The music playing
on this page is from Sherry White's new Gospel CD recorded here. To
find out more about Sherry White Ministries
click here.
to

(615) 228-8387
Contact Us
(Click here
to go to SongCity.com if you were redirected here)
| Welcome
to SongCity Studios. If you're looking for superior
sounding demos, production projects that are sure to impress,
or looking to cut masters for your next record, then you've
come to the right place. We give our repeat customers more
than what they would normally pay for anywhere else, we want
to earn your business! We believe the best form of advertising
is by word of mouth, and by providing as much information
about our studio as possible to the public through our website.
Our studio is roughly the same distance from downtown
Nashville as Berry Hill, but we don't have to pay the high
cost for our location, which means savings for you.
SongCity
Studios are owned
and operated by Fred Duggin
and Dave Demay.
I'm Dave Demay and I'll be speaking in the 'first-person'
throughout this website. Primarily because I built, designed
and maintain the site myself. But that's nothing to pat myself
on the back about, because sometimes I keep it updated, and
sometimes it's months before I change anything. So if you
encounter any problems, please let me
know. You may also notice that certain areas of the site
may need a little attention... That's I'm the chief engineer
at the studio, which doesn't leave much time for web developing.
We have recently purchased a Trident 24. Tridents
are British Consoles that have been putting out hit recordings
every since the Beatles.
Trident consoles are one of the most popular consoles, used
in many top studios all over Nashville and is known for it's clear and uniquely
warm sound. This model console has 28 channels,
24 Buses and it sounds fantastic. Its crystal clear, warm
tone is why it's such a popular board. This particular board was originally
manufactured in 1989 and we've recently reconditioned everything
but the meter bridge.
The console was completely
re-chipped and recapped. We also upgraded
the built-in mic preamps with accelerated chips,
more accelerated than the factory chips. So this board isn't only like new, it's better
than new!! It is sonically
nothing short of amazing... Even if we chose not to use any
of our 'other' great sounding outboard mic
preamps, this board alone can deliver fantastic sounding
recordings with beautifully warm, crisp separation and clarity. |
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We will meet or beat other Nashville
based studio rates that are at our level of quality and professionalism.
We work hard to earn your business.
We provide the following premium services:
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One of the great things about our studio, is that we don't have
as much overhead, due to our location, which is why we can cut such
great packages. Studios on "The Row" or other popular
locations have to pay dearly for their space. That's why we can
afford such great sounding tracks and mixes, using the same high-end level gear as other popular studios, without charging you
an arm and a leg to cover the overhead.
I'm the Chief Engineer for both studios and I DO NOT charge an added
engineer fee with our studio rates. Other studios operating at
our level of quality charge an added fee for the engineer that
they hire for you. They typically don't mention the engineer rate when they quote their studio rate . It's usually an "assumed" cost for the customer.
In other words, when a studio charges, let's say, $75 per hour
for their studio, you typically have to either hire your own engineer
or use their staff engineer, which will be an added cost to you, adding anywhere from $35-$40
per hour above the cost of the studio. Speaking for myself,
I've put a good portion of my life into engineering putting
out great mixes, and I can dual with some of the best engineers out there. My fellow engineering and producing peers, which I exchange techniques with, are some pretty serious,
top level cats.
In order to provide more insight and perhaps a little education
for those of you who may be challenged when it comes to understanding
the science of audio engineering, I've written a
detailed summary, as well as a Get to the
Point breakdown of some very important things you should be
aware of when considering a studio for your next project. That is,
if you're interested in assuring yourself that you're getting the best
possible recordings.
Reading it this summary will help you know the
right questions to ask, and will help you become more knowledgeable
when shopping around for a quality studio. Our studio fits all of the following criteria and more.
I'm surprised sometimes how many people don't know
what to look for in a good studio, other than asking how expensive
or nice the microphones are. Most people think it's only the microphone
collection that qualifies a good studio. Although we have a great
microphone
collection, there are other important factors, which "clearly" makes
the difference between your recording sounding like
a "demo" or sounding like a "record".
Without these factors in place, all the
great microphones in the world won't bring your recordings
up to the same level as other master quality recordings that are typically done in
Nashville. There are more elements in the signal path that make
a huge difference, such as top of the line mic preamps, top quality
digital converters and recording platform. We use Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo. So if you really want to know what makes the difference
between recordings that sound amazing and recordings that only sound
pretty good, click one of the following links.
Please, read our detailed
summary of how we do things at SongCity Studios by clicking
here. It expands below... It's useful information
that will stick to your ribs...
Click
here to close the Detailed Summary.
(skip
preface)
This summary points out the primary factors responsible
for outputting extremely high-fidelity recordings
and mixes that have all the luster you're looking
for in the final mix of your project. Choice of studio,
and the gear they have means everything. It is also
important to note, that great gear means nothing if
you don't have the right set of ears mixing your project.
I've put together this information because it never
ceases to amaze me how little the customer knows about
what they're paying for, and who they're paying to
deliver it. We've gone through the trouble and expense
to get all this great equipment, and when I tell our
customers about what we have, I usually get a blank
stare, or they say, "I don't know anything about
that stuff, but it sounds like you do". It's
important to us that our customers know the differences
between recordings that sound "OK"
and recordings that sound "Amazing".
You can get one or the other for the same amount of
money these days, especially in Nashville and surrounding
areas. Everybody and their brother has a recording
environment of some sort, and in some cases you get
what you paid for and in others you don't. Isolated
recording space and the gear means everything.
Many studios rely on the ignorance, or inexperience
of their customers. Which allows them to use less
expensive, lower quality equipment, and of course,
you get what you pay for. There are two levels of
equipment available these days. You've got "pro-consumer"
level gear, which is mid-grade gear that doesn't sound
bad, but it doesn't have that pristine, record quality
sheen to it, which isn't bad for composing ideas or
making cheap demos. And then you have the "real
pro" gear, which is preferred by the most discriminate
ears in the audio world. With "pro" gear,
there's no denying how great it makes your recordings
sound. If you use lesser equipment, it definitely
shows up in the final mix. It's easy to tell when
you compare a poorly recorded mix to another mix done
in a nicer studio using top-of-the-line gear and an
engineer who has a more discriminate set of ears.
The difference is revealed in the detailed elements
within your mix. If you record with lesser equipment,
the individual elements in your mix will tend to get
washed out or run together without notable separation,
which of course, doesn't allow for the detail of those
elements to stand out. Lesser gear forces the engineer,
that is if he has an ear for mixing, to have to overcompensate,
over-EQ, and work harder than he needs to create the
separation desired for the mix. At that point it starts
to sound unnatural or contrived.
With "Pro-level" gear, you immediately
have clarity and separation as soon as the track goes
down. Our goal is to make great recordings affordable
without sacrificing master quality output. Many times
the customer simply won't know the difference, even
after the mix is done. But we prefer that our customers
"do" know the difference. Many of our customers
are simply not interested in knowing all this stuff
and trust that we know what we're doing. Although
we're glad that they trust us, we'd like for you to
read on, and learn about what makes the difference
between demo quality and record quality tracks...
- Putting the signal first ...
We wanted to make sure that our Studio-A, which
is our "Star" Studio, is nothing short
of any other great studio in town. Especially when it
comes down to capturing the best acoustics, and sonic
quality. So when we deciding on the equipment necessary
to yield the greatest results, we of course, made sure
to give close attention to the signal path,
from the sound source all the way to its final destination,
which is the track (recording medium).
In my years of engineering, I've come
to understand that the signal path is the one key element
that feeds everything else that follows it... And if
you don't get that part of it right, then you're spinning
your wheels. You've got to maintain the highest fidelity
you can at each "stage" in the signal path.
There really are a lot more things to take into account
when capturing your music than just making sure your
mic cable is plugged in to your bargain-basement, garden
variety microphone, and then plugged into a consumer
line all-in-one mixer/recorder. So if you feel like
getting a good general education of the proper steps
in getting great recordings, continue reading this summary,
which breaks it down to each stage in the signal. Again,
we want this to be an informative website for our customers
as well as anyone else who would like to know more about
what it really takes to make great recordings.
When a recording takes place, the sound is greatly effected
at each critical stage, more so than you may realize.
This plays a major role in the clarity, warmth, detail
and separation of your final mix. The signal flows in
this order:
-
- Microphone choice - the
right mic for the job. Skimp here and you're hurting
yourself.
- Microphone placement -
proper distance and location around the source
- Cable quality - always use
well shielded, quality cable
- Microphone Preamplification
- without great mic preamps you're in for a murky
(unclear) mix
- Trident Soundboard - Trident
consoles are considered among the best.
- Digital Converters - Analog
to Digital / Digital to Analog conversion (very important)
- Recording Platform - the
recording & mixing interface (platform)
The above links will take you to the related detailed
information below.
Room acoustics is a science that can only come to you through
time and experience. The more you tinker with and experience
how certain rooms sound acoustically, the more you start
making better assessments regarding acoustical environments.
Our rooms sound great. A true test is how it sounds over
the mic when you place some distance between the it and
the source you're recording.
The second stage is how you capture the signal at the
source. Your microphone choice is key at this point. If
you chose the wrong mic or use a cheaper or lessor quality
microphone it will indeed discolor and misrepresent the
characteristics of your sound and make it more difficult
blending it into the final mix. Admittedly, we are microphone
snobs here at SongCity Studios, and are very critical
with our
microphone selection as well as mic preamplifiers.
We didn't hold back on spending in order get the best
tools for the given tasks.
Microphone proximity plays a strong role as well, in how
"focused" or how "live" the vocal
or instrument sounds. It's according to the musical treatment
your going for. It is definitely possible to place the
mic too close or too far away from the source. If you
want to hear more of the room on the mic, you will want
to give more space for the mic to capture those elements.
The closer the mic is to the source, the more focused
it will sound, and the more chance you have of distorting
the sound, which is what you never really want, unless
that's what you're going for. You're better off to split
the difference in most applications, just to be safe.
Or to use multiple mics in varying degrees of distance
and location.
Our mic cable and wiring system is made from either "Proco",
"Mogami", or "Redco" wire, which is
well shielded and industry standard for professional studio
environments. These brands are known worldwide for their
signal reliability and sturdiness.
- instead of using the soundboard
Did you notice we don't have our soundboard listed as
one of the stages in the critical recording signal path?
There's a reason for that. We don't use the soundboard
before channeling the signal to the recorder. We only
use the soundboard as an overqualified headphone mix,
post the recorded signal. We use great microphone Preamplifiers
to amplify the true sound of the vocal or instrument before
it is captured to track, thus bypassing the board altogether.
If you've ever listened to Alison Kraus & Union
Station albums or Nora Jones recordings, this
is how they get their astounding clarity, warmth and presence.
The best, and first step of any great recording, is to
capture the truth of the sound and all of its nuances.
You can always make any of your necessary adjustments
after the truth has been captured. Like they say, "It's
your choice what you decide to do with the truth".
It is just as relevant to shape the sound of your recording
during the final mixing stage, as it is to do it during
the recording. It's my personal opinion, that I would
rather do my extensive treatment to the signal after recording,
during final mix, than to narrow my options by over-EQing
and possibly giving too much treatment to the signal during
the recording process. There's always a chance of certain
tones getting squashed or dialed out during the recording
process, if it's too treated going down, which that you
may want or need later on in the final mix.
So note, that aside from picking the best mic for the
job, picking the best mic
preamp is one of the most critical choices you
can make with your recording. We have an assortment of
great mic preamplifiers. The ones I love to use the most
at this time are the API
3124® and the Millennia®
HV-3D. They sound amazingly full, with unbelievable
fidelity. And because the Millennia is nearly impossible
to distort, it allows us to record good, hot signals levels
without having to use much limiting if any at all. Thus
keeping it sounding very lively and not over controlled.
We also have Universal
Audio® 6176, another well established classic
brand of tube mic preamplifier, which is the same mic
pre they used on Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and many
other great classic artists.
Any experienced engineer will agree with the fact, that
great mic preamplifiers, costing quite a bit per channel,
sound amazingly better and truer than the built-in mic
preamplifiers in most commonly used mid-grade soundboards
found in many "project" studios. When I say
"commonly used mid-grade", I'm referring to
budget -line soundboards like Mackie 8-bus, Soundcraft,
Alan & Health, etc. Although they have "adequate"
mic preamps for live mixing, in the studio they pale in
comparison to the clarity, presence, tone and truth that
you can get from a high-voltage / high-fidelity mic preamp.
SSL, API, Trident or NEVE boards are in a league all their
own, as they have built in mic pres that are of the quality
that I'm talking about. Even in the top level mic preamp,
each are known for adding a different tone, or coloring
the sound a certain way, or not coloring the sound at
all. Either way their clarity and quality is amazing.The
mic preamps we're using are of that quality. This is what
will make the difference between your music sounding like
a demo or a record. Record your demo here and you'll have
the option of making it your next single if you can get
the the right attention with it.
Believe me... we've compared our API
3124® , Millennia®
HV-3D and Universal
Audio® 6176 mic pres against other mid-grade
built-in soundboard mic pres and ZOWIE! Hearing the signal
through those great mic preamps were like having someone
remove the earmuffs!! I could go on about the amazing
difference these mic preamps have made in the overall
sound of our mixes, but I'll curb my enthusiasm and move
on to the next critical stage in the signal path, the
Digital Converters, which explains
the importance of using the best digital converters to
take your sound from the analog domain into the digital
domain.
We have recently purchased a Trident 24. Tridents
are British Consoles that have been putting out hit recordings
every since the Beatles.
This model has 28 channels and 24 Buses and it sounds
fantastic. Its crystal clear, warm tone is hard to beat.
This board was originally manufactured in 1989. Before
we moved it into the studio, we had this board completely
rechipped and recapped. We also upgraded
the built-in mic preamps with more accelerated chips
than the ones that were originally installed when it was
new. So this board isn't only like new, it's better than
new!! This is a great performing console and sonically
nothing short of amazing...
Even if we chose not to use any of our 'other' great
sounding external mic preamps, this board alone can deliver
fantastic sounding recordings with the same separation
and clarity I've discussed earlier.
With our collection of external mic preamplifiers, along
with our our Trident console, we've armed ourselves with
plenty of tracking options. You
can see more pictures of our console by clicking here.
- RADAR®
is the only way to fly...
Just as important as the mics and mic preamps, it is crucially
important how you capture all this truth and fidelity
down into digital tracks. It would be a shame to put out
a great performance, using legendary mics, through amazing
mic pres and then pump it all through a set of budgeted,
consumer level, demo quality, digital converters. No concern
for that here, because we use RADAR®
for our high-end digital recording. RADAR®
is one of the top choices for professional, master quality
studios worldwide. When we first started our studio, we
used MOTU converters on our first 2 sessions and after
we heard it in comparison to the RADAR®,
we decided that the MOTU converters had to go. Sorry MOTU...
you sound decent for home studio recordings, but you don't
sound as great for the money as the RADAR®.
The RADAR® is the
choice of the pros because it sounds identical to 2 inch
analog tape. Many studios have gotten rid of their 24
track 2 inch Studer tape machines and replaced them with
the RADAR®. That's
a pretty big statement for RADAR®
and the quality sound it puts out. RADAR®
pretty much ended the old argument that digital doesn't
sound as good as analog.
Our recording and mixing platform is Steinberg Cubase ®.
It is one of the top 2 universal standards in the recording
industry with regard to digital mixing and recording software.
ProTools used to be the only standard on the digital plain,
but over the last 12 years or so, Steinberg Cubase ®
has upped the annie on what you can do now in the digital
world. Although it's not cheap, building a Steinberg Cubase ®
based recording environment is considerably less expensive
than ProTools, and can perform the same task at the same
quality level, using the right converters. And for those
of you concerned about getting trapped into a format that
you can't move around, that's not an issue either. Tracks
recorded through Steinberg Cubase ®
are transferable to ProTools, as well as any other known
platform. There is the old way and the new way to record
and mix projects. The new way is actually a healthy "mixture
of the old and the new". This is why we love using
Steinberg Cubase ®
with the RADAR®. The
converters in the RADAR®
same big sound of classic 2 inch analog tape, without
the maintenance required with for those old clunky analog
tape machines. With RADAR®
there is no loss in warmth or tone when the signal leaves
the analog world into the digital world and visa versa.
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With the total recall automation capabilities available in Steinberg Cubase ®,
combined with our great collection of microphones
(Neumann, SounDelux, AKG, Shure, Audix, Rode, etc.) and
the quality of our microphone
preamplifier collection, along with capturing all that
great sound through the RADAR®,
we are capable of achieving the same sonic excellence and performance
as any other type of total-recall sound board systems
costing more than many studios can afford, like those you would find in million
dollar facilities.
We send the
mic signal straight into our incredible sounding mic
preamplifiers, then to compressors (compression is rarely
used unless necessary during tracking, to keep the sound as
pure and flexible as possible). At this point we pass the signal through our Trident 24 recording console, and then the signal
is passed straight through the RADAR® analog to digital converters into Steinberg Cubase ®.
No outrageously priced soundboard is needed. We're able to extensively
edit punches on the fly (as the track is being laid) as well.
One thing to note about other studios of any size is, if they're
not using a great soundboard, it doesn't necessarily mean that
they're using high-level mic preamps and converters in the place
of a great sounding board. You should always investigate this
important point closely with whoever you are considering for
your tracking session. We are covering every stage of the signal-to-track
process very efficiently.
About our Rooms
Our rooms sound great and are well tuned. Room acoustics vary
with different studios. It's all according to how well they
have been tuned. Along with how good our rooms sound, we are
able get the same results as other more expensive studios, by
using modern (more condensed) technical methods that have the
same level of quality, except with less financial setback for
us and our customers. Most of our clients don't even bother
taking their final mixes to a mastering house, because their
mixes sound great in everything they play it in after it leaves
our shop. This is another money saving option to consider.
When you pay for a studio, you want to know that you're paying
for a sound that is as good as some of the best studios in town.
Well, that's exactly what you get here, at a price considerably
less than the more high-profile shops downtown. And we're just
a short drive off Ellington Parkway, at the Broadmoor Drive
Exit or Briley Parkway off the Gallatin Pike Exit heading toward
Nashville. It's according to which side of town you're coming
from. Click here
for a customizable detailed map from your specific location
that you can print. It's very easy finding us.
Feel free to peruse our site, as changes will be
made from time to time.
Thanks for visiting,
Dave Demay
Producer / Chief Engineer
/ Co-Owner
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