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Project Production Services

Recording Session

Getting great performances from a session is the magic of a skilled and experienced Project Producer, Recording, and the Mastering Engineer.
 

Great songs are created with the synergy of the project's Talent, Producers, and Recording Engineers.

The Cave's Project Production Services provides musical synergy when specialty skills are not provided by the project talent

Old School Project Production Roles

In traditional studio projects, in the past, when record companies drove the creative process, created a project team that consisted of these classic roles:
 

  • A Record Exec: The Executive Producer who sets and approves the project and set a budget for the Producer to adhere to in principle. All overruns are approved by this role
     

  • An Artist & Repertoire (A&R) Person: Oversees the project and acts as the liaison for the Record Exec informing the Record Exec of the progress, daily money burns, and estimated completion date. He is also required to deal with any talent and production issues
     

  • Project Producer: This is the most important role in the project! The Producer’s primary role is to get the best results in the studio and to know when that result has been met. The Project Producer says when enough is enough and is responsible to move the project forward. This role is responsible for bringing the project in on time and under budget
     

  • The 1st or Lead Engineer: The Lead Engineer is the “Tracking Engineer”. With the help of one or more 2nd engineers, he creates the studio vibe for getting the magic recorded on the tape that the Producer squeezes out of the talent. This role manages session setup, mic placement, instrument tonality, and track recording process. The Lead Engineer takes concepts from the Producer and turns them into reality
     

  • The 2nd Engineer: This role works for the Lead Engineer and takes direction for all aspects of session setup. The 2nd Engineer is the project “Gofer”, responsible for completing requests from the Producer, Lead Engineer, and all Talent requests
     

  • Mixing Engineer: Mixing and Mastering requires advanced knowledge of Audio Engineering, Room Acoustics, Psychoacoustics, Electronic, Acoustical Physics, and how people perceive sound
    A Mixing Engineer requires a strong knowledge of tonal frequency bands for all track instruments and how to carve space in the frequency ranges for each instrument in the stereo image field and how to use outboard gear and plugins to create a great mix
     

  • Mastering Engineer: A Mastering Engineer is an advanced Mixing Engineer specializing in taking a good mix and making it better through his toolbox of magic tricks.
    A Mastering Engineer has signature processes that define the style that he creates with his unique set of Mastering tools

Modern Home Studio Project Production Roles

The Internet has set us free from the dependency of the traditional Record Company paradigm. We no longer are bound to the slavery of the A&R Cat and his master the record company executive.
 

The cost of a quality Home Studio is less than $0.10 on the dollar of when I was a Production Manager in Hollywood in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s

Home Studio Boss_Bright.png

All of the above role’s responsibilities are required for a great
project outcome except you are the Record Executive,
the A&R Cat, the Talent, or the future Studio Owner
 

The Home Studio owner, either alone or with assistants,
fill the other roles defined above

Here are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Professional Home Studio Owner:

  • Consulting Services: The Project Manager is responsible for delivering the agreed-upon success criteria to meet the Clients expectation

    • Explaining Mistakes to avoid through a serious discussion of all roles and responsibilities of the Studio and Client

    • Creating a Production plan that includes an estimated budget with a “Daily Burn Rate”

    • Scheduling Online sessions and defining the definition of a successful session through a defined outcome
       

  • Performance Services: The Producer is responsible for ensuring that the tracking sessions cost as little as possible by knowing when to stop tracking: Good is Great when a Producer says it is

    • Instrument performances

    • Lessons, when required

    • Live Mic performances

    • Specialty Reamping services, when required

    • Sound Design services, when required
       

  • Recording Services: All engineering services to capture the magic of the performances and to manage the project artifacts as an archival vault and define a disaster recovery process

    •  Instrumental Tracking

    • Composition support

    • Tracking Stem Mixing

    • Reference Mixes

    • Final Mixes

    • Master Mixes

    • Session Asset Management

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