Hello,
At Otter Creek Studio our goal is to provide independent musicians a relaxed recording environment that is economical and provides high quality capturing of musical performances in digital format. Of course, many musicians are recording their music in their own home, but frankly it’s not that easy to get great results. Quality results comes from know-how, doing it over and over, having a studio that is fully equipped to meet your needs and someone at the controls who cares about your music.
If you are interested to come by and do a quick recording to evaluate whether or not our set up will fit your needs, just let us know. We think it would be worth your while. And if you decide it's just not going to work, no harm done. This also gives us a chance to evaluate whether or not we think we can do your music recording justice.
This is a home studio. There is nothing fancy whatsoever. We are set up in a small upstairs room. We are well equipped with professional technology, years of experience and a very good ‘track’ record. We are also able to provide onsite recordings.
For a sample of our work, we encourage you to visit http://davidkrausguitarist.com and listen to some of David Kraus' tracks from his CD "Between Silence". These were recorded over 2 years at our studio. This CD won critical awards and reviews. We believe the ambiance of a "bedroom studio" provided a nice warmth to David's music. And that's basically our goal. You can also visit the Music samples page at http://ottercreekstudio.com
Our rate is $45/hour. We strongly recommend that daily recording sessions are limited to no more than 4 hours. For onsite recordings there is an additional $35 fee per minimum 4-hour session.
Keep in mind there is quite a bit that happens after you leave the studio on our end. This includes backing up your recorded material, so we always have an extra copy in case of some disaster occurring! And there is the time to edit tracks and provide you mixes that we will bounce back and forth with you for feedback that will help us get your tracks to sound as close to your expectations as possible. And then in the end there is the mastering process to be sure there is good consistency of sound quality between your tunes and that volumes flow evenly from one tune to the next.
To gauge the cost of your project, here is a simple formula that I use to provide a rough estimate: (Number of tracks) X (6 hours) X ($45/h). The 6 hours includes the time you took to record an individual song/tune and the time we will spend editing and mixing each of those recording sessions.
If desired, we are also able to provide you CD artwork design for your package and submit for printing and packaging. What works best is if you supply photos/drawings/logos, text and maybe an idea of how you envision it looking. Then we put it together for you. We use Corel Art for this work which is a professional grade arts program that is acceptable for submission by most major CD manufactures. Our rate for artwork development is $35/hour in addition to the formula above.
We utilize “National Media Services” or “Disc Makers” for CD printing and manufacturing services. Both provide reasonable rates and packaging options for independent musicians and allow for volumes of 1 to a million. Check them out here: http://nationalmediaservices.com http://discmakers.com
You are responsible for licensing any songs or tunes you do not own! This can run into some money, mostly because of intermediary fees. You can accomplish this through “SONGFILE” which is posted as a link on the Otter Creek Studio web site or through Harry Fox Agency, which is searchable on the Web, or by contacting the author of the song/track directly. We encourage you to record your own songs/tunes or those that are considered traditional or in the public domain. This is your responsibility not ours! And you are responsible for a great performance, and we are responsible for capturing it. And if you get a flat tire, hey we’ll get out our jack and see what we can do!
One last thing, recording projects often seem to take longer than originally expected! Mostly this has to do with everyone's schedules and commitments. What keeps it moving is good communication and feedback at every step.
Bob DeMarco - Producer, Engineer
Rob Roche - Artistic Director