Longview Studios: What To Expect From Your Session

All studios will have their own approach to handling a session. We thought it would be a good idea to give you an insight to the way we work, and what to expect from your time with us.

First, and above all else, you will find us to be friendly, supportive, open minded and professional. A recording session will run so much more smoothly in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. Pretty much every session at Longview will be staffed by a 2 person team; an engineer/producer and a tech. While the tech assists with setting up equipment in the live room, the engineer will chat with the bands leader or producer to get a feel for the type of 'sound' they are looking for, chart some rough tracking lists and agree on a tracking order.

SET UP & MIC UP

'Sound' taste varies enormously from player to player, let alone genre to genre, the set up and mic plot will play a huge role in the final cuts and can often take some time. One of the biggest problem areas is always drums. Miking a kit for a live performance is a very different science from recording. A kit that sounds incredible on stage may actually be incapable of producing the desired sound in a more clinical recording environment without some drastic 'tweaking'. We always urge bands to consider using one of our house kits, not because we believe they are better, but because we know them intimately and can very quickly nail the sound. Some drummers are not best pleased when they are asked to remove skins, pack blankets in their drums or cover their new Evans pinstripes with gaffa tape and damping paper!! Of course the choice is ultimately yours, but please bear in mind that miking the kit alone can account for a couple of hours of your valuable time.

Guitars and bass can be DI'd from pedal boards or miked via amps. If you use an open back amp/cab we would normally mic both front and rear. Basses are best recorded by taking a direct feed from the pre amp or pedal rather than miking the cab.

Keyboards are best DI'd but can also be recorded via a miked amp/cab.

CUE'S & THE COMFORT ZONE

We have a pretty comprehensive foldback system and can send up to 4 cue mixes to the studio and/or headphone matrix. You will work much better if you are completely comfortable with what you hear. Its worth spending a little time getting this right before we start laying tracks, so don't be shy ... if you ain't happy .. we ain't happy!

ITS YOUR CALL

The people here at Longview are industry professionals with many years under the belt. We have a vocal coach and orchestrator on the team and have won awards for our productions. BUT ... your session is exactly that ... your session. Unless you ask us to act as producers, arrangers or voice coaches we will not interfere in your creative process. We will always be happy to offer advice or opinions, but it is not our place to try to steer you down our path.

As we said at the top, the prime objective is to make you welcome and comfortable. We want your session here to be the start of a long relationship. We won't always be able to run overtime, but you won't find us watching the clock either and if there's something really cooking we're just as likely to want to run with it as you will be.

We look forward to meeting you ...... you're gonna love it here!!