Mobile Recording
Jazz and Soul
We bring the studio to your venue, call us now for more info.
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Solo Singers
We have thousands of backing tracks available, special rates for soloists.
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Rock and Blues
We can record your gig or you can hire us to multitrack record without an audience
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Multimedia
Voiceover recordings, any voice in any style in any language available. Also here a selection of radio adverts, sweeps, film music and idents.
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Brass Bands
A selection of our concert and session recordings of Brass Bands.
Ensemble recording and compact disc duplication packages are our speciality.
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Male Voice Choir
Our most recent recordings from the world of Male Voice Choirs
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Ensemble Recording
CHOOSING THE VENUE
Because you know your area much better than we do it makes complete sense that you should choose the venue where you want your recording to take place, the first rule of thumb is to find somewhere that will easily accomodate your ensemble 4 or 5 times, somewhere with high ceilings is usually good too. Visit the venue first if possible and stand quietly inside listening for anything that could potentially interrupt or stop the recording, for example internal noise caused by heating and cooling systems or lights, obviously it is not practical to record on a busy street or next to railway lines or under the flightpath of the local airport.
Maybe check with your local authority whether there is any scheduled maintainance planned on your recording days such as highway repairs or tree surgery that might involve the use of noisy equipment or plant. Your venue should lend itself to all these considerations and of course be suitable for the bands requirements by way of facilities for food and drinks and of the technical requirements of the producer and engineer, please feel free to call us if you have any questions.
REHEARSE
Remember that what you are about to record may be listened to for many years to come so you need to be sure that your repertoire is rehearsed to your highest standard possible, try to arrange a series of rehearsals leading up to the recording weekend and that way the recording sessions will be much more enjoyable, to leave any rehearsing until the days of the recording sessions is both time consuming and expensive, the better prepared you are the better the end product will be.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO RECORD?
Most of our recordings take place over a weekend (Sat/Sun) this allows ample time to record the hour or so of music required for your cd, our minimum aim is to achieve around seven or eight minutes of useable music for each hour of recording. We will send you a suggested recording timetable which we have found works really well, with a little flexibility in mind the timetable proposes recording session times and importantly those frequent short periods of refreshment and 'fresh air' breaks.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We arrive at the venue usually around two hours before the first session is scheduled to begin to set up our equipment, in some instances when there are longer distances for us to travel we may arrive on the Friday evening, the engineer and producer will be available to answer any last minute questions that you have once they have set up, you should supply copy scores and discuss the order in which you prefer to record your programme; the order in which you record does not have to be the final cd running order as it is easily changed later so bear in mind particularly when to record soloists and the more challenging pieces in your repertoire.
EDITING AND MASTERING
Once the recording session is complete we return to our Lancashire studio where we listen to all recorded takes and make any editing decisions by referencing the scores and our notes which are made during the sessions.
We edit the best takes together to produce a ‘first edit’ disc, this first edit will be sent to you for listening and you should make notes of any areas for discussion, marking bar numbers and specific times referenced to the cd clock.
Where practical one person may join us for the 'final edit. If you are unable to attend then a listening copy of the final edit will be mailed to you. Once we receive your written instruction we create a red book CD master ready for sending to the manufacturing plant for replication.
ARTWORK
We have a friendly and professional graphic designer who will work with you every step of the way to design and layout your ideas, your booklet can include things like programme notes, photographs, a list of performers, soloists and any special notes and sponsorship credits etc. Please only provide high quality photographs and make sure any copyrights are not being infringed, any text information to be included should be word processed, spell checked and supplied on cdr or sent by email.
We then send you a link to a website address to view your artwork online so that you can approve the design, colour and text and then advise us of any alterations, following a further proof reading we will ask you to approve the booklet before it goes to print.
A common delay to manufacturing deadlines is caused by the artwork not being received in time, to avoid any such delays we would encourage you to start compiling your photographs and text content as soon as possible.
COPYRIGHT
A licence must be obtained for anyone recording music which is protected by copyright before a manufacturer will start work.
The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) provide a simple way of obtaining a licence, we will assist you with this process we just can’t sign the licence for you.
It is important that you provide a 'track list' as soon as possible giving details of composers and the titles of your intended programme in order that we can advise you on any copyright control issues. We will supply and help you with application forms for your licence. The MCPS licence is quoted at 6.5% of the retail price of your cd's however in certain circumstances it is possible to aquire a limited use licence for school groups or ensembles who are recording for charity or to raise money for instruments, terms and conditions apply and we are happy to answer your questions regarding copyright licensing.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST AND WHAT'S INCLUDED?
The quotation you receive from us is valid for 60 days and will not change, the price we quote is the price you pay, there are no hidden extras from us but please note that any costs relating to venue hire, payment of musicians fees, catering costs and the mcps licence are not included. We try our best to be fair with everyone, please contact us if you have any questions whatsoever, we're here to help.