Studio Struggles

Aside from the occasional opportunity to sleep in, record production is not a good career choice for lazy people. The exceptional producers put their heart and soul into each record that comes out of their studio, and that can be exhausting. A perfect example is Russ Castillo, of Castle Creek Recording Studios, who is an absolute perfectionist by nature and says he has never been 100 percent satisfied with any of his efforts. But his resume, which includes work with Pink Floyd and Ray Charles, is impressive enough to make you trust the quality of his work. Castillo says the challenges that accompany the job are what keep him on his toes. Every day is another opportunity to "up the ante," so to speak.\n"I take on these projects," Castillo explained, "and throw all I have in there, but eventually I have no choice but to move on and be done with it."\nThe producer, as a part of the artistic process, can only do so much. The recording artists play the most important roles, serving as artistic directors, composers, lyricists, and inventors. The musicians come into the studio with a master plan (and hopefully a bit of talent), and most of the time they like to call the shots. \nJosh Gilmore, who recorded with Right Side Down a few years back, explains that when his band first entered the studio to record, they knew exactly what they wanted.\n"We came in with the framework of the album pretty solid, but the producer turned out ideas here and there. He never pushed us in a certain direction unless we were feeling it," Gilmore said.\nThere is one job that is solely up to the record producer, and it begins way before anyone sets foot inside the studio. This job requires spending hour upon hour researching each project before deciding to take it on. They observe the band backstage, at concerts, at rehearsals, and in normal, everyday interactions with each other. It is crucial to get an idea of the dynamic of the band, and the status of their working relationship before entering the studio. After all, the atmosphere that is created during the recording process dictates the quality of the record. No producer wants to work with a bunch of stubborn, close-minded divas. A good musician must be open to suggestions, and a good producer must be able to adjust his style in order to accommodate the musicians.\nObserving Dave Webber of Airtime Studios will give you a good idea of the professionalism that is required of a producer. Dave sits back leisurely in his chair and waits for the signal from the young woman in the booth. She nods, he counts off a few beats, and then starts to record her vocals. The woman stops after a half a minute and looks anxiously at Webber for approval. \n"Sounds great, it really does," he said. "How 'bout one more take, but this time try really hard to mesh the vocals with the piano track. Don't think about them as separate entities. Sing just like you sing when no one's listening. Be bold."\nThe young woman takes a deep breath and begins again, this time with a vibrant burst of confidence.\nBecause of the amount of time spent working solo on each project, many producers design their studios as a type of sanctuary. Webber designed his own studio, having completed it just 18 months ago. The space is about the size of a garage, but the ceiling is relatively high in the recording booth (17 feet) to create a natural, crisp resonance that makes the record sound authentic and somewhat live. There is a partition in the booth that the drum-set sits behind, with separate microphones for the hi-hat, snare, kick, and tom drums. There has to be just the right amount of space between the mic and the drum, and it initially took Webber hours running back and forth from the listening booth to the recording booth for the right amplification. \nThis goes for the vocal mics as well, which have their own set of complications, such as windscreen positioning and shock mounts. Webber calls each musician on the mixer up one by one, starting with the drummer. After laying the percussion down, it's on to the bass guitar, and so on, until the song is completed. After the musicians leave, Webber can layer the tracks and mix each one separately. \nWhile some producers, like Webber, allow each band member to record on an individual basis, Castillo requires all band members to be present in the studio at the same time, playing simultaneously. He protects the sound of each individual instrument by routing the cables from the guitars directly into the mixer, and giving the guitarist a pair of headphones so he can hear the output. He then places the singer in a soundproof shell in the corner of the studio. This allows the vocalist to see the percussionist and the guitarist playing, and hear them through a pair of headphones, while protecting the vocal track from harboring any outside noise. This way, the sound, as a whole, is much tighter and the output is more energized. Plus, Castillo feels the final cut should sound just as if the band were playing live in the listener's room. \n"You want everyone there (in the studio) to get that feel of real rock 'n' roll," Castillo explained. "When the entire band is playing together on a track, there aren't any holes in the sound."\nAfter a producer is finished mixing the last track on the set, he burns a final copy. Once this is completed, his job is done. The next step will be to send it to a manufacturing house in California where the CD will be "mastered." Mastering involves balancing the frequencies on each track, fixing any imperfections in the instrumentation or the vocals, and compressing the pitch range of each song so the volume of each instrument is proportional to the song as a whole, and to the album as a whole. The manufacturer then adds the finishing touches by printing the cover, packaging the album, and shipping out the ordered amount. \nObviously, this can be pricey. Studio time, production costs, and manufacturing costs can get out of hand. Some musicians choose to go another route and use home computer programs to record their songs. Mitch Strohm and Josh Gilmore, the acoustic duo 20 Minutes to Park, have made the decision to oversee their own production efforts. Using CoolEdit on their desktop PC, the two have recently completed two songs (which can be heard on their Web site www.20minutestopark.com) and have many more in the mix. Both Gilmore and Strohm expressed have no regrets about their decision to produce their own album.\n"This way, we get complete control," Strohm said. "There are no time restraints, no scheduling conflicts to work out, and it is a hell of a lot cheaper, obviously."\nGilmore, who has sacrificed a section of his room for the project, also enjoys being in the driver's seat, but for a different reason.\n"I've recorded before, and a lot of times, audio engineers' ears get tired," he said. "You can tell. It is so much easier to listen for long periods of time when it's my own music. I am picky; I want the track to be absolutely flawless. I don't mind sitting there for hours at a time."\nMitch agrees. \n"We listen to the song a ridiculous amount of times before we put it out," he said.\nStill, there are some things that only a professional studio can offer that a personal studio cannot. For one, sound quality. Both the user-friendly CoolEdit and, ProTools, another popular home recording program that is preferred by Mac users, have limits to their technical capabilities. The quality of the recording, although relatively professional sounding, is nothing like the spaciousness and authenticity of a studio recording. Plus, many home programs offer downloadable drum tracks that, although convenient, sound too repetitive and too rhythmically precise to pass as an authentic percussion track.\nFor musicians, it comes down to whether or not the investment seems worth it. Gilmore and Strohm, who are diligently at work on a 6-track EP, both think their decision to record at home is a good one for now.\n"If we get a deal, we'll invest in studio time. But ours is just a little project," Strohm explains. \nAnd that's what record producers are hoping for: young musicians who are passionate about their craft. \n"Passion, confidence and talent, that's what I look for," Russ Castillo said.