Suspect Studios Book Rate

Pro Tools Studio Time (includes engineer and Pro Tools operator)

Hours Reserved	Hourly Rate
1-5 Hours	$60.00 Per Hour
6-20 Hours	$55.00 Per Hour
21+ Hours	$50.00 Per Hour

Alesis ADAT/HD24XR Studio Time (includes engineer)

Hours Reserved	Hourly Rate
1-5 Hours	$40.00 Per Hour
6-20 Hours	$35.00 Per Hour
21+ Hours	$30.00 Per Hour

(Plus Studio Supplies)
(For Larger Blocks of Time, Contact the Studio for a Quote)

Studio Supplies

Blank DVDs $3.00 Each
Blank CD-Rs $1.50 Each
Blank DATs (Quantegy R124) $12.00 Each
Blank ADAT Tapes
1. DA-40 (40 Minute) $16.00 Each
2. DA-60 (60 Minute) $22.00 Each

Studio Policies

Minimum booking - 2 hours
Rates include use of all studio gear except drum kit
Studio must be notified 24-hours in advance of cancellations of scheduled sessions, or a one hour cancellation fee may be applied
Hourly rate includes engineer (ADAT/HD24XR) and engineer and operator (Pro Tools). If you are a Pro Tools operator, or have your own Pro Tools operator, contact the studio for a custom quote

Drum Kit Rental

Per Project - $75.00
(Includes tom configuration as required, choice of snare(s), and ride/crash and hi hat cymbals as requested)

Getting Ready To Record ... Some Tips For The Studio

Whether it's your first time or your twentieth time in the studio, recording should always be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Here are some tips we've developed over the past few years which may help you to use your recording dollars as wisely as possible.

Practice Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse!!! Bands should have their song arrangements worked out in advance as much as possible, and each band member should know their basic track parts forwards and backwards. Rappers should have their verses and hooks written and memorized. The studio is not the place to start rewriting or rearranging your tunes, unless you are prepared to spend a lot of additional time and money! The best use of your money in a recording studio is recording, not rehearsing. Rappers reading their verses from sheets of paper in the vocal booth generally record tracks that sound like, well... rappers reading their verses. Don't write your verses in the car on the way to the studio. Our recommendation for bands is to do "section" rehearsals, i.e. drums and bass by themselves, vocals with acoustic guitars, etc. so you can clearly hear if parts are working and if the drums and bass are tightly locked before you get to the studio. Another good idea is to record yourselves during a regular rehearsal, even if it's just a cheap cassette recorder. Then sit down and have a good listen. It's amazing how different the songs sound when you are listening as opposed to when you are playing them. Do any rewriting or rearranging at home or in your preproduction studio – don't wait until you are in the studio, and have to pay by the hour to rewrite!
Preproduction Anyone using loops, beats or sequenced tracks coming from a sampler or keyboard work station should have the tempo set, and song arrangement worked out. If you want individual instruments to go to individual tracks, know how to assign sounds to individual keyboard outputs and pan instruments hard left and right. You should also know how to set MIDI channels and slave your keyboard to external sync. If there is any question, bring your owner's manual. If you are bringing Pro Tools Session files in, know which song or which version of the song you want to use and DON"T FORGET YOUR FILES. Do housecleaning on the session files you are bringing to the studio; if there are tracks recorded that you don't want to use, deleting (or at least inactivating) those tracks will reduce confusion and improve the flow of the recording session. NAME YOUR TRACKS!!! If we open a Pro Tools Session and see Audio Track 1-32, the first hour is going to be spent identifying and naming the sounds we find (at your expense). Do yourself a favor and identify Pro Tools tracks before you get to the studio.
Check Your Equipment Please do everyone a favor and get your instruments and equipment cleaned up before you get into the studio. A little buzz or pop or crack can be a big problem if it "goes to tape". Guitarists and bassists – change your strings just before you come in. Clean dirty pots, check your jacks to make sure there are no loose connections or shorts. If you have active EQ, put in a new battery. "Rattle and Hum" may be great for U2, but for the studio, check speakers and cabinets to get rid of rattles, hums and buzzes. Tighten screws and hardware. Drummers – change your heads and check your hardware. Tighten, tape or bolt down anything that buzzes or rattles. Also lubricate your kick pedal and hi-hat pedals. If you can hear it "live", we guarantee our high end microphones will pick it up even better. Also try and tune your drum kit as much as possible before you get to the studio. An hour of prevention is worth several hours of knob-twisting (at your expense!) and you'll sound better if all your equipment is in top shape.

And a final note for everyone; bring extra strings, drum sticks, picks, connector cords, drum heads, batteries, all the sound cards and sequence disks, and anything else you might break, bend, splinter, blow-up, short out or chew up. It's better to have it and not need it, than to stop the session (but not the clock!) to go and get it.
Practicing To a Click Track If you are a band planning to record into Pro Tools, and you want maximum editing flexibility, you will have to play along with a click (metronome) track in order to allow for tracks to be edited together. If you want different takes, or pieces of takes, to be "cut-and-pasted" together, the tempo of each of the separate pieces must be consistent, otherwise the edits sound artificial. The only way to do this is to perform along with a click track at a fixed tempo. If you have never played to a click, start practicing now! It is a learned skill, especially for drummers, and assuming you can just pick it up when you get to the studio is setting the stage for a massive disaster. The first thing you realize when playing to a click is usually how badly your natural sense of timing drifts, and that sudden realization can make recording a real unpleasant experience. Please take our advice, if you want to record with a click, practice with one well before coming into the studio.
Leave the Gang at Home We know it's fun to invite your friends or family to come down and check you out while you work in the studio, but this is serious business. You're paying good money to try and put your best sounds down on tape, and the more distractions you have in the studio, the harder it is to concentrate on the job at hand – playing your part to the best of your ability. A recording session is not a party, unless you're into paying for a party by the hour! If your mom wants to check out the studio, take some pictures and send them to her. If you want to hang out with your friends during your recording session, that's ok – it's your money. Our recommendation is to meet them after the session at a club or bar. You are a professional, and you'll do your best work in a professional environment, not with a bunch of friends hanging out (unless they're all in the band!).

Home Recording ... The Good News and the Bad News

With the advent of modular digital multi-track recorders (MDMs), such as the Alesis ADAT or the Tascam DA-88 systems, which were released in the 1990's, followed by the rise of computer based hard disk recording using PC's or Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), commercial recording has changed forever. Better than CD quality digital recording and editing, once available only in world class studios, is now readily available to almost everyone. As a result, there has been a huge rise in the number of "home" studios. The good news is that technology has gotten better and cheaper; the bad news is that commercial studios will almost always produce better sounding recordings than you can at home. Here's why ...

You get what you pay for Unless you're willing to spend $200,00 to $300,000 on gear to outfit your home studio, you will never match a good commercial studio in quantity or quality of pro grade gear. In the areas of microphones, preamps and analog-to-digital converters, all critical parts of the recording chain, there is a significant difference in the sound quality and noise level of "sound cards" and "project studio" level gear versus professional recording equipment. And as you add more and more tracks with home grade gear, the noise level increases and fidelity decreases.
The sound of digital Technically, digital has no sound; it mirrors exactly the sound presented to it. This is both good news and bad news. The bad news is the sound quality is only as good as the weakest link – a $10,000 signal chain with cheap bargain cables will result in a cheap bargain sound. The good news is that high quality digital technology will "hear" improvements, as subtle as they might be, between a $10.00 budget microphone cable and a $110.00 audiophile microphone cable (trust me, there are differences). But if you multiply the use of that cable by 24 or even 48 tracks, the difference in sound is not so subtle any more. Commercial studios understand this concept and spare no expense to utilize the highest quality cabling in their facilities (Suspect Studios has a huge investment in high-end Monster and Mogami cabling).
Technology can be your friend There are ways to use technology to improve the quality, depth, and "size" of digital recordings. The current surge in the popularity of tube equipment comes from the ability of tubes to add warmth and color to an instrument recorded digitally. A good studio engineer can put together a signal chain to flatter any instrument or voice. Some of the classic "vintage" vocal microphones can make a voice bigger, richer and more resonant than their less expensive project studio brethren. A commercial studio armed with a good array of outboard gear and engineers with good ears can make anything come out sounding better than it went in.
Mixing and monitoring environments Most commercial studios have invested a large amount of time and resources into putting together an accurate mixing and monitoring environment to guarantee that what you hear in the studio translates outside of the studio as well. This can include room design and tuning, expensive mixdown consoles with automation and high-end monitors (that you can't afford), all to insure the accuracy of the music projects completed in the studio.

Suspect Studios - Terms and Conditions

In order to complete your recording project in the most cost-efficient and effective manner possible, the following Studio Terms and Conditions are provided. These rules allow Suspect Studios to keep our prices competitive, our equipment in perfect condition and all of our clients completely satisfied. Please read carefully.

Recording Deposit - A fifty dollar ($50.00) non-refundable recording deposit is required in advance, to reserve studio time for recording projects. The Studio will take reservations for three months after the the date a deposit is received. If after three months, no bookings are made, the deposit shall be considered null and void.
Payment for Services - It is expected that clients will pay for studio time as it is used, at the end of each session. With arrangements made prior to the start of recording, the Studio can offer payment terms. All balances must be paid in full thirty days after recording services are provided.
Master Tapes and Files - The Studio reserves the right to hold all master tapes or computer files as collateral until any outstanding bills are paid in full by clients. The Studio encourages all clients to take possession of their master recordings at the completion of a project, and is not responsible for any damage to any master recordings left by clients at the Studio for storage. In addition, if any master recording is left at the Studio for more than six months after the completion of a project, physical ownership of that tape or computer file shall revert to the Studio.
Session Cancellations - If a session needs to be cancelled, postponed or rescheduled for any reason, the client must notify the Studio at least twenty-four hours in advance of the scheduled start time. Failure to do so may result in the client being billed for the time scheduled, whether it was used or not.
Start of Sessions - Clients are expected to be on time for all scheduled sessions. Billable time begins at the scheduled start time and the client may be billed from that time, whether the client is present or not.
No Smoking Policy - Because of the damaging effects of smoke on electronic equipment, Suspect Studios is a non-smoking facility. Clients may smoke in the parking or elsewhere outside the facility.
Equipment Damage - Clients are responsible for any damage to Studio equipment occuring as a result of client abuse or misuse. Repair or replacement costs will be added to the client's bill, and continued misuse will lead to termination of the project.
Client Conduct - The Studio will make every effort to accommodate all client's needs in terms of scheduling, equipment and staffing. It is expected that clients will conduct themselves in a professional manner. Any behavior that threatens the health and safety of any other client, or staff, or any behavior that threatens damage to the Studio or its equipment, will be cause for immediate suspension of a session, possible grounds for termination of the project and the potential filing of criminal charges against the client.
Intellectual Properties - Clients will assume all legal responsibility and liability for any copyright clearances, authorizations or royalty payments required for the mechanical reproduction of samples, loops or any other pre-recorded musical or spoken word performances, whether from computer disk, cassette, record or compact disc. The Studio assumes no copyright infringement liability on any recording service provided in the studio.