Eqiupment

Our equipment consists of the following:

• Earthworks QTC1 omnidirectional microphones
• Earthworks Z30X cardioid directional microphones
• Earthworks LAB102 microphone preamplifier
• Apogee Rosetta A/D converter
• Marantz PMD570 2-track digital recorder

We can record only to 2-track stereo; that means that we're limited to a single stereo microphone pair for recording. Due to the quality of the equipment, we can achieve excellent results in a range of environments, particularly with unamplified music played in a concert setting. However, we don't have the ability to set up "spot" microphones to provide greater detail for soloists, and if the size of your ensemble is mismatched to the size of the hall, the results may suffer. For live recordings, we can essentially provide a very faithful reproduction of what a member in the audience hears.

For controlled-environment (or "studio") recordings, we're limited to two microphones. If you have two performers (such as a singer and accompanist), this can work great, because we can put a close microphone on each performer and recreate a natural-sounding environment with audio sweetening and reverb in post-processing. This allows great flexibility in adjusting the volume balance between performers, being able to edit around errors or extraneous noises in the recording, and achieving maximum control over the finished sound. If you have more then two performers, then the approach is to treat it like a concert without audience members; the performers are arranged in performance lineup, and a stereo microphone pair is placed to record ambient sound. This doesn't allow the same flexibility to adjust volume balance between performers, and audio processing options are more limited, but there's still the ability to splice together multiple takes, and the end result will sound like a very detailed live recording.

Note that we don't have a studio.  If you want to do a controlled-environment recording, then you need to supply the environment.  A concert hall will work fine, but renting an expensive venue may not be necessary - acoustics are less important than lack of extraneous noise, since reverb can always be added in post-production, but traffic and other noises from a busy urban environment can't be taken out. 

Fees

We charge a $100 flat fee per recording session, regardless of length (within reason). The fee includes:

• The recording session itself
• Any post-session editing and mixing (with multiple rounds as editing decisions are made)
• CD mastering
• First CD copy

If you would like us to do CD duplication, we can do that for $3 per disc; that includes the CD, a laser printed label, and a plain paper sleeve. If you would prefer to do your own duplication, then you can take the master and pay us nothing extra.