our music.

Jeremy wrote:Why would you book steve just to setup? This seems counter-productive.Jeremy

It would be like using a reference mic to analyse a sound, then picking the mic appropriate for that tone. He's the mic and we're the sound. I'm pretty sure that everyone there is beyond competent to run a session through, so in a way it's like why book Steve for anything? But there's always a good reason or we wouldn't be talking about him.

Boombats wrote:It would be like using a reference mic to analyse a sound, then picking the mic appropriate for that tone. He's the mic and we're the sound. I'm pretty sure that everyone there is beyond competent to run a session through, so in a way it's like why book Steve for anything? But there's always a good reason or we wouldn't be talking about him.

As an engineer, I would be frustrated walking into a session that someone else setup and being asked to operate the equipment.

Your record will probably sound better and run smoother if you had one person doing it.

If you still feel like this is what you want to do, you might as well ask them. The phone is a sure-fire way to do that. (hint hint)

jeremy