Studio Pros

Country

Start your production

Featured Artist: Conor Matthews

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

We have just had the pleasure of completing an EP for a talented young songwriter with a lot of promise in his future. Still a high school student, Conor Matthews writes with a maturity way beyond his age. You can hear his influences of Jason Mraz, John Mayer and Rascal Flatts in his carefree style and sincere lyrics. It’s no wonder since he’s been writing, singing, playing piano and guitar from the young age of 9 years old.

Recording Your Productions Step By Step

Being an active high school student, Conor didn’t have the time to spend long hours in the studio. After searching online and speaking with our head producer, Kati O’Toole, Conor found that Studio Pros had everything he needed. Working online was simple for Conor. “I loved the step-by-step approach to recording so that I could determine if each instrument matched both the notes and the feel I had in mind. Working online made the whole thing really easy for me”, he says. “It allowed me to give my input and reactions at a time that was good for me.”

We started with a simple guitar/vocal demo of Conor playing his song, and then went more deeply into the production process layering each instrument step by step. Our guitarist laid down a basic sketch of his song to a click track which laid down the solid foundation track for the rest of the musicians to build off of. We worked with Conor to tweak the previews until he was pleased with the first sketch layer. Next, we moved on to live drums, and after his suggestions and our changes, we moved on to bass, guitars, keyboards, vocal tuning, backing vocals and finally mixing & mastering. He was involved every step of the way and provided guidance and feedback throughout the process so we were sure we were producing in the direction he envisioned.

Check out Conor’s songs here:

Rockin’ One Seat Over: 

Let It Bleed: 

Searchin’ For You: 

Recording Your EP Online

Besides the ease of working online, the help of the producers and the access to our staff of professional Los Angeles based studio musicians was really beneficial to Conor. “They had fantastic musicians available for every instrument and this was especially helpful when I was looking for a certain sound but didn’t know how to play that instrument”. A great moment in production was when we were working on backing vocals for “Searchin’ For You”, a light hearted pop tune. Something was missing. Conor suggested a “call and response” section at the end, but didn’t know exactly what he wanted. With the help of the producers and the vocalist, we all developed a really wonderful backing vocal that added layering and depth to build the dynamics of the music.

What’s next for Conor?

Using the songs he recorded with Studio Pros, Conor has put together a portfolio and is now applying to music colleges.  He is looking forward to studying various aspects of the music industry, and continuing to grow as a songwriter.

Until then, Conor is working to finish up high school and playing gigs around town to promote his songs, all which are available on itunes.

We are always so inspired to work with such fresh talent as Conor and how he’s just begun his career in songwriting. I can see a promising future ahead for this talented artist!

Get Your Songs Produced with Studio Pros!

To read more about StudioPros music production:

http://studiopros.com/music-production.php

If you’d like to get your project started, contact our available producers at: 1-310-928-7776 or email  us at info@studiopros.com

Featured Artist: Sophie Morgan

Friday, January 4th, 2013

Pop-country production with Studio Pros.

Meet Sophie Morgan. She is a young UK based singer songwriter with talent well beyond her late teen years. With influences ranging from Frank Sinatra to My Chemical Romance, she is a rising star to watch. Sophie contacted Studio Pros with an interest to record one of her more country/folk influenced songs and the results were outstanding.

We took Sophie’s original piano vocal demo and transformed it into a pop-country hit. Incorporating her influences of pop country artists Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, the Studio Pros team produced Sophie’s original song through our step by step recording process.

We chose the perfect combination of country instrumentation including: country guitars, country fiddle, drums, bass, pedal steel, vocal tuning and backing vocals to support Sophie’s vocals.

Check out Sophie’s recording of Just The Way It Goes:

Before (Just The Way It Goes- Sophie Piano/Vocal Demo)

After (Just The Way It Goes- Studio Pros Production)

“Things are really starting to happen for me now with the help of some very talented musicians, including the Studio Pros team. I found Studio Pros in an advertisement online when I was recruiting musicians for my band. It has been truly incredible. I was concerned that it would be too clinical and the song may lose the atmosphere that you get from been actually in the studio with the musicians.  In reality it feels like I am actually in the studio as I got to input at every stage.”

What’s next for Sophie?

“This recording will become part of my portfolio when we start to approach the record labels next summer. I leave school next year and I have been building a body of work, assembling my band, gigging and establishing my demographics with a strong on line fan base. I want to be in the strongest possible position when I start to chase a major record deal.”

We wish Sophie the best and look forward to seeing her grow as a songwriter and performing artist! To read more about Sophie, check her out at www.sophiemorganmusic.com

Get Your Songs Produced With Studio Pros

To find out more about how to get your songs produced with the Studio Pros team, contact our producers Kati O’Toole and Keeley Bumford at: info@studiopros.com or by phone: 1-310-928-7776.

Featured Artist: Gary Quinn

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Gary Quinn is a songwriter that knows how to pull on the heartstrings of his audience.  Creating beautifully crafted lyrics, he draws you in with his picturesque storytelling through his swooning country melodies.  Quinn grew upin] Ireland where he listened to his father’s Kris Kristofferson tapes, but he ended up falling in love with American country music after hearing the Garth Brooks album No Fences in the early ’90s. “There’s a big country and Irish scene with an undercurrent of American country, which is what I’m into,” Quinn says of Ireland. “It started picking up again with the likes of the Internet. It’s a bit more accessible.”

Check out Gary’s Song “He Don’t Show Her Anymore”:

While there is a country music circuit in his homeland, most performances were limited to festivals, which Quinn has played a few of. Between those gigs, he hosted his own singer/songwriter night in a local pub to give him the chance to play with various local country bands and showcase his original material.  Quinn has since moved to England to take his career to the next level and be more surrounded by a busy music scene.  He had already begun work on an album when he had found StudioPros as an option to get his songs professionally produced by their LA based team of musicians all from his home base in the UK.  Upon their first conversations, StudioPros’ producer Kati O’Toole picked a song Quinn submitted as a clearly commercial and well written track.  Together they took his demo and organized a production that would showcase his hit worthy single in the best light.

Choosing the best country musicians out of the StudioPros team and the best country instrumentation, they organized his first recording and started tracking his first project, He Don’t Show Her Anymore. For the project they picked a combination of electric country guitars with acoustic guitars, mandolin, live drums, bass and keyboards.  StudioPros’ vocalist Racquel did all of the backing vocals to support Gary’s lead and really bring everything together.

“This is a song that I can see as a commercial country track that would be perfect for radio airplay.  That’s why I was very excited to get our team of musicians to work on this track” O’Toole stated. “With the right promotional steps, I can really see Gary’s career taking off.  I’m excited that StudioPros has had a chance to be a part of the recording process for Quinn as he takes the next big bounds in his music career.”

Describing his experience with StudioPros, Quinn stated, “I actually found the experience very easy,” he says. “The whole process was very slick and very quick.  I was delighted with the turnaround. Sometimes whenever there’s a quick turnaround you expect to sacrifice quality, but the quality was right up there at the top as well. I was delighted to get the opportunity to record with StudioPros.” Quinn started by providing the production team with an acoustic demo mp3 of his song and watched as step by step his song took on a new fully produced sound at a professional recording quality. After all of the instrumentation was tracked, he took care of the vocals himself, and even recruited well renowned Sarah Jory—a pedal steel player who has performed with Van Morrison—to play on his track.  Incorporating his own favorite musicians into the production as well as providing vocals gave his recording that personal touch his song deserved.

(more…)

Featured Artist: Kevin Tye

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Kevin Tye had never made a professional product with his music.  With the help of Studio Pros, he’s now taken his passion to the next level.

Kevin Tye has quite a bit of musical experience–he played in local bands for almost a quarter century. Eventually he moved on to writing his own material, taking advantage of the fact that he could set up a home studio very easily with today’s computer recording options. These days, he writes and records songs in his spare time when he’s not a this full-time job as a teacher. “I do it as a passion,” he says. “I just like to create things.” But until recently, he had never attempted to make a fully professional recording of his music.

Tye writes in multiple styles and genres, but as of late he has been focusing his creative efforts mainly on writing country songs. He saw an ad for Studio Pros in a magazine. “I decided I would give it a try,” he remembers, “to see what one of my songs would sound like through a professional studio.”

“I was a bit unsure exactly how it was all gonna play out,” he admits. But Tye’s confidence grew with each step of the recording process with Studio Pros; it started with a song sketch and built from there, while he gave his input on each of the tracks as he heard them. He was particularly interested in hearing the musical direction his songs would take by letting Studio Pros’ session musicians make their own decisions. “I wanted to see what the choices would be for people who are doing this thing day in and day out,” he explains. Then, giving more of his own feedback as the process went on, Tye struck a balance that he felt optimized his songs. “In the end I think it was a good mix of musical choices. For example, the singer did some slightly different things in the vocal than I had done, which I ended up liking quite a bit. So it was kind of that process where I was just feeling it out at first, then giving more input at the very end stages.”

(more…)


Studio Pros