RedBird Studio Dispatch

Why We Don’t Cut Rhythm Tracks Without Qualified & Designated Producers (Anymore), Part I

When designing RedBird Studio, we infused the ability to cut ensembles (ie. drums, bass, guitar, keys w/guide vocal) to both amplify our ability to complete productions in-house, while creating an affordable situation for Indie artists/bands to track live with qualified personnel in Midtown.

Abdicating to market forces, we can say this has backfired in some ways. While we have the ability to produce tracks soup-to-nuts in-house, often this is squandered by inefficient, under-planned and mismanaged sessions. 

Getting an ensemble of musicians together to record is a complex affair, to be respected with due diligence in preparation, and attentiveness to immediate priorities during the sessions. Nobody wants to waste time, and that includes the studio staff.  An experienced production team can transform a stressful workload into a joyful process, avoiding frustration and exhaustion by accepting it as a constant pitfall. In headless situations with aspiring producers, our (seasoned) engineering staff is nevertheless asked to follow (unseasoned) orders in sequence, all while professional results are demanded at the end of the day. 

Thus, we feel it is appropriate to explain our management decision to turn down unqualified sessions at MusicNetwork facilities, by recounting the last three shitshows we aimed to please:

I. Syrupy Track for Relative’s Birthday - Yeah we can do that (#HeadlessSituation). Knocked of $50- for the amateurism and comp’d the house kit + 2 hrs setup. Comes back that the session ruff isn’t good enough to be called done, while they talked over the last hour of session time (O/D’s & mixdown..) That was the time when we should have been mixing & listening; not expecting A1 will tweak to client satisfaction indefinitely (The actual 2nd ruff in question was printed gratis during overtime because “it could be better”, as judged by A1 & A2 who were listening during breakdown) WHILE comping use of studio for such. Meanwhile, they’re spending real coin at a downtown studio on the “aahhhht” project, and backpocketing our Midtown resource for the syrupy tracks that don’t really matter. If it doesn’t matter to the artist, well… 

II. Diva Demo w/Amateur Producer at the helm (#DoubleWhammyBar )  The “we don’t need a producer”-producer doesn’t know the keys or tempos or arrangements, but somehow as friend of the artist is calling the shots (or missing most of them actually) and half-coordinating the date.. No tempos/keys notated (”can i get a click on that? and the next 4 songs too?”)..We luckily land in a good tracking vibe for the band, but that can’t work because of click bleed in the guide vocal mic??? Who F-ing cares, the keys are all too low for Diva voice anyway.  Diva questions/comments/concerns: “There isn’t another booth”? (Layout) “Is this a dot matrix printer” (it’s B&W, like notation and lyics); “I heard distortion on my scratch vocals that time, i swear” (like we are tryina bag you?); “The guitar levels were unusable on that take” (for ½ bar, after recovering from Diva  bumping the guitar mic on amp that shoulda been in live room anyway); “Its a shame you don’t have private Q at this studio” - it’s a shame alright. 

III. Off-Broadway Cast Album Recording (#CheapoQuality)- Beyond a show demo, this show was already running in Midtown with professional personnel. The producer(s)? Well, never really produced before.. Holdups on the rhythm date: “You don’t have private Q here? I want my own mix”; “I want more reverb on my scratch vocal.. more.. more.. moreeeeee..” “i want my scratch vocals louder.. louder.. louderrrrr” “you mean i can overdub the acoustic after” – and of course after the date: “hey can you send me an instrumental of song 1 gratis?” “is there a backup of our files somewhere?” “hey can you send me two instrumentals for singers to learn the songs 2 & 3? we need them today, and we don’t even wanna pay $35 for that.”

So yeah, we (used to) do that. Going forward, we’ll be asking the standard questions when booking in: Client:  Artist: Producer: Engineer: 

If the producer field is not populated by qualified personnel on a rhythm date, clients will also need to hire their own A1, going forward. 

This year of 2019 begins on a bittersweet note for the time-honored institution of Midtown recording. It has been announced that all bookings have ceased at the old Avatar facility. This was the last remaining studio operation from the Manhattan glory days of “The Big Four”: Right Track, Sony Music Studios, Hit Factory, and Avatar. 

Many of us called these places our “home studio”, the place where we could go say hello to friends, fix some coffee, test a cable in the shop, maybe even line up the next gig. It wasn’t an institutional well being milked: we were also the ones who had made the coffee, swept the halls, built the cables… before we started making the records. It’s called coming up. 

Nowadays the phrase “home studio” implies something completely different, and for many of us, a completely different vocation. Coming up these days involves a certificate program, wix site, and lotsa crash courses on Youtube. I’m sure the Doors, Aretha Franklin or Miles Davis would have been cool with that kinda support in the studio. Or perhaps not. For our clients, we have found that incoming engineers still need to be trained on basic things like making coffee, client relations, and general hustle. This is also part of the reasoning to found MRS (Music Recording School). 

The Big Four represented work being serviced at top quality & budgets, but could only be sustained through linear growth alongside the real estate market. But sound also moves logarithmically along the scale of projects. What has enabled RedBird Studio to survive and grow from an edit room into a recording studio while the business at large has left Midtown, has been: A) adherence to professional booking policies and B) offering the same rates to independent and major label clients. Within the class of production studios we have been expensive, and cheap for recording studios. 

Radian Records Management (RRmgmt) is reassigning its functionality into MusicNetwork #SRC. Since 2007, in addition to producing and releasing records, RRmgmt has quietly provided personnel management, technical services, referrals, concierge and studio management functions to an industry in transition.

Beginning Monday July 2nd, 2018 please visit SRC.MusicNetwork.org for studio and personnel management inquiries.

Thank you to all of our clients past, present and future who make this advancement possible.