StudioPros

Many songwriters have their own home recording studios and double as the producer, engineer, songwriter, and recording artist.  Most songwriters don’t also fall into the category of “studio drummer”, and that’s where Studio Pros comes in to save the day (or the album you could say). 

 

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 Don’t waste time struggling to knock out a midi drum track on your song when you can have our studio drummer come help you!  As many of you may have realized, getting drum tracks recorded may be the most difficult step in getting your album finished.

 Aaron Frisbee, a Kentucky based songwriter, fits the above description to a tee.  He was in the process of recording his album “ReDISCOVERY” and found the drums to be the hardest part to master from his pro recording Studio640 in Louisville.  Frisbee’s songs, simple and lyrical with textures that include organic guitars, pianos, strings, anolog synthesizers and layered vocals were screaming for organic live drums to compliment the sound.

“I found the Studio Pros session drummers after working endlessly to try to sequence drums with a “human” feel. I found working with the pros studio drummer was great.  We talked about the style and approach I had in mind for the album. I sent some songs to give him an idea, a vibe (Beck’s Sea Change meets Abbey Road). Many of the drum ideas were original and the recorded sounds were great. It really made it easy to for me to bring them into the final mix.”
 
Aaron found the pros to be very approachable in the collaboration process of his drum recordings, “I would discuss revisions with the drummer and try different versions until we got it right.  I wanted ReDISCOVERY to have a classic analog sound but with modern touches – it just made sense to record live drums on most of the songs.”
 
Once Aaron had a drum track that he approved and downloaded, he had no problem importing the tracks into his Pro Tools set up from his Louisville, Kentucky home recording studio.  “It was easy. In many cases I would continue to arrange the song even after the drums were cut because we were working with a click. I would also choose my favorite fills and move them around in the song. In the case of “Believe”, I reversed some drum parts for cool transition effects.”

“Drum parts are usually really hard for singer songwriters and getting quality performances and well recorded parts can take a tremendous amount of energy if you don’t work with pros. The problem is most people can’t afford to put together a team (drummer, studio and engineer) to get their drum parts. Studio Pros makes it easy and affordable and their live drum parts definitely raise the bar of the production allowing performing producers like me to focus on one or two input recordings like vocals, guitar and keys when finishing the songs.”
 
So follow Aaron Frisbee’s lead and send your album’s tracks on over to the Pros.  We are here to help you finish your album with a professional touch! 

To buy “reDISCOVERY” go to Aaron’s website: http://www.frisbeemusic.com/

Frisbee will be touring this year as well, so check up on tour dates and locations on his site.

Click here to order Studio Pros drum tracks.

Let Studio Pros help you fill in all of the missing elements to your home recordings.

Adrian Sakashita is a composer who spends his time between Los Angeles and London as well as an online business owner.  This is the perfect case for Studio Pros, as Adrian can manage his projects from all around the world and still be kept in the loop on his production, while not wasting too much time at a studio.

 Studio Pros just recently worked with him on his latest work “Seduction” and filled in the missing pieces of his recordings using our studio musicians, “Studio Pros helps make better music!  I simply couldn’t resist the temptation and dove in head first a few years ago.  Since then, I’ve turned my attention back to composition.”

While Adrian has a home studio set up where he can record, he’s found collaborating with other musicians helps him get the finished missing elements to his music in a professional manner.  “The better results come from collaboration… and it’s more fun.  In the long run you save both time and money!  I consider Studio Pros to be my on-demand musical collaborators,” Adrian says. 

As a keyboardist, it isn’t practical for Adrian to waste time on a bass track or clunking out a midi drum part if he can hire studio musicians to play his trouble instruments.  Though Adrian can invest time and money in getting all of the home gear to accomplish creating midi sounds, why do it if you he can hire a professional studio drummer and save money? “ Real instruments and real musicians are a hard combination to beat.  That’s why I count on the Pros to help me out.”

Along with collaborating with us here at Studio Pros, Adrian took his online project to the next level and documented his step to step project by creating a music blog.  “I thought it would be fun to chronicle a project from start to finish.  I think many people are surprised at how a song develops from usually nothing more than a basic riff.  It was cool way to generate some immediate content for my humble little blog, and will hopefully help answer many of the questions I get after the fact.”

Check out Adrian’s step by step documentation of using Studio Pros: www.fastonkeys.com 

At Studio Pros we like to take from what’s worked in the past and apply it to what we’re doing today. We have worked with many artists that request this sort of “British Rock” sound, and we know just what they have in mind.

 

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“British Rock n’ Roll”, as they called it, was a significant change in rock n’ roll that took place in the late 50’s/early 60’s in the UK and later spread around the world. Artists were taking from US rock n’ roll influences and giving it a British edge. This style became the characteristic sound of the Beatles , The Rolling Stones , the Who , Herman’s Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, The Kinks , the Small Faces, the Yardbirds, and Donovan among many others. It worked. People obviously liked what was coming out of this new era and it changed the wave of music forever.

When we have an artist’s reference to the overall final sound they are going for, we are happy to help in any way we can to produce their song the way they had in mind. Of course, this is not the only sound that we can achieve with our studio musicians at the Studio Pros recording studio, but an option for those post “British Rock” enthusiasts.

To get that “British sound” we tend to use a lot of compression on our piano tracks, space out the drums (big drum sounds are big in this style) and give the overall mix a dark overall sound with compression.

We’ve just recently done a production with songwriter Finnur Bjarki called “Wake Up Now” in the style of “British Rock”:

Tell us a little bit about your songwriting and what you do with your songs once they are recorded.

“I´ve been writing songs since I was a teenager. I use my acoustic guitar to relax write melodies. Some of the songs just come to me in 5 minutes or so, others need time to develop and mature.”

What made you go for the British rock sound?

“I grew up with U2 in my ears, The Smiths and the British metal. I have always loved the British rock. Maybe because I find a lot of British bands use the conventional instruments more than most bands today so they have this live band element. I like the sound of Keane, Coldplay, Starsailor etc..

The roots are always there and they dont get caught up in the technology to much.”

What are you planning on doing with your songs once they’re all recorded?

We plan to release a new CD by spring and almost all instrumentation is done by Studio Pros. Recording this way is something totally new to me and I had to get used to it. The professionalism is great, it gives me a warm feeling to hear my songs performed and given life this way and this has saved me a lot of time.

To listen to more of Finnur’s work: www.porterhouse.is

To learn more about Studio Pros music production service.

“This song sounds cheesy.” You’ve all said it at one point in time.

How do songwriters avoid this problem? Sure, Michael Bolton rocked the “cheese” in the early nineties and Christopher Cross made hits in the eighties with this “out-dated” production style, but let’s keep moving forward. How do you avoid sounding like “you just can’t let the good ole days go”?

Several steps in the song writing and production process of your song can help you avoid taking a step in the wrong direction on the cheese-o-meter. First of all, try to avoid overplaying in a song. A really good song should sound perfect alone with just an acoustic guitar and a vocal. It’s always good to get an outside ear to hear a song when you first write it. Even if your audience doesn’t give you too much feedback, you’ll have that initial instinct while you’re playing to help you determine if it’s a “good song”.

Secondly, avoid overproducing your songs with excess of instruments. Midi sounds are something you really need to be careful layering.

Drum sounds are also a make or break when you are recording a song. The best thing to do in this case is to listen to some current artists that you like and copy the drum sounds they are using in their recordings. Listen to the drum track and picture the room it was recorded in, the effects that were applied to the mix, and also the placement of the drums in the mix.

Keep your ears open when you are getting to the music production stage of your song. Take from the current sounds around you, and interesting recording techniques from the past. New ideas are good. Recreate old sounds instead of replicate. You’ll have an interesting and “cheese-free” song in no time.

Learn about Studio Pros Music Production Service.