Studio Point:
-
Welcome to our digital studio, home base of
Rough Draft
- Setup:
- The studion consists of three recording rooms (drum section,
guitar section, vocal recording booth)
plus a mastering/control room. They are all accoustically insulated (fiberglass and accoustic tiles)
and separated by glass doors and soundproof windows that allow for eye contact.
The rooms are wall-wired. Musicians can plug their instruments directly into the walls,
and use headphones. Micing amplifiers is also possible--the studio includes extra
unfinished space for amp micing purposes.
- Drum section:
The section includes a full drum kit, independently miced
(2 XY condenser overheads, double dynamic mics on snare, reversed phase,
one dynamic for each tom, a bass drum mic). All microphones are gated and compressed
before being pre-mixed as a stereo signal.
- Recording rooms:
They are all wired for independent headsets, with full control
over your own headset mixes. The guitar section can accommodate up to 8 independent
signals or "ins" (four XLR/microphone signals,and 4 TRS.) We typically use two
microphones for scratch tracks. The rest of the "ins" can be used for guitars,
keyboards, etc.
- Monitoring:
The headset/monitoring system is buit around a Furman Heaphone Amplifier.
Each musician can monitor his/her headphone signal by way of a remote
Furman unit.
The unit supplies a "Main Mix" button and allows to add up to 4 different
independend signals on top. Therefore, each musician can have more of his own
signal on top of the main mix. Thre is one Furman unit in the drum section and two in the guitar section. Up to eight units may be added, if need be. All rooms all have extra headset outlets powered by a separate Rolls headset aplifier, providing a stereo signal of the main mix signal. Each room is also wired for powered monitors, in case a "live sound" is preferred.
Mastering room
and recording capabilities:
The mastering room is an asymmetrical, accoustically insulated section that provides
a colorless environment for mixing purposes. It is separated from the other sections
by a double glass window. We use Mackie 864 Power monitors (80 Watts) for mixing
purposes.
The rest of the equipment includes:
- Mackie 24 channel mixer
- Roland 2480 VS hard drive recorder, 24 tracks, with full FX cards.
- Roland QPS rack CD-RW burner.
- Sansui flat LCD monitor
- Seagate standalone external hard-drive for archiving purposes.
Outboard gear:
- DBX compressors (2)
- Drawmer compressor (1)
- RNC compressor (1)
- Drawmer preamp
- Focusrite preamp
- Behringer virtualizer
- Behringer EQ
- Antares voice pitcher
- TC Electronics Finalizer Plus
- Rolls Headphone Amplifier
- Furman Headphone Distribution System.
Vocal Microphones:
- Shure 57, 58
- Rode 1
- AKG 3000
- Shure KSM33
- AT2033
- Groove Tube M61
Projects:
In the main, we are using the studio as a homebase for our group, Rough Draft, but other musicians are welcomed, too. The studio's credential list includes:
- Rough Draft mixes: more than 40 songs fully recorded and partially premastered which are still, well, in a rough draft phase. We are aiming to produce a final version of a Rough Draft CD by the end of the year.
- Chrys Mitchell: People and Places
- Bonnie Fides: Impromptu
- DNA: Untitled
- Various Demos:
- Triumvirate:
- JJ Cool
- Rebel's Advocate
- Rich Webster Trio
Availability:
The studio is also available for practice purposes. Please contact March (319-339-8862) for scheduling. You are welcome to use our setup or bring your favorite drum kit or amp for independent micing. Please let us know beforehand if you intend to bring your own drums or amps, so we can reconfigure the rooms.
Hourly Rates:
For practice purposes, the rate is $10.00/hour, including setup time. If you decide to record your practice and have a tape or a CD at the end of the seeion, the rate switches to recording time. The recording rate is $30.00/hour, with a discount for session blocks (4 hours=$100). Typically, for a first recording session, we will charge you for actual playing time at this rate. At the end of the session, I will do a rough mix and burn a CD for you at no extra charge. If you are happy with the results, you may have the CD and pay only for your recording time. If you are not happy, you don't have to pay for the first recording session at all. You may have the CD upon full payment and additional copies are available at a rate of $3.00 each.
If you recommend this studio to your fellow musicans and help us advertising it by bringing in a new group, your rate drops to $25.00 an hour.
Pre-Mastering:
The pre-mastering includes cleaning up the tracks, compressing them if necessary, running them through outboard processors, and so forth. All this takes time. For a mastering session, I will provide you with a final mix based on my perception of the song, and adjust it based on your suggestions. You may also attend the mastering session and I will be happy to have your input and work together with you towards your final goal. The pre-mastering and mastering rate is $25.00/hour.
Duplicating:
We are planning to add a dedicated CD duplicator to our setup, in the near future. For the time being, we have the capability of producing up to 20 copies without feeling that we have to play patty-cake with the CD burner. We can label these copies for you by using CD-stickers (some people have had problems with labels, as they may get unstuck in a CD Player, especially in multi-chargers). If you need a higher volume of copies, you may want to refer to Oasis or another company specialized in duplicaing (or help us get the duplicating unit as soon as possible).
Contact us!
Hourly Rates
Projects
Contact Us
