What other studios do you suggest. Do tell.

Jon

Scream Along Songs has a pretty good resume, for some one who just started out. They did FLS last cd, + the Prana demo. And Chris is a pretty cool guy, and is very good about listening to the band about what kind of sound they want. I think his site is www.screamalongsongs.com

[This message was edited by Gnostic Dave on December 15, 2003 at 10:28 AM.]

While I value your opinion I have to disagree with you on this one. FLS last CD sounded like crap. Screamalong is too new and Chris, while being a hell of a guy, has a lot to learn. I would only go there if you are broke and only need a demo. I can not beleive FLS went there to record something that was worse than their last one.

Anyway good studios:

Santa FE center Studios w/ Eric Larson as engineer NOT Doug. Price around $100 / hour unless they are hurting and then you can negotiate down. Best Studio in the State. Top of the line editing and can master way better than any studio in town.

Wall of Sound Studios. Price around $40 / hour. John is probably the best new engineer in town with an amazing ear. He has won three or four Mic line Awards for his ability to record. He is not a good producer but he can make you sound exactly the way you want to. He is also a perfectionist so if you want to spend long hours getting every single note right then he is right there with you. He is also cool about not charging for set-up. This is the best studio for the money.



"I'm a real smooth character,
I chill to-the-Max!,
I might act crazy but I don't smoke crack."

oh I agree about him having a lot to learn, and the FLS cd did not sound as good as there first one, but I know the single that they were supposed to release for the zone sounded like shit, which is why it didn't get released. Guess who recorded it.....the guy at stepbridge that you were commenting on earlier. The Prana demo sounds really good though. Chris has learned a few tricks since the FLS cd, but he does still have a lot to learn and is willing to listen to what you have to say. That was kind of my point.

was recorded by Doug Geist at Santa Fe Center. The single on the radio now was recorded by Tim Stroh. FLS love Tim Stroh, which is why their recording sounds good. I think if you have a good relationship with your engineer, you're more likely to be happy with the end results. We got along pretty well with Tim and we're satisfied with that recording. We haven't recorded at Santa Fe Center yet, but I don't want to make the mistake of going in there presuming that Doug is going to mess things up. I think that was one of the problems FLS had with Santa Fe--they expected Doug to be like Tim, who will stretch 20 hours as far as you're willing to take them. Doug used those 20 hours for one song, which I know can be frustrating, but that's how he works...he's a perfectionist.

~g

and you're right, he is a perfectionist. I personally loved Santa Fe Center Studios, but Crack Baby is right too, we're gona have to wait till we get some rockstar type cash before we go back.

$1400 bucks to record three songs. It was a huge learning experience for me which made the $1400 well worth the money and I was happy with the product. Doug took great care of us, I just wish we had more time and cash. SFCS is the type of place I would have loved to move into for a couple of months and record.

We're hurting in a baaaaad way as far as needing to record goes. With a new drummer and new lead guitar our music has grown way past our MP3's so Crack Baby I'll take your advice (man that's scary) and check out Wall of Sound.

"....tell'em Crack Smoker sent ya!"

Pez
Dirty Baby Dolls
pez@dirtybabydolls.com
www.dirtybabydolls.com

NOT Doug, Eric. Doug isn't very good but I am glad he did a good job for you Pez. What he did to FLS is what I am talking about. Santa Fe Center is a real studio. They do things the way an LA studio does. So you need to know all of your songs really well and be able to set up quickly or else you are going to get you wallet drained really fast. That is why I suggest Wall of Sound for New Mexico bands since this is the land of manana and most bands here are almost never ready to record. At least John at Wall of Sound is cool enough to not charge for set up so you can take you time to some degree.

Pez,
John likes your kind of music so he will be the best guy in town to record you for the least amount of money.



"I'm a real smooth character,
I chill to-the-Max!,
I might act crazy but I don't smoke crack."

I got your point about Doug, I just wanted to give the bearded wonder a pat on the back.

I'm glad to hear that John digs our genre. That always helps when recording.

thanks again for the heads up

Pez
Dirty Baby Dolls
pez@dirtybabydolls.com
www.dirtybabydolls.com

Have I got the solution for you, buy more from my studio. Personally I think this is a money making tactic that I unfortunately have fallen into in the past. I think that if you leave a studio wishing you had more money for more time, than you were taken for all your worth. Its like a frog that jumps half way to the pool each time. It never actually gets there. In the mean time you fork out the moolahh every time to make the frog jump until you've streched yourself too thin. This insures the maximum amount of money with the minimum time. Everyone that I've talked to that has recorded at santa fe center left either dissatisfied or in love with the studio and wishing they had more time. The fact is that FLS told me that they could have done twice as much in a quarter of the time at stepbridge. Although they recorded with Doug. That being said I've seen him work his new board and though the new digital sony is complex he knows the thing well and he navigates it with ease. The fact that he is so good with the equipment and still takes up soo much time tells me that he is either swindeling people for profit or he has alot of bills to pay and this is a method to catch up. Either way I have yet to hear a recording that matches the quality/cost of Stepbridge come from that studio. Mabey I haven't heard much. I just know that FLS & Soular were too ashamed to release there recordings that came from there. Don't take this as fact I haven't done time there myself this is a hypothesis from what I've seen. I have a friend that has nothing but good things to say about santa fe center. If they can do for 250 what stepbridge did for our song Less Clouded than I'm a believer.

Jon

Santa Fe Center is still the best studio in the state.

New Local Band with new songs and about $800 = Wall of Sound

Experienced Local Band with complete songs and like $2K = Stepridge

Experienced Local band with real producer, about $8K, and a real shot = Santa Fe Center

If you are far enough along to have a producer then your producer will have his own engineer that he brings with him. Doug does not run the board when they are foleying for a movie or when Lenny Kravitz was there. That is why that studio is concidered expensive. In the real world its actually very inexpensive. Most of the money they make at Santa FE Center is from out of state. A producer has to buy studio time, hire an engineer, hire an editor, pay for mastering and duplication. Usually none of those things are done in the same building for obvious reasons. Doug gets a lot of rent because he doesn't charge very much at all for black outs and editing time. He charges even less for local bands. Tim gets just as much out of state work as Doug but the clientele is very different since Tim was still using adat the last time I was there and Dougs studio is much more up to date. I bet John at Wall of Sound will start getting a lot of out of state work pretty soon as he has a really good set up that you can get a lot out of for no money if you know what you are doing. If I were going to produce a local band and try to sell them. Personally I would record at Wall of Sound since John is a good and engineer and doesn't charge extra to be the engineer. Mix and edit at Santa Fe Center with Eric. Then Master and Duplicate out of state since there isn't a good mastering house or duplicator here.



"I'm a real smooth character,
I chill to-the-Max!,
I might act crazy but I don't smoke crack."