Dec 23, 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

Payments

What payment methods do you accept?

When is the payment due?

Deposit is due on the day of the booking. Rest of the payment is due on the booked project date. If you want to make partial payments or payment arrangements, please reach out to us. In most cases, we are able to provide a fair and transparent installment plans.

Are there any refunds?

Not if the service was rendered. In case of an emergency, if we are unable to perform your booked services you will receive a full refund. Recording, mixing, and mastering are all artistic tasks. If you are unhappy with your mixes and masters, you will have turnaround opportunities to ask us to change things.

Is there a contract?

There is a very simple contract outlining a few important things for you to sign at the time of the booking. Please make sure to read the contract carefully, because most of these things are in direct benefit of your performance, such as having enough space around the recording location for microphone stands. In some cases you might have to move a piece of furniture out of the way to make room.

What is your cancellation policy?

You can contact us to reschedule your session as long as it is more than 24 hours in advance. You can cancel the session outright, but as outlined on the contract, the deposit will not be refunded. Preparing for recordings takes a long time and we only take one recording per day.

What is the 8% tax on my invoice?

Pennsylvania based companies are required to collect 6% sales tax for the State and 2% sales tax for the Philadelphia county. This 8% tax is passed on to the State and the City.

When will I receive the master tape back?

The average mixing and mastering length varies by the project type, length, and the current backlog. Currently, short projects, especially audition tapes, are being returned 48 hours after tracking.

Do I get to make changes to the mix and master?

Yes! You are absolutely encouraged to comment on the mixing progress. Of course there is a limit on how much time we can spend on each project, but all the projects will be brought to a level of comfortable satisfaction before being turned over.

How will I receive the master tapes?

We are currently sharing the master tapes through cloud services. You will get a link in your email which will have the appropriate files in it.

What formats will I receive the master tapes in?

You can request pretty much any format! But we return all projects in three distinct formats by default:
- 24 Bit, 96kHz WAV format (Uncompressed)
- 24 Bit, 44.1kHz, 320kbps MP3 format
- 16 Bit, dithered, 44.1kHz WAV format (For CD duplication)

Will you also send us the DAW project files?

No. We use a ton of outboard gear and a fairly large collection of plug-ins, making the project files very much useless outside our computers.

Will you share the original tracks with us?

Just let us know if you want them and we will happily include them with your master tracks.

Can you deliver the master tracks in physical file formats?

Of course! There is a $10 + shipping fee supercharge for a CD or a USB stick master delivery.

Is the quality of the recording on par with industry standards?

Yes! We use microphones, preamps, and Analog to Digital converters that are not only on par with the industry standards, but usually they are the standards! We track your performances in 24 bit audio at 96kHz sample rate. For comparison, CD quality audio is 16 bits and 44.1kHz sample rate. If you were to upload our master tracks to Apple Music, your release would get a “Hi-Res Lossless” badge. We can accommodate up to 24 channels of simultaneous recording. During some location recording projects, we will opt-in to use recorders made by SoundDevices. These recorders are very portable and are able to record 8 channels in 32bit resolution. This makes them perfect for classical music recordings as they virtually eliminate noise and any possible distortion.

Are you able to splice and edit classical recordings?

Yes, we are! We use Magix Sequoia, the industry standard Digital Audio Workstation for classical music editing, to accomplish this. Unlike click-tracked music, classical music has variable tempo and an increased dynamic range. It is also recorded using multiple microphones, making it harder to edit it in regular audio editing applications such as Pro Tools, Logic, and Reaper. Sequoia allows us to edit every single fade and cut with incredible accuracy to create extremely transparent edits.

Do you work with Dolby Atmos formats?

We can mix and master your music in Atmos. Until our new studio is ready and Atmos licensed we will be charging half the regular Atmos mixing and mastering fees. Our work with Atmos is on par with the industry standards. Keep in mind that if you choose to go with Atmos, there will be extra fees on nearly every step of the way. For example, distribution in Atmos formats costs nearly three times as much as regular stereo releases.

For tracking audition recordings, do you follow any standard guidelines for audio editing, etc?

This is a complicated topic. Each university, each orchestra, and each ensemble have very specific requirements on the type of editing they allow and they do not allow. To make matters worse, some of these requirements are extremely vague. This is why we encourage you to do your own research and make sure that the place you are submitting your recordings to are okay with the edits done to the recordings! For example, EQ adjustments are standard and no institution will say otherwise. Yet, reverb and ambiance effects are more problematic. We try to capture the room sound in our recordings, but if we recorded your music in a very dry room, adding a bit of non-intrusive reverb will make your music sound more natural. This is why for audition projects, we send in both reverbial and non-reverbial master tapes. It is your responsibility to make sure that the institution you are applying for is fine with the tapes you are uploading. As a company rule, audition tapes are not allowed to have any splices.

Do you also mix and master the recordings?

This is completely up to you! We have a really great set of tools to mix and master the type of music we record. We will gladly mix your music for a nominal fee (compared to big studios), and we provide free mastering on every project.

Can I monitor how the recording will sound on the day of the recording?

Once we set up our gear, we will do multiple sound checks to ensure that everything is balanced and we have a good sound. We will also record this sound check process so you can hear how you sound before we commit to recording your performance. It is important to know that even when we are happy with how everything sounds, if you have any reservations, we would much rather you tell us. We believe that 90% of the sound of the record comes from the recording stage. Sure, we can fix things in post, but the wiggle room is more limited compared to the tracking stage. Too much ambiance, too much bass, too little body, excessive bow noise, too much string dampening? We can fix those before we commit to recording the whole performance – usually by moving the microphones a little or using a different microphone.