27th August 2008
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#1 | | Banned
Joined: Jan 2007 Location: BO - IT
Posts: 330
Thread Starter  | Recording Session: which studio to choose ?
Hello,
finally I have ended to compose and now I am ready to record my songs in professional way. Please help me to choose the studio for to do this 
We go with some ours instruments and musicians.
Ours songs:
3 - Deep House style @126bpm. Intruments: TR808, minimoog for bass and synth line, korg MS20, korg polisix, access virus, rhodes, elec. guitar.
4 - lounge/chillout style @82bpm. Instruments: acoustic drum kit, fender precision bass fingered, korg M1 piano, elec. guitar, access virus, korg polisix, DX7.
3 - acoustic/chillout style @94bpm. Instruments: acoustic drum kit, percussions, fender precision bass fingered, grand piano, spanish guitar, motif es (pad), flute, sax.
I can choose between three studios for recording sessions (only recording, not mixing), the price is the same:
A: studio with SSL 4000G+ console, recording into protools
B: studio with Neve 88RS console, recording into protools
C: studio with API console (I don't know the model but has 3124+ and 512 preamps), recording into protools
What do you suggest ?
Thank you  | 
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28th August 2008
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2003 Location: Los Angeles |
For tracking I would choose b or c, but far more importantly, since you have asked this question, I am guessing you might not really have much experience on tracking with large format consoles, so I would say that the most important part is to pick the studio that has the best engineer.
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28th August 2008
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#3 | | Moderator
Joined: Feb 2004 Location: Boston,MA Providence,RI
Posts: 16,335
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Whichever place you feel more comfortable in... both with the people and the vibe of the facility...
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28th August 2008
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#4 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2007 Location: A quiet place
Posts: 1,071
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+1 Whichever place you feel more comfortable in... both with the people and the vibe of the facility...
Based upon the console models they should all be decent studios and unless you've got someone that is a wizard on getting a specific "name of board" sound the sound should be comparable.
__________________ AnalogTubes.com - Cutsom Tube Sets Guitar-Tubes.com Crank it up A studio is a financial black hole with good acoustics. It's only vintage if it works. Other wise it's just old crap. JS Bach or Beethoven never used auto-tune or comp tracks, nor an eq, a compressor/limiter, a reverb or a delay an analog or digital mix system. All that was achieved in the writing and performance of the music. Obviously Bach and Beethoven were doing it wrong. | |
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28th August 2008
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#5 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2007 Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 1,137
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The sound of the room is vastly more important to me than the brand of console. That said, all things equal for tracking, I'd choose the Neve or the API in that order .
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28th August 2008
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#6 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2008 Location: The Desert
Posts: 700
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+2 for vibe, people, and as part of that - people who know their sh*t. Neither place you mention should suck sonically, assuming they all have at least reasonably decent-sounding control rooms, and they have a well-rounded & well-maintained peripheral gear lineup.
You're recording some acoustic instruments, too, I notice, so try & get an idea what kind of mic department they have... most likely if they've got that much money invested in a desk, they've got some decent mics, as well; but if one guy's saying: "Shure, Shure, Shure, Shure, Studio Projects...", and the other's saying: "Shure, Shure, Neumann, Gefell, AKG, Soundelux, Brauner...", that might tend to bias my opinion a bit, were I the one doing the studio-shopping.
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My ambition is to someday have my signature line quoted as someone else's signature line. | |
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28th August 2008
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#7 | | Banned
Joined: Jan 2007 Location: BO - IT
Posts: 330
Thread Starter |
Thanks folks
Yes, I haven't the idea how sounds these differents consoles... All the studio have good engineer and good mics. So, the choice is most for the caracter of the console...
TNX
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29th August 2008
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#8 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Sep 2002 Location: Elmont NY  |
I agree with RCM get the best engineer, the gear is useless without the right person tracking. The problem with most big places is, if you want a deal you get an assistant to engineer, who could be good but may well not . I'd find an engineer you liked working with and then get a room, especially recording acoustic instruments
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Lou Gimenez
www.musiclabnyc.com
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30th August 2008
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#9 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 4,345
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Musiclab  I agree with RCM get the best engineer, the gear is useless without the right person tracking. The problem with most big places is, if you want a deal you get an assistant to engineer, who could be good but may well not . I'd find an engineer you liked working with and then get a room, especially recording acoustic instruments | +1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | |
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30th August 2008
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#10 | | Gear Guru
Joined: Jun 2002 Location: New York City
Posts: 14,175
| Quote:
Originally Posted by a1236040 Thanks folks
Yes, I haven't the idea how sounds these differents consoles... All the studio have good engineer and good mics. So, the choice is most for the caracter of the console...
TNX | In terms of character i'd rate the consoles as C-API, A-SSL 4000G+ & B-Neve 88RS from character to clean.
In terms of which to choose for tracking it doesn't really matter since most of your sound sources are synths anyway and those will go mostly direct to ProTools. For the drums obviously the API would fit better if its in great shape.
If you were trying to decide which console to mix on than it be a different story because then everything would run through it and the overall sound will take on its characteristic stamp.
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31st August 2008
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#11 | | Gear Head
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 69
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Musiclab I agree with RCM get the best engineer, the gear is useless without the right person tracking. The problem with most big places is, if you want a deal you get an assistant to engineer, who could be good but may well not . I'd find an engineer you liked working with and then get a room, especially recording acoustic instruments | Absolutely!!! The engineer should be the main, if not only consideration.
Of course you need a studio with basically the right stuff. It's mind boggling to me how many folks I run into that choose a studio based on gear, only to wind up with an engineer with marginal skills, or someone who is competent but may not understand the music.
I'm not an engineer, I'm a musician, and I've only learned this by experience. I'll pick the engineer over the studio every time. A great pro will usually overcome any limitations a studio might have.
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31st August 2008
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#12 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Sep 2005 Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 1,948
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One more vote for the studio with the best engineer.
Ask to hear samples of the engineers' previous work, and pick the engineer whose work is consistently the best.
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