process

Pre-Production
If you come to Test Tube to record, I'm not going to just set up some mics and hit record. Here are some of the things I find very important to the pre-production process:
Shows – “The Big Picture” What does it sound like at 115dB? Live shows have the advantage of sheer volume to add intensity, but to me, there’s not excuse for a recording played back on a small stereo to not live up to the badass-ness of a live show. By seeing you play live, I know what part of your sound is raw....like in a good way.
Rehearsals – This is when we get to play with song structures, dynamics, styles, even amp and pedal settings. I will document tempos, time signatures, keys, etc. Getting this out of the way now will make the studio time a lot more fun and efficient.
Homework – You want your band to be tight? This usually takes a lot of practice. I don’t care how badass you think you are, let me hear you play your song 40% slower on an acoustic and to a metronome. Alright, now we’re talkin.
Production
It is impossible to know what your song sounds like from an outside opinion! That’s why you need to find somebody that you trust to tell you what sounds good, and what sounds like garbage.....i.e. a “producer”
Post-Production / Mixing and Mastering
Alright, almost done. Usually I will go through a few mixes after revisions from you and I until we get the one. As for mastering, we know some premo mastering engineers. These are the guys who take the mixes from from here and optimize them so that they sound stellar even on your mom’s Bose am/fm/cd 1” speaker turd. For tight budgets, I will get your premaster sounding up to par with what is in your CD wallet or iPod.