About This Section

Browse the menu to the left to find more info about the residential studios of our producers and writers, for example Doctor Fink's impressive StarVu Studio in Minneapolis!
We'd also recommend the following articles on various topics related to studio, technology and how to use it:

Saving time by use of Color Coding
"I see a red track and I know without thinking: This is a drum track"

History

Looking back in history, not long ago, one had to spend hundred thousands of dollars to build a professional recording studio.
in the 60s the beatles were one of the first bands to use the recording studio as a tool of expression instead of just recording their live performance.

In the 70s, the emergence of the multitrack age was only a logical progression, and the pro audio industry soon introduced 8-, 16- and 24-track open real tape-recorders (1972).
Later on, ways were found to sync several 24-track machines into even bigger systems and so grow the mixing desks, too! The music reflected that evolution hence we are still enjoying the big arrangements of an ABBA record. Needless to mention that all this was only available to those who had the backup of major label money.

The 80s brought digital technology and sampling "monsters" like the Fairlight CMI or the Synclavier of New England Digital (NED). The Fairlight CMI Series III costing 76.000 Australian Dollars had a maximum of 14 MB memory, included an onboard sequencer and was the second most popular toy amongst 80s popstars (1st was the legendary Ferrari Testarossa).

So isn't this the place where we should really show off the " bling" recording studios of our producers?
No, cause we are here to tell you that you do not need to spend a lot of money before you can start producing a hit record. Today, anybody with a decent laptop computer and a good recording software owns the tools to produce a hit record!

And even though some of us are quite in love with those "historic" tools of the 60s, 70s and 80s, the majority of work gets done with DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). We use programs like Apple Logic Pro, Digidesign Protools or Steinberg Cubase and - believe it or not - some of the coolest beats were actually made with "Fruity Loops", a popular studio software starting at $49.

However, over time we will start showing you the places where we spend most of the time producing our music. Patrick indeed owns a very nice recording studio in the center of beautiful Vienna - a great place for recording drums, guitars and even string ensembles.

J. Worthy uses a Windows laptop and takes his studio whereever he goes; Marc works whereever there's space to setup a mic and a computer - travelling back and forth between Europe and the States.

Being independent from a specific location is a concept we take a step further.
Our team is constantly sending mixes and even complete project data with single tracks back and forth between the producers and writers. We've recently worked on a project where the same piece of music has been worked on in four different countries on the same day! J. Worthy worked on the basic playback from Detroit/Michigan while songwriter Andy Love and a session singer were working on lyrics and vocal recording in London.
Marc guided the team through the process from Frankfurt/Germany and finally the parts were all sent back to him to mix the final master that was then handed over once more to Patrick in Vienna who performed his magic mastering skills on the finished mix.
Not once have we physically sent harddrives or even CDs from studio to studio. It was all done with either Apple iChat (Mac) or AIM Instant Messenger (Windows).