...The President of Echo Beach Studios does his best to answer questions from viewers just like you! ...

FAQs

Echo Beach Studios is located in Jupiter, Florida. This is Northern Palm Beach County in South East Florida. More specifically our address is 947 Alternate A-1-A. This puts us on the intracoastal waterway within view of the Jupiter lighthouse. There are plenty of restaurants and hotels within 5 minutes of the studio and the Palm Beach International Airport is only a 25 to 30 minute drive from the studio. When scheduling tours or sessions we'll be pleased to fax you a map and specific driving directions to the studio. Just give us a ring. Be wary of online mapsites. They keep on putting us in strange places many miles from our actual location.

 

We get this question a lot from folks who are new to studio recording. It's kind of like asking "how much does it cost to build a house?". Do you want a one room cabin that you'll build on weekends with friends or do you want a palatial estate built by Italian craftsmen? Just as you would have goals regarding the construction of your new abode you must give some thought to the methodology and goals of your recording. Good demos have been recorded for less than a few hundred bucks while some album budgets have gone into the millions. Most of the charges involved are based on time, complexity of the recording and the number of people involved. The better idea you have of exactly what you expect to accomplish in the studio and how you plan to do it, the easier it is to answer the original question. I'll give two examples of different types of projects to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

a) The vocalist with instrumental accompaniment:

  Often we have clients who are interested in recording a vocal performance with piano or guitar accompaniment. My first question: "is this a demo recording and if so, what is the purpose? Is it a songwriter's demo, designed to sell the song to a publisher or another artist? Or is it a performance demo to serve as a demonstration of what you are capable of so that you can get more gigs? Or is this demo being recorded at the request of a label to see how viable you are as a recording artist?" It helps to know this stuff in advance because we will likely take a slightly different approach to the recording depending on it's intended focus. If the recording is being made for commercial release then our approach will be similar to our handling of the label requested demo. We'll generally use all the studio trickery we can to create a recording that goes head to head with competing tunes on radio and TV. This can be time consuming and costly so for the purpose of this little dissertation we'll say that our caller wants to record a simple songwriter's demo.

OK, so you want to record a songwriter's demo with vocal and piano accompaniment. Are you the singer? Yes? OK then do you have someone to play the piano? Yes again? Great! I'll be sure to have the piano tuned for the session. How many songs would you like to record during the session? 3 it is then. How much time should you book you ask? Well, let me tell you how I like to record these demos and you can tell me if you have a preference to record them in some other fashion which you may have been comfortable with in the past and then we can estimate the time needed. I like to record live with both musicians in the same room with good eye contact. We'll record multitrack to a hard disc editing system this way if we need to edit together the best parts of different takes we can do it pretty quickly. The key here is to get a take in which the piano performance is just the way you want it. Then if you're not happy with the vocal that was recorded at the same time we can record new vocals while you sing to the piano that has already been recorded. Generally, after each take I will play back the complete take for you to scrutinize and you can either try it again, just fix parts of it or if you're satisfied, it's time to move on to the next one. The thing to remember in this case is that this recording is designed to give someone a clean clear concept of the vocal melody and lyrics accompanied with chordal voicings. The recording should sound pleasing but we're not going for a multi platinum release here. The time involved in tracking is usually 1 to 1/2 hour per song. Sometimes it can go quicker. If it goes longer, in this case, it probably means you didn't have the song written before you came into the studio.

So now we have the completed performances loaded into the computer. What's next? 9 times out of 10 it's a quick mix, balancing the levels of the piano and voice ( good vocalists and piano players pretty much take care of this when performing) adding a bit of ambience to the instruments and popping it down to some form of stereo master. Usually we print the mix to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) and from that we can make CDs or cassettes or 1/4" reel to reel or a computer file or whatever. Our conclusion then is to allow for 3 hours for a 3 song songwriter demo. It will likely take much less time, so when booking with the studio manager you might decide to book 2 hours with a 1 hour bumper just to be safe. The key in this and all cases really is to be prepared before the session and have a game plan when you get into the studio. Try not to spring too many surprises on your engineer like " I know I said it would be just vocal and piano but since my buddy came with me he'd like to set up his drums and sit in on a couple of the songs" I'm sure the engineer will be more than happy to accommodate you but be aware that you'll very likely not get much done in the time you booked. Remember that your engineer needs to be kept in the loop. He or she will be using certain setups and micing techniques based on what he or she expects will take place during the session. The more the studio staff knows about the recording before the session the more likely it is that everything will be setup before the session starts and the clock begins to roll. This is to your benefit. Now of course you're asking,"how much is all this going to set me back?" In this case you are looking at say 2 hours of studio time with engineer, plus the cost of an initial CD-R and a couple of copies. Ballpark figure is $190 for the studio time and around $30 plus tax for the materials which equates to about $74 per song. Now let's move on to a more complicated situation.

 

b) The rock band recording their first CD:

OK, the call comes in from our fictitious band "MindSquat". The players consist of a drummer, 2 guitar players, a singer who also plays a little guitar, a bass player and a DJ laying in scratches. They want to record a CD which they will sell at their gigs and over the Internet. They don't know it at the moment but they'll also be giving an awful lot of them away to various "industry people" while in search of their big break. Since this is their first CD I suggest that they not shoot for the moon on this one. It would be better to record the concept album after they've got a little more recording experience under their belts. A big label recording budget doesn't hurt much either. In this case we're going to record 7 songs and try to keep the arrangements pretty close to something that the band could pull off live. It's always nice when a band has a producer to help them in preproduction and in the studio. A good producer can not only help to make the songs themselves better but can also communicate a little better with the engineer to get results quicker and with less confusion. In MindSquat's case they will be self producing. This is pretty common for a band's first independent release. It's always a good idea to appoint one member of the band as the official producer. This popular individual will be responsible for guiding the engineer during the recording and mixes. One hopes that this helps to alleviate the dreaded " My instrument isn't loud enough syndrome" where each band member wants to hear their instrument louder than the rest. Pretty soon you end up with a mess of conflicting sounds so that what started out as a very pleasant arrangement becomes akin to an AM radio signal under 12 feet of mud. Mindsquat's guitar player number 1 elects to act as producer. Next we sit down and work out track allocation for each song. We figure on 9 tracks for drums, 3 tracks for guitars, 1 track for bass, 2 tracks for our DJ, and 4 tracks for vocals. This makes for 19 tracks. Looks like we'll be going with a 24 track recording format so we should have some tracks left over for any extra creativity. The next question is paper or plastic? No wait, that should be analog or digital? Without getting into the reasons here the band opts for 2' analog 24 track at 15ips. With all the guitars and the turntable to be recorded, residual tape hiss should not present a problem.

Now that the engineer has some idea of how he's going to set up for the session there are some things the band needs to do before coming into the studio. Practice, practice, practice. Practice playing with a click to work out tempo issues. Find out exactly what tempo fits best with each song and mark it down in a preproduction notebook that you'll bring to the session. Preproduction is the time to experiment with the overall tempo. Don't count on just guessing by feel the starting tempo of a song when you get to the studio. The influence of the studio vibe will cause you to get it wrong every time and then when you have the finished CD band members will say things like "boy we've never played that tune at that speed before. Our drummer sure is an asshole". Practice. Break the songs down and think about the recording. Maybe for the first time people will actually be able to hear the vocalist since he won't be singing through a cheesy P.A. Think about what the vocal performance should really be doing to express maximum emotion instead of just screaming to be heard. Analyze all the instruments in this way. Try playing with headphones on. It is likely that this is how you'll be recording in the studio. Finally make sure all instruments are in proper working order and decide on the sequence in which you'll want to record the songs.

Back to the studio. Mindsquat has worked out a budget with the engineer based on time they plan on booking and materials needed. The plan is to load in instruments the night before the basic tracking session. The hour or so of load in time is free. The band has decided to book a full 10 hour day at the prepaid 10 hour rate of $750. The day should go as follows. Around 10 in the morning the drummer crawls in to work on drum sounds. This will likely take about an hour or two of tweaking, tuning, and twiddling knobs. At 11:30 other musicians start arriving and while the drummer grabs a bite the DJ plugs in and the guitar players tune up. Next we work on guitar sounds for the first tune. ( A note about the sounds: In an effort to reduce time and money on this project we've decided not to obsess about getting different sounds optimized for each song. I classify this as more of a demo CD where the goal is to get several songs recorded close to live in one day. On Mindsquat's next CD they may want to approach it on a song by song basis and spend time optimizing the recording for each song) The guitar players will be changing their amp settings from song to song but we won't be changing the recording setup unless we run into a problem. Next the bass player plugs her bass direct into a direct box so that we don't need to worry about micing up a bass amp. Sometimes we use bass amps other times we don't. Now let's hear the bass with the drums to finalize the bass sound going to tape a bit. Enter the vocalist. We're going to put the vocalist in the iso booth as he's going to try for a keeper take. Often we'll just record a scratch track that we don't intend to keep but need to hear so that everyone knows where they are in the song and can alter their performances to fit with the mood of the vocal. This gives the songs a bit more life. We have set up a drum machine to play a click which we will record but mute once the group is several measures into the song. It is now 12:30 and the band is playing a few wacky tunes together while the headphone mixes are adjusted. Now recording can begin. The tape has been loaded up on the machine and is rolling. The recording is slated"This is 'I Squat For You' take one, tape is rolling, tuning note please". The bass player plays a single long sustained note in the key of the song for later tuning reference and once all is again quiet we start the click. After 2 measures of click the drummer hits his sticks together for this 4/4 song and calls out in time "1,2,3,4,1,2" followed by 2 silent beats and then the band comes in. We are rolling on take one.

As the day progresses the band runs through their tunes, listening to a playback after each take until they agree that they have a keeper at which point they move on to the next song. If the take is close except the bass player flubbed a couple of notes we'll quickly punch in on the recording to fix the mistakes before moving on. When recording basic tracks the key is to get a good recorded performance of bass & drums. If those aren't happening then odds are the tune will always sound a bit too sloppy for comfort. Settings for the bass & guitars should be written down for each tune that way effective punch-ins can be done for these instruments later without having the guitar sound change at the repaired parts of the song. Anyhow back to the show. Mindsquat finishes their basic tracks by 5:30. They did just dandy! These folks were well rehearsed and got some great feeling tracks laid down. We spend the next couple of hours fixing a few things and adding a couple of guitar overdubs. Next we decide to throw up a few vocal mics and try to spend the last hour recording some background vocal tracks. We are able to get some cool things down for a couple of tunes. While doing the overdubs and backing tracks we recorded the playbacks onto a CD-R which we can duplicate for the band while we break down the instruments and setup. This is a good time to schedule a follow-up session to finish the backing vocals and possibly re-record the lead vocal on a couple of the tunes. The band decides to book a ten hours at the prepaid 10 hour rate so that they can come in after work a few days down the road and finish the recording. We budget about 4 more hours of recording time for that which leaves us with 6 prepaid hours leftover for mixdowns. It's decided to take care of mixdowns a couple of days later to allow everyone a chance to listen to the session tapes and decide whether or not all the songs are up to snuff. It's decided that 1 song "Stairway to Evan's" just didn't quite click so that song is dropped allowing us 1 hour per song for mixing. This isn't a whole lot of time so once we get the basic sounds up we keep them pretty consistent throughout the mixes. We concentrate mainly on the levels and changing reverbs, delays and other modulation effects to fit each song. At the end of the mixdown day we have mixed the 6 chosen songs into the computer (Digital Audio Workstation) and burned a reference CD.

The next step is to assemble the master and have CDs or any other format imaginable duplicated from the master. Since this is meandering into a different subject, I'll summarize the budget up to this point and consider this question answered. The band prepaid $750 dollars initially for the 10 hour day of recording. At the end of the day they had run through 2 reels of 2" analog tape @ $160 a piece (digital recording would have meant cheaper material costs but the band had their reasons for going analog). At this point they prepaid for another 10 hours of recording @ $750. Mixdown was recorded to computer and the initial CD was $20 with 4 additional discs at $5 a piece. OK, so the grand total came to $1860 plus $23.40 tax on materials. If all 7 songs had been completed this would have come out to a little under $269 per song. If someone calls and they want a number without sitting down and budgeting the time I usually use $300 to $500 / song as a loose rule of thumb. The higher number allows for a bit more experimentation during the overdub phase of the recording or a bit more time spent during mixdown.(OK, I'll get around to updating this soon since we don't really record to the 2" 24 track much any more. ProTools, ProTools, ProTools)

Standard studio rates for studio A are $95 per hour. If an analog or digital phone patch is needed, time is an extra $40 and $90 per hour respectively. Audio locked to video playback is $145 per hour. Dolby surround and 5.1 mixing is $175 per hour. we offer a couple of different pre-paid rate plans for independent labels and musicians. The first is a 3 hour purchase at $85 per hour, the second is a purchase of 10 hours $75 per hour, and the best deal is a purchase of 20 hours at $65 per hour. We also offer our studio B at $45 per hour. If your budget is looking a little lean you could try calling the first day of the last week of the month to book a few hours for that week and if the studio needs to get its revenue up for the month we might be more likely to squeeze a short session in at a lower rate. Just ask if we have any "end of the month specials". We suggest recording sessions be archived onto back up media for which we charge $20 per 10 gigs of storage.

Definitely! Just give us a call to schedule a studio tour (561-745-0571). A studio tour is the only reliable way to check out a studio's equipment and recording spaces. It also offers a great opportunity to meet with the studio staff and discuss your project. Remember, the greater the understanding a recording studio has of what you are trying to accomplish the smoother the flow of the ensuing session. Studio tours can take from 30 to 60 minutes and will usually be scheduled to take place between sessions.

No, but we can try to make you sound like one. The rest is up to you.

Yes & No

Yes. Just tell us what you need, your budget and give us enough time to line it all up.

We can accommodate many formats and can always beg, borrow or rent gear to meet a clients needs. The formats on site are as follows:

2" 24 track analog 2"16 track analog 1/2 16 track analog w/ dolby C 1/4" 2 track w/ tc 4 track cassette ADAT Dat Protools sessions and most audio files Dyaxis Multimix sessions and audio files using standard midi files we can translate midi sequences to Protools or Mark of the Unicorn Performer files CDs, Videotape, Audio Cassette and Vinyl

10. Should I record on analog or digital?

The best way to address this question is to let you in on a little philosophy and then put up a table illustrating the skinny on each format.... I'll be getting around to that next.