Audio & Video Process

There are several benefits to recording and capturing the energy of a live show other than the finished product. They include better musicianship, a chance to hear your songs without playing them, a chance to maximize your full potential as a band, a chance to hear the audience response, a chance to make your music something more than it is so far. Finally, it just feels good. It's validating: "Yes, I really AM a musician"

The 7 stages involved in the MusicMatters recording process includes: Deciding, Preparing, Recording, Overdubbing, Mixing, Mastering, and Reproducing. (Your group is ultimately responsible for the final stage Distribution.)

Deciding: This is where you pick a format (CD/Video), a time and location.

Preparing: This is where you practice over and over and over again. Then you get together and practice some more. Make sure you have confirmed with us a date and time.

Recording: This is the time when you go live and perform with our recording engineer on-site. Compared with the time invested in everything else, it's woefully short. It's also the most fun.

Mixing: Once everything is tracked (put down on master tape), it needs to be prepared for mastering. Everything is made to sound just right, noise is subtracted, reverb is added, and everything ends up on a DAT.

Mastering: This is step where our engineers run your tape through the appropriate filter for the right format. The dynamic range may be compressed or expanded, the whole mix is EQ'd, and everything ends up on another medium. This may be DAT or hard disk.

Reproducing: For CD's, we take the final master tape/disk and create a "glass master", the glass disc that is the mirror-image of your CD. This is used to press the plastic for the CD.