StudioPros

Jeff Heiniger knew the importance of a professional production–so he turned to Studio Pros when he didn’t want to settle for anything less.

Jeff Heiniger has known what goes into a professional production for a long time. In 1987, he won a national songwriting competition in the UK that was put together by Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. The prize: a chance to record in the Stones’ state-of-the-art mobile recording studio with top producers Mick McKenna and Terry Taylor. “It was brilliant to work with actual professionals,” Heiniger remembers. “They turned our demo into something that was fantastic.”

Heiniger first started taking music lessons after getting a piano when he was 13.  He also started listening to all sorts of pop music, from Electric Light Orchestra to Depeche Mode, ABBA to The Beatles. Since winning the competition he has put together a Pro Tools-equipped home studio, but soon realized that without a professional producer behind the board he wasn’t going to achieve the same sort of radio-ready product he got with is winning song. “The problem is that I’m not an engineer, so I didn’t have anybody to record my stuff,” he explains. “What I found was really good about Studio Pros was that the production was sort of taken out of my hands in a way.”

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When he found the Studio Pros website, Heiniger was actually looking for session vocalists on the web. “I couldn’t find anyone locally who was any good,” he says. “It’s quite laborious, taking your music to a recording studio and finding an engineer who will record a session singer who you may not like. It seemed quite a lengthy process, and one that may not yield results at the end of the day.” He found himself intrigued by the Studio Pros website. “The site itself looked very professional. Professionalism and price were important.”

With Studio Pros, Heiniger was able to focus on writing a song on piano, then letting our team of world-class studio musicians build the rest from the ground up. Along the way, he would provide input and feedback to make sure everything came together how he wanted it. In order to make it easier, Heiniger would provide reference tracks with other music that matched the vibe he was going for with each song.

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A seasoned songwriter and poet, Rich Marcello teamed up with Studio Pros to give his productions the professional edge he needed, and keeps on coming back for more.

Boston based songwriter Rich Marcello is no novice when it comes to getting out the ink and jotting it down.  With over 30 songs professionally produced with Studio Pros, he’s gotten the continual experience of producing his tracks online, and is regularly bringing Studio Pros more material to produce.  “I’ve been writing for around 20 years,” says Marcello.  “At first I did a lot of the production myself but several years ago I decided to get them professionally produced, which was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Marcello came across Studio Pros (which was at the time DrumsForYou.com) through an online search and decided to give it a try.  Starting with just a drum track, he heard the quality of Studio Pros’ production team and decided to try it out for a full production.  “By letting other really talented musicians work on my material it really took my work to a much better place. I knew I found a great partner in music and I’ve felt that on every song Studio Pros has done for me.  I think Studio Pros is the best in the business–I won’t ever use anyone else,” Marcello stated.

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David Llorente used Studio Pros for his first professional project and was blown away not only by the musicianship, but by how much they cared.

“It was probably one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had as a musician.”

That’s how David Llorente feels about his time working with Studio Pros. “Just going through all the processes, seeing what people have to do to get a professional track cut. I didn’t know how long it took. I didn’t know everything that was involved from start to finish. And now, having gone through it with Studio Pros, I’m never gonna forget it. It was awesome.”

Llorente, a Nashville-area singer/songwriter, was hunting down recording options online when he discovered Studio Pros. “I really wanted to get this project out, it was real heavy on my heart,” he remembers. “I read about Studio Pros and thought, ‘that’s a good idea.’” Though intrigued by the idea, Llorente still needed convincing that Studio Pros was the best choice for his music. All it took to persuade him was a little research and a phone call to head of production Kati O’Toole.

“The credentials behind the staff are amazing,” he explains. “I actually went and checked out Katie’s albums that she had done. She’s not just a producer, but she’s a musician and songwriter.” Knowing that his songs were in the hands of fellow musicians put Llorente at ease. “I could hear that she’s passionate about what she’s doing. It was cool to have some people that really cared.”

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Ever wondered how a full music production is made?  Here’s the step-by-step process of how Tim Knighton produced his first song.

It all starts with an idea.  In Tim Knighton’s case, it was an idea for his original song called “Hail the Woman,” one of many tunes he wanted to record for an album.  ”The website was easy to use,” he explains.  ”So I picked a track that I knew I’d want to put on the album and thought I’d give it a try.”  Knighton recorded a scratch version of the song and sent in to Studio Pros to kickstart the production process.

Listen to Tim Knighton’s original version of “Hail the Woman:”

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The first step for Studio Pros was sending him a sketch of the song, which included a guitar part under his original vocals.  (This sketch is used as a guide for the rhythm section to record their parts over later and won’t actually appear in the final product.)

“Hail the Woman” song sketch:

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When Knighton approved the sketch, that was when the fun began.  Piece by piece, Studio Pros’ world-class session musicians laid down their parts (drums, bass, guitars, keys). Knighton received mp3 rough mix previews after each new instrument was recorded to make sure he was completely happy with the production every step of the way.  With each instrument that was recorded, Tim had a chance to give feedback and make one free modification per instrument to ensure he was happy with the instrumentation as it unfolded.  Once he approved the drums, it moved to bass, then final guitars and keys.

Drum track:

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Laying down the bass:

Recording the guitar track:

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Keyboard recording:

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Laying down professional vocals and putting on the finishing touches.

Then came the element that Knighton felt was the most crucial aspect of his song: vocals.  ”I’m a big believer that we’re all given certain gifts and abilities,” he says, contemplating his role in the music world.  ”And the one I wasn’t given was singing, much to my annoyance.”  But instead of worrying about his own perceived musical shortcomings, he chose to use a professional vocalist provided by Studio Pros to breathe new life into his songs.  After sampling different singers on the Studio Pros website, he decided that Phil (pictured, right) would be the best fit for his material.  ”From the first track Phil did, I knew this was absolutely the guy who could make a real difference on my songs,” he says.

Vocal preview:

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With the instrumental and vocal tracks complete, the homestretch of the recording process involved mixing and mastering the song by Studio Pros’ 7 time Grammy-nominated engineer.  The final product had taken the song from an idea bouncing around Knighton’s head to a fully realized, professionally polished production in almost no time at all.

“Hail the Woman” final production:

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From his first song to his first album: Knighton makes his dream a reality. (more…)

In need of professional studio musicians to make his vision come alive, Tom Gray and Studio Pros made the perfect recordings of his most personal songs.

Tom Gray grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, where he found himself involved in both the local jazz and rock scenes. A performer and composer, Gray was also classically trained as a singer, adding yet another facet to his diverse musical upbringing. But with the music he’s made with Studio Pros, he’s taken his versatile musical skill set and applied it all to pop music (“It has been really strange to find my ‘pop’ voice,” he admits).

But even as a pop artist, Gray lets his many musical roots show through often. “There’s a song called ‘Go’ that is almost like an avant garde jazz tune,” he says. “On the surface it’s approachable, but there is some really complex content (harmonic, meter, and structure) in there without sounding ‘jazzy.’”

Gray used Studio Pros as a tool to take some music that had been close to his heart for years and turn it into something tangible. “This album has been a long time in the making,” he says. “They are gems that I had written for myself but haven’t performed with anyone else. They’ve very intimate, very personal.” But after finding Studio Pros via a web search, Gray found a resource that helped him recapture and discover new inspiration in his own songs. “It’s funny, some of these songs are 15 years old and I’ve demoed them to death,” he says. But working with Studio Pros’ world-class session musicians helped him breathe new life into music he may otherwise left behind.

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Tim and Christopher Allen decided to use Studio Pros to breathe a little life into their recordings.  In the end, they ended up getting a bit more than that.

Along with Brad Ackerman (drums) and Kristin Allen (vocalist), Tim and Chris Allen form the band Allenton Hill, who cite influences as diverse as Owl City (on the song “Fireworks,” listen below) and Switchfoot.  ”Truthfully, most of our music has been influenced by three main bands: Hillsong, Phil Wickham, and Coldplay,” says Tim, who plays lead guitar, does some singing, and is the principal songwriter of the group.  He’s been playing music with his brother Chris, who sings and plays acoustic guitar and piano, since they were kids.  ”When we were young, we were always around music,” Tim remembers.  ”Most everyone in my family plays an instrument or two… Eventually the music fever hit Chris and me.”

“Dad always turned up the music when we were driving around and he’d have me pick out all of the instruments,” says Chris.  ”This led to me having significant appreciation for the details in music.”

The members of Allenton Hill, all in their early twenties, got together when they began to play at a local Youth Center in their hometown of Dayton, OH in 2006.  They met Ackerman, who has now been playing drums for about 16 years, when he ended up living at their house for a short time.  Although he currently lives in Nashville, Ackerman drives up to Ohio every week to be with the band.

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Roger Miller, like many musicians, is a bit of a perfectionist. Luckily, Studio Pros is full of perfectionists as well.

At the beginning of summer 2009, Roger Miller acquired the funding he needed to record a full-length album of his Christian alternative acoustic music. In order to get a professional sounding product, Miller decided he would head to Nashville, TN, rent out a recording studio, hire session musicians, and put together an album that could hold its own against any major label production. But during his online search for recording studios, he came across a more convenient option that caught his attention: Studio Pros.

Unsure of whether or not Studio Pros could really deliver the top quality product he was looking for, Miller sent in just one song to test the waters. The final product convinced him to continue on with his entire album. “The final album and the songs, they exceeded my expectations quality-wise,” Miller says.

Miller sang, played guitar and even some cello on his songs, but one of his favorite parts of the process was working with the professional studio musicians that Studio Pros provided. Through this recording process, Miller had access to some of the best musicians in LA playing on his songs, while still involving him in the production of his album. “Going into it, I had pretty high standards,” Miller says. But he was impressed with the caliber of playing he received. “The drum tracks were incredible. They were a lot better than I thought they were going to be. The backing vocals were stellar.” Miller used a strategy that combined using his own very specific musical ideas in conjunction with letting the musicians improvise and do their own thing when the songs called for it.

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20 years ago she thought making music might be fun. Now with the help of Studio Pros, Barb Bechler has accomplished what she never thought possible.

UPDATE: Barb has created dance/hip hop tracks from a capella demo versions to professional final products with the help of Studio Pros.  Three of these tracks have been added below.  She has also won two more songwriting awards in the Song of the Year competition for her tracks “Come on Out and Dance” and “Wishers” since this feature was written.

Barb Bechler’s path to becoming a musician is not your typical story. In fact, her creative use of Studio Pros’ services makes for one of the most unique musical journeys you’re bound to hear. While she’s been a fan and admirer of music for most of her life, Bechler never was a musician herself–until she began learning, experimenting, and expanding her musical boundaries with the help of the world-class studio musicians that Studio Pros provided. Utilizing Studio Pros’ services, Bechler found herself going from complete novice to award-winning songwriter in an astoundingly short period of time.

Not too long ago, Bechler was retired from real estate sales and writing children’s stories. Now, she is submitting her music to TAXI for publishing in film and television. “I’m probably coming from a different direction from a lot of people,” she says. “I’ve always admired musicians and listened to a great variety of music. The big thing for me was that I always wanted to be able to write songs.” Wondering how she could translate her story writing abilities to songwriting, Bechler had a breakthrough when her niece, Deanna, showed her how to use GarageBand music software.

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Exploring the connection between health and music, David Alter teams up with Studio Pros to make professional recordings that will benefit health charities through his unique new company.

David Alter is an artist who knows what he wants, and he uses the resources that Studio Pros provides to get exactly that.  Though he’s been writing music for quite a while, performing was something of a new concept for the health professional-turned-musician when he decided to record an album of his own.  “The process of recording has been relatively new,” Alter says.  “I’ve been writing for many years, but it’s only been lately that I’ve done more of the recording process myself.”

So after he saw an advertisement for Studio Pros in Recording magazine, Alter decided he had nothing to lose by putting his songwriting in the hands of professional studio musicians who could ensure a top quality result for his songs.  “I thought I’d try it out and i just loved it,” he says.  “I love the process of creating the idea, then arranging it by having a vehicle that gets what I hear in my mind out quickly.”

The decision to try Studio Pros ended up being worth his while, as it turned out.  Studio Pros helped him bring the music bouncing around in his head into fruition and helped satisfy Alter’s inner musical control freak, all in a manner so efficient he believes it couldn’t have happened had he not used the service.  “I always have a demo,” he explains.  “I have a home setup, and I do the demo and get it set arrangement-wise.  Then I upload that when I’m ready, along with lyrics and instructions.”  Alter then takes the results of Studio Pro’s studio musicians and uses them as part of his creative process, adding new instruments and parts himself as he is struck by new inspiration.

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Andy Kostek doesn’t let a job that keeps him away from home stand in the way of recording the professional album he always wanted; with Studio Pros, he can record while on the road.

Over a Pink Floyd-esque bed of electric and acoustic guitars, Andy Kostek’s voice adds a distinct quality to his music that goes far in defining his signature sound. “I never really considered myself a vocalist, just a guitarist,” Andy says. “With the help of Studio Pros, I’ve become more confident with the vocals.” Living in Ireland at the time, Andy came to Studio Pros to help him craft his songs when the travel demands of his job made it nearly impossible to put together a band of his own. “Using Studio Pros was born out of frustration,” he explains. Having a “virtual band” allowed him to write lyrics while he was on the road, while professional studio musicians were laying down tracks for him thousands of miles away.

Andy came from a musical family, and by age 15 he got his hands on a discarded guitar with only three strings on it. Despite only being halfway to a complete instrument, Andy “never looked back.” By the time he was 18, he bought his first electric guitar; three months later he was making more money playing music in a band than he was from working for an aircraft manufacturing company as his day job.

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