By Paul Kimbrel

One of the most intimidating things about a studio (aside from those behemoth mixing boards) is the mass of cables and connectors that one acquires over the years. In most studios and live sound platforms I’ve been involved with over the years, the cable and connector management has been abysmal at best. My studio is no exception.

But cables and connectors are the life blood of any studio. And there is no shortage of varieties when it comes to cables. Especially in the digital era. The old stand-bys remain the same… line cables, balanced cables, RCA jacks, phono jacks, XLR jacks, etc. But we now have fire-wire cables, USB cables, etc.

The focus of this section is to give you a primer of the basic studio cables and how they operate in the studio setting. Some cables can even be used in multiple, but extremely different ways in the studio. This section falls most decidedly in the “technical” aspect of sound.

Signals

“Signals” refer to the alternating current (AC) the moves from device to device in the studio. This AC electricity alternates at the same frequencies and relative power as the sound waves we are storing and manipulating. Often times, the electrical signal passing over the wire is referenced in the studio nomenclature as sound itself, even though the signal doesn’t really become sound until it passes through a speaker.

Signals can be transferred from one device to another in a variety of ways. Signals in the form of AC electricity are knows as “analog” signals. These electrical signals can also be converted into digital pulses and transferred from devices to device, too. However, the focus of this section will be on analog signals.

Balanced vs. Unbalanced

When a signal is sent from one device, such as a microphone or guitar, to another device, such as a mixing board, it can encounter a variety of problems on its journey. A long wire that connects devices together can actually act as a radio antenna, picking up signals from radio transmitters, cosmic rays, electric lights, even people. These extra signals, called interference, can actually mix with the desired signal as it is traveling over the wire.

If the original signal is strong enough and the cable through which it is traveling is shielded well enough, the relative volume of the interference it receives can be very small to the point of not existing (for all practical purposes). However, when dealing with extremely weak signals, such as signals from a microphone, the interference can be loud enough to be heard along with the original signal.

Cables and connectors that do not deal with the interference are very simple. They often have a single conductor that carries the signal, and a second conductor that completes the electrical circuit between devices. These cables, connectors, and even the signal they carry are know to be “unbalanced.”

What does that mean exactly?

Well, to understand that, you must understand what it means to be “balanced.” Cables, connectors and signals that are know to be “balanced” operate in the following way: Before leaving the original device, the signal is split into two identical signals. One signal is sent down a wire to the other device unaltered, while the other signal has it’s polarity reversed.

To “reverse the polarity” of a signal means that when the original signal moves in a “positive” direction, its copy moves in a “negative” direction in the exact same proportion as the original. What you end up with are two signals that are identical, but one is “upside down” compared to the other.

Now, that “upside down” signal is sent down another wire to the other device in parallel with the wire carrying the unaltered signal. Any interference that these signals encounter will effect them both in identical ways. If there’s a spike to the positive direction, they both get that spike in the positive direction (and vice versa).

Once the two signals reach the next device, the altered (”upside down”) signal is flipped again to make it the same as the original signal. It’s mixed with the unaltered signal to recreate the original sound. However, when that “upside down” signal is made “right side up,” all the interference it encountered is turned “upside down.” When the two signals are mixed, the interference will actually cancel itself out into nothing.

This is known as a balanced signal. Balanced cables and connectors tend to be much better at keeping interference out of the signal path. However, they require two conductors to transfer the signal from one device to another (plus a third to complete the circuit).

Connectors

Unbalanced

When looking at unbalanced connectors, you will notice that there are always two connecting points. One for the signal, one from the “ground” (used to complete the circuit).

Typical connectors used for unbalanced signals are quarter inch jacks with two connectors (called “tip-sleeve” connectors) and RCA connectors. The “tip”, or “center” of these connectors carry the signal, while the “sleeve” or “shield” connects the ground.

Often times, unbalanced cables are combined together to carry two different signals at the same time. These are known “stereo” cables. The connectors used to hook up the two different signals to a device can be separate, in the case of RCA connectors…

…or they can be combined into a single connector. An example of a connector that can connect two signals to a device is a quarter inch jack with three connectors (also called “tip-ring-sleeve” connectors – “TRS” for short). The two connectors towards the end of the connector, the tip and the ring, carry the two signals. The sleeve still connects the ground.

TRS connectors are sometimes called “stereo jacks.” However, I try to always refer to them as TRS because they can actually serve to carry a single signal as a balanced connector.

Balanced

When looking at balanced connectors, you will notice that there are always two connecting points. Two for the signal (positive polarity, negative polarity) and one for the ground (to complete the circuit).

When looking at balanced connectors, you will notice that there are always two connecting points. Two for the signal (positive polarity, negative polarity) and one for the ground (to complete the circuit).

Two pins of an XLR connection is used to carry the original signal, and the second is used to carry the reverse-polarity signal. The third connects the ground.

TRS jacks can also be used to carry balanced signals. In this case, the tip and the ring carry the nominal and reverse polarity signals. The sleeve still connects the ground.

Be aware of the context in which this connector is used! You do not want to hook a stereo connection to a balanced connection! Depending on how things are used, you can cause severe damage to your equipment!

Adapters

Adapters are a necessary evil in a studio. Invariably you will have two devices that have incompatible connectors, but can handle the same signal. Adapters make it possible to connect the two.

Most adapters are no-brainers. If you need to go from a “little” connector to a “big” connector (eighth inch to quarter inch), you get a little-to-big connector. If the connection points are a single signal, you get a tip-sleeve little-to-big. If the connection points are dual signal (stereo), you get a TRS little-to-big. Etc. Etc. Etc.

However, here are a few connectors that are off the beaten path, but I’ve found invaluable in the studio:

1) Monaural-to-stereo (and vice versa).

These adapters look to have the same “input” connector as its “output” connector. However, they are built to accept a tip-ring connector and they produce a TRS connector. The reverse is also available.

2) Balanced-to-unbalanced (and vice versa).

Unfortunately, there are several situations where you have to manually switch between balanced and unbalanced signals. Perhaps you have a guitar that you need to plug directly into your mixing board, and your mixing board only has XLR connectors.

Balanced/Unbalanced adapters work both ways by both splitting out an unbalanced signal into it’s balanced counterpart, and by combining a balanced signal back into an unbalanced signal. The short name of these adapters are “baluns.” They come in sorts of sizes and shapes. Guitar players are often familiar with the “direct box.” Direct boxes are basically big bulky (I mean “sturdy”) baluns. Radio shack sells compact baluns where one side of the adapter is an XLR connector and the other is a quarter inch jack (in various configurations).

You need to have at least two, of not more of these in your studio – for each direction. I personally, have about eight Radio Shack baluns, and two direct boxes, and I have put them all to use at one time or another (both in the studio and out in the field).

3) RCA-to-Tip-Ring

I don’t know why, but I’m always reaching for an RCA-to-Tip-Ring adapter. I don’t think I have very many RCA based connections in the studio, but invariable, I’ll use one. My consumer cable pile is full of RCA stereo cables, so that’s probably why.

4) Insert Cables

Insert cables are basically the cable version of a “Monaural-to-stereo” adapter. However, they tend to have all male connectors (use your imagination here) where one TRS connector splits into two tip-ring connectors. I get more use out of these cables than anything else in the studio.

They’re called “insert cables” because they’re used to “insert” a device into a signal chain. I’ll talk more about this when I discuss signal path.

Adapter Hell

Beware adapter hell! It’s an evil place where three, four, even five adapters get chained together to go from an XLR connection to an eight-inch stereo jack. I created monsters such as that in my earlier studio, and frankly, I wouldn’t have been able to record without them.

But they are ungainly beasts! They will short out when you least expect them to! You’ll start performing “the roll.” The roll is where you twist the adapters around, cracking and popping all the way around until you find the “sweet spot” – the place where all the adapters connect and harmonize as one.

Or you’ll curse and spit and turn and turn and curse some more until you’ve broken off the eighth-inch jack inside your computer.

Yep, I sure have.

Learning to solder in these instances is a good trade to have under your belt. Having a single adapter that, say, goes straight from XLR to eighth-inch stereo would be a good adapter to have, but you’re never going to find one on the market. So buy the parts and build the adapter yourself. Don’t worry if it looks like crap. As long as it works, no one will know the difference.

Bear in mind that going from a balanced signal to an unbalanced signal is not as easy as connecting point A to point B. The simplest way to create a balun is to use a 1:1 transformer. These are transformers where the primary and secondary windings contain the same number of turns. Going into why these balance and unbalance signals is more involved than I wish to describe, suffice it to say, they do the trick. And 99% of all direct boxes and XLR adapters use these transformers to convert signals.

As far as how you go about hooking them up is tricky, but not too complicated. Personally, I used the schematic on the side of one of my Radio Shack adapters and it worked well.

« The Basics | Table of Contents | Output »

By Paul Kimbrel

Humbling Start

The home digital recording revolution is a fairly recent and remarkable phenomenon. Until recently, high quality recording equipment was available only to the rich and established artists. The most a peon artist could hope for was a 4-track recorder and a cassette tape. The idea that a person could “causally” enter the “professional sound” arena would be unthinkable. If you wanted to become a professional audio engineer, you’d have to pay some serious dues as an intern for a large record company and darn near grovel to even sit behind a behemoth recording console.

But the digital revolution changed everything. Specifically, the personal computer. As computer got faster, and sound card quality got better, the idea that the peon artists could record a high quality demo - or even a final album - began to become a reality.

My personal journey began in college when I realized that the biggest part of my recording-studio-to-be was the computer I already owned. I was 90% on my way (or so I thought) to having a professional recording studio. Sure, I need those pesky mics and monitors but my $5 Labtec microphone and gaming speakers should be enough, right?

Actually, yes, the were. But the quality was just a notch above those ancient 4-track recorders. Computers take the quality of the storage medium up by leaps and bounds, but they do nothing to the quality of the incoming signal or the outgoing reference. I recorded my first song with that junk and got exactly what I put into it.

My next step was to start upgrading a piece at a time. I got a better microphone. I got a better interface from the microphone to the computer. I got a better computer. I got better software. I got better monitors. Then I got a better room with sound insulation on the walls.

Bottom line… don’t wait until you have all the right gear to record. Use what you have. Borrow what you don’t have. Make music. Can’t play? Find a friend who’s itching to record a song. That’s what I did, and that’s how I met Chad Lemons, and how this whole studio thing got started.

My first recording computer used a Gravis Ultrasound sound card as the audio interface. While the details of the sound card were different, it was no different than any other SoundBlaster or built-in sound interface you’ll find on a computer today. It had a line-in and a line-out. Yes, it had a mic-in, but don’t use those. They suck.

Hooking up my $5 Labtec mic was easy. It was built to be plugged into a computer. However, when I borrowed my first “real” studio microphone (a Shure SM-58), I had a small problem hooking it up to the computer. The next section (”Hook up”) deals with how I did it. Suffice it to say, it involved adapters.

Adapters will get you miles down the road, but they will also drive you insane. A good studio always has a plethora of adapters to go from any connection to another. However, my next upgrade was to get a mixing board. I was able to build some connectors to go directly from my mixing board to the computer without adapters and I was able to plug my microphones directly into the mixing board. I didn’t actually mix with the board per se. I simply used it as a preamp to give me more control over the mic signal going into the computer. It also allowed me to plug other things in, like a keyboard, without going through adapter hell.

Still, I was using those gaming speakers. I was plagued by the fact that I never had the sub-woofer properly adjusted on those things. One day, I’d have no bass and I’d crank all the bass frequencies of my tracks. I’d pop them in my car stereo and watch woofer cones come flying out of the dash. Other days, I’d have the sub-woofer cranked up to high on the computer. I’d play my mixes on my HiFi and found that the sound had no depth, no umph.

My next was my monitor speakers. I put some money into those things and it’s paid off tremendously. I also purchased a good set of reference headphones. Though I hate to admit it, I’ve mixed more with my headphones than with my speakers. That’s not always a good idea, and I’ll touch on why in my mixing tutorial.

Still, I’ve found that my studio didn’t magically appear over night. And it’s still not where I want it to be. I’d like to upgrade my computer interface to be able to record 8 tracks at once without hot-wiring my two mixing boards. I’d like to have a Neumann microphone. I’d like better reference monitors. I’d really, really like a keyboard. But no one ever got to where they were headed by starting at the end.

Roles

Before you can really dive into the details of sound engineering, you first need to have the big picture. What is the “process” of recording sound? What does it mean to “engineer” sound?

Audio engineering is the practice of collecting sound, storing it, and editing the sound to the desired result. The engineering role, specifically, involves the actual capture of a performance. As the engineer, you are responsible for hooking up the microphones, the recording gear, the effects units, etc. You are responsible for ensuring the performance is properly captured and saved. You are responsible for ensuring the recorded performance is not lost and is properly processed after the fact. There are several sub-roles as an engineer, and during a recording session, you may take on one, or all of these roles. You might even take on a side role of “producer” by orchestrating arrangements and stylistic approaches used by the performer.

Recording Engineer

The recording engineer is responsible for the actual capturing of sound. You are responsible for ensuring the raw performance is captured with all its nuances - good or bad. As long as you capture enough information for the next engineer to process, you’ve done your job.

The key to performing this job well is to understand this fundamental principle: once added, you cannot remove; once removed, you cannot add.

Here’s the principle in action. It’s very tempting to add effects, compression, or even “intonators” to a vocal track as it is being recorded. However, if you make any modification to your vocal signal on its way to the recorder, that modification gets recorded forever. If you wake up the next day and find you hate all that reverb, or the intonator was off on a few notes… you cannot undo it. It’s set in stone.

Likewise, if you put an equalizer on your vocal signal on the way to the recorder, you may be able to filter out some unwanted frequencies before the signal gets recorded. You might create a vocal sound that you love by filtering out the 1khz range of the vocals. But, again, you might wake up the next morning and find that you were wrong. Once removed, sound cannot be added back in. Sure… you can try and boost that which you removed, but if it’s not there, it won’t magically reappear. It’s set in stone.

This is why the recording engineer should record tracks as raw and unaltered as possible. You can always add effects and intonation later, and if you screw it up, you can change it - because the original performance is raw and unchanged. Let the next engineer, the “mixing” engineer deal with molding and shaping the sound.

Also remember that the old computer adage, “garbage in, garbage out,” applies here. If you give the mixing engineer a tinny sounding acoustic track, no amount of EQ or effects will fix it. Get as full a range of sound as you can and let the mixing engineer work out the rest.

Mixing Engineer

In my humble opinion, this role is the most fun. Here you take the raw materials you’ve been given… drum tracks, bass tracks, guitars, vocals… and you mix them together into a final song. Here is where the engineer can literally change the course of a song. Do you keep the song dry, or add lots of reverb and echo? Do you compress the vocal tracks, or retain their dynamic range. Here’s where the aesthetics of audio engineering come to play. And this is where the most contention comes in with respect to your job. Not everyone will agree on how the song should sound. Know your boundaries and respect to the artists for whom you’re working. Try to achieve the vision of the artist through your mix.

There’s a lot of crossover here between live and studio engineers. In the studio, the mixing engineer takes prerecorded tracks and mixes them to a single entity that is passed to the mastering engineer. In the live setting, the mixing engineer takes the raw tracks from the performers, mixes them, and passes the final entity on to the audience directly. The principle is the same… take the raw materials, the raw sounds, and mix them into the final product. But the live mixing engineer has no do-overs. No rewind. No second chances. It’s a fickle profession.

But the studio mixing engineer can go back as often as needed to redo a mix until the final product is realized. However, the mixing engineer may have a skewed vision of the final product. The mixing engineer’s talent is realizing the relative levels of the raw material. How loud are the guitars relative to the vocals? When does the bass solo begin - is it turned up? How loud is the echo relative to the other tracks. But frequency response may not be top priority. That’s where the “mastering” engineer comes into play.

Mastering Engineer

In the mixing engineer’s studio, he may be able to get the final product to sound phenomenal. But who’s to say that his speakers are built like Joe Shmoe’s boom box? Or truck? Or TV? Once the final product is realized, it is sent to the mastering engineer for “tweaking.”

The mastering engineer is a much more technical role that involves breaking the final mix down into its audio components, or frequencies. He evaluates the bass frequencies in relation to the mid and high frequencies. He compares the final product to products already in the market place. What will the final product actually sound like on a boom box? Or a HiFi? Or even worse… a car? He adjusts the final equalization and dynamics of the song to bring it within industry standards so that the final product sounds just as phenomenal on a Ford Tempo’s sound system as it did on the mixing engineer’s sound system. Sure, it won’t sound as pristine in the Ford Tempo, but it will sound as good as a Ford Tempo can make it sound (and it won’t blow out the speakers).

Your Role(s)

Most often, you will take on the role of recording and mixing engineer in your own studio. Or you my specialize in the role of a mastering engineer. Either way, there tends to be a division between the mixing and mastering roles in the recording industry. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason you will encounter is that perfect monitoring solutions for a mixing studio are nary impossible to achieve. As you mix, you may not be aware that your system is deficient in the 250-500Hz range. You may not realize that your signal will be, on average, 10db quieter than other songs in the CD turn table.

A mastering engineer’s studio tends to focus on the monitoring system almost exclusively. The monitor speakers there will be darn near perfect and reproduce the sound exactly as it is recorded. That allows them to make objective decisions on which frequencies to adjust to prevent consumer sound systems from blowing up from the latest hip-hop album. Or to prevent ears from literally bleeding from the latest head bangers anthem.

As you work through the various roles of engineer, try not to cross that boundary. Focus on recording and mixing, or focus on mastering. But at the very least, don’t try to do all the roles for a single album. Another set of ears, at the very least, will ensure that you end up with the best product possible.

Aspects of Sound

Whenever I describe running sound, I break things down into two basic parts:

1) Technical
2) Aesthetics

The technical part of sound engineering consist of hooking up equipment, knowing what each knob does, how to route signals from start to finish, etc. The aesthetic part of sound engineering involves understanding what makes a mix “sound good.”

The technical part is very objective and clear cut. There’s not necessarily one way to do things, but there are definite “right ways” and “wrong ways.” It’s hard to argue one way or another so long as things work. If you can get a signal from point A to point B, it’s usually not a big deal how you did it, so long it works.

Aesthetics, on the other hand, have been debated for years and will continue to be debated so long as we record sound. What sound good to one person sounds awful to another, and what sound awful too another, sound indifferent to the rest. There are a few “rules” that make a good starting point from which you can create your own sound, and a few “rules” that define industry standards. As the old adage goes, you must first learn the rules before you can break them. Then you break them to create your own unique sound.

Table of Contents | Next - Hook-up »

Or… “how to write myself out of a job”

This section is a repository of tutorials for developing a studio, recording, and mixing. It’s a collection of knowledge that I’ve acquired from almost 15 years of audio engineering.

Why on earth would I give away my secrets??

Because I learned from being in the trenches. I didn’t go to school to learn to be an audio engineer. I was never formally mentored. I simply jumped in and started twirling the knobs and recording. I tried to find those elusive books that tell you the “how’s” and the “why’s”. I’ve found a few, but they were never very complete. They were written either before the affordable-computer-recording era, or were written by folks who seem to think money is cheap.

I’ve also searched the internet. Ha!

So here’s my attempt at creating a single repository that takes you from start to finish (where ever finish may be) of creating a studio and properly recording and mixing your music.

And if it all seems a bit more than you can manage, remember… the studio is open!

1. The Basics
   1. Humble Start
   2. Engineering Roles
   3. Aspects of Sounds
2. Hook up
   1. Signals
   2. Connectors
   3. Adapters
3. Output
   1. Start and the end
   2. Hardware
4. Input
   1. Pre-amps
   2. Microphones
   3. Instruments
   4. Drums
   5. Fake it ’till you make it
5. Recording
   1. Technique
   2. Software
   3. File Management
6. Mixing
   1. Technique
   2. Panning and Placement
   3. The Evil EQ
   4. Routing
   5. Effects
   6. Final Touches
7. Mastering

Excerpt from “Rainy Day Assembly” website

“This rainy day assembly… it’s going nowhere” So says the lyric of the Tess Wiley song this band takes its name from - but it’s hardly the truth. It’s doubtful the singer/songwriter behind this collective would have it any other way. Regardless of which path they take, rainy day assembly - an unassuming alternapop band that wears its influences on its sleeve and seeks not to reinvent the wheel, but rather to change its colour a bit - is going somewhere.

It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to notice that rainy day assembly’s frontgirl (and sometimes only girl) Jillian Tully is not your typical guitar-toting chick. Beyond the bright blue guitar she’s affectionately named Taki (after a character in a video game), the typical loquacious nature, seemingly neverending scarf collection, the requisite nose ring and often gigantic voice that belies her fairly short stature - there is someone who is really passionate about her music. One could say she started ‘this rainy day assembly business’ out of a need to take everything she loves, make it her own, and find some way to share it with as many people as possible.

A trained singer in theatre, jazz, and choral music, Jillian decided in 1997 that the musical theatre world was not for her, and set out to teach herself how to play guitar and get those messy thoughts that ran around inside her head onto paper, and preferably out of her mouth to the ears of coffee shop crowds in her hometown of Red Bank, NJ. Drawing on her musical background (her father and cousin are bassists, and her grandmother’s family toured the Vaudeville circuit with their act Ming, Ling, and Hoo Shee?), her love of performing, and a wide range of influences - not to mention the fact that she had a lot to say - she picked up the guitar in a matter of months, and in less than a year was writing and performing her own songs in small NJ coffeehouses.

This decision has taken her on quite the journey - from a teenager writing confessional, rambly folkish songs to a well-read writer figuring out her spiritual side, to a young woman learning how to be herself and somehow managing to catch the lovely parts and the messy ones in song - from a small town in New Jersey, to the middle of Illinois, to the New York City subway - it has been a long, sometimes frustrating, sometimes stagnant, but always ultimately rewarding journey.

There is no one particular strength in these songs. Rather, the strengths are seen differently by different people. Some are drawn to Jillian’s writing style - her ability to “take complicated sentences and turn them into a song”, or more simply put, her ability to present common thoughts and feelings in a less-than-common way. Others are drawn to the music - the mellow, dreamy chime of her debut EP, ‘Someone Else’s Story’, the electricity of her live performances, or the stripped-down melodic nature of her acoustic recordings. Still others find the strength is her voice - ranging from sweet and ethereal to commanding and soulful, and probably a few shades in between.

Having recently returned from a three-year hiatus, Jillian has returned to her true love - music, with more enthusiasm than ever. She can often be found singing in the subways of New York, testing out new and old songs, and making friends along the way. A new lineup is currently being sought out, but she performs acoustic shows on a regular basis in the meantime. The ‘Someone Else’s Story’ EP will be formally released this Fall, with the music video for “Brother” appearing not too long after. Also, Jillian and the band of rapscallions she’s found will be going into the studio later this year to record her first proper record - something she is five shades of excited about. Newer, wiser, darker, stronger (and definitely louder and with more kick) material is promised this time around.

Excerpt from erisakopp.com

Born a leader, Erisa Kopp has been involved in music since a young age. As a high school student she participated in musicals and performed multiple solos. While attending Lincoln College (Lincoln, Il), where she was a member of several performance groups including Lincoln College Choir and Sophisticatz.

She plans to pursue a music degree at Milikin College(Decatur, Il). Erisa continues to develop her talents through songwriting, arranging, directing, and performing. She has served in her local church on the music, choir, dance, drama teams and is currently working with the teens. Her passion is to help others touch the heart of God through music. She has recently completed here first CD “This City Shall Live” which contains 10 original songs. Her goal is to see others inspired, encouraged, healed and delivered as they worship.

Back to Artists

Excerpt from “About Amy Curl”

Folk-pop songwriter Amy Curl entertains with musings on office dress codes, ill-behaving attorneys, the conundrum of disappearing pants, and the fine art of surviving relationships. Named Songwriter of the Year by her department at work, Amy also received two nominations (Best Acoustic Artist, Best Acoustic Album) for the 2004 Madison Area Music Awards. Additionally, she’s earned an honorable mention in the pop/rock category of the 2003 national song contest sponsored by the Madison Songwriters Group. Amy’s music delights and engages listeners as they lounge with a latte or a lemon shot.

Three solo CDs showcase Amy’s lovely voice and thoughtful lyrics. Her most recent release, mixed bag, is also her first studio project and includes a mix of solo piano and acoustic guitar work alongside a variety of additional percussion, cello, and electric guitar. Piano-based twenty different tries features the bulk of Amy’s live show material, while the reissued CD version of guitar-based convincingly repentant includes her ode to the oft-uncelebrated “Pharmacy Technician.”

Amy began her musical journey at church, community festivals, weddings, and the obligatory recitals. After college, she traded central Illinois for Madison, Wisconsin and pursued songwriting as a form of cheap therapy. Family, neighbors, and coworkers all serve as inspiration for her songs. She also petsits.

Amy recommends walking, weightlifting, and yoga for all your body movement needs.

Back to Artists

Click on an image to enlarge:

Control Room

Live Room

Gear

Recordings From Shadow Closet Studios

Artist / Track	Download	Listen
Amy Curl - Just Kidding	[mp3]
Amy Curl - Sunday Night(s)	[mp3]
Chad Lemons - Why	[mp3]
Momma’s Boyz - Amazing Grace	[mp3]
Momma’s Boyz - Make My Heart Your Home	[mp3]
Rainy Day Assembly - Paint A Stage	[mp3]
Rainy Day Assembly - Anyway	[mp3]
Forgotten Freedom - Rise Against	[mp3]
Paul Kimbrel & Steve Hampton - Who Knows	[mp3]
Paul Kimbrel & Steve Hampton - One Fine Day	[mp3]

Playback support made possible by the XSPF Web Music Player.

The following artsist have recorded at Shadow Closet Studios:

Amy Curl
Albums:

• - Twenty Different Tries

[bio]

Rainy Day Assembly (Jillian Tully)
Albums:

• - Someone Else’s Story

[web] [bio]

Chad Lemons
Albums:

• - Verisimilitude: A Portrait of Reality
• - Various Demos and Tracks

Momma’s Boyz
Albums:

• - Parodies & Praise

[buy]

Erisa Kopp

Albums:

• - This City Shall Live

[buy] [web] [bio]

Steve Hampton
Albums:

• - Assorted Selections and The Fish Song

Forgotten Freedom
Albums:

• - Live Now Die Later

[web]

Other Artists
Other artists who have recorded here:

• - Evan Savage
• - Tim Gupta
• - My Samuel
• - His Voice
• - Shawn Everly
• - Paul Kimbrel

Shadow Closet Studios is a Christian recording studio, though we will record anyone - Christian or not. We ask, however, that the music we record be free of obscenities or immoral innuendoes (which is overly present in today’s music industry anyway). We do not want to stem off creativity, but we ask artists who use our facility to create in good taste. This is a touchy subject for some artists, but it is our conviction that our moral values should superscede our recording obligations. If, at some point during a recording, we find the material we are recording is in violation of this policy, we reserve the right to cancel the remainder of the recording process. We will hand over any recorded material up to that point and the client would be charged only for that material.

Also know that we are only a recording studio. We do not handle getting permission to record other people’s music - that is the responsibility of the artist. We will record in good faith of these arrangements. If arrangements can not be verified, we reserve the right to refuse services.

Privacy Policy

We also want you to know that we respect your privacy. No personally identifiable information is collected on this website. The only time we collect such information is during the negotiations of a recording proposal (which is outside the scope of this web site). Said information is used only by Shadow Closet Studios for reasons of communication with our clients and for billing purposes. No information is given or sold to any third party (with the exception of a court ordered subpoena).

“…record a demo of me singing to a back-track?”

Quite simply: $50 per song. That will get you any tape conversion (transferring your audio tapes to the computer), set up, record time, and a final mix. We have a variety of tools to help you sound your best. Given the computer-based nature of the studio, we can go back and re-record any section of music you want in order to get your performance perfect. We have several high quality compressor and reverb plug-ins to get the punch your voice needs to be noticed. We also have a few other tricks up our sleeve. Didn’t quite hit that note on pitch? No problem - we can fix that without having to go back and re-record. You still need to be a good singer to sound like a good singer, but with our tools, we’ll make your voice the best that it can be.

Please note that we no longer remove vocals from existing recordings.

“…record a full band doing a full album?”

We previously had a chart showing a price-per-hour charge for recording. As you can see, it is no longer here. It’s difficult to give a price-per-hour charge when you have no idea how long it will take to record. Each group is different. Each talent that comes to the studio has a different dynamic. This studio was built for the purpose of making music - not for getting rich. We don’t want to suck the bands who come to us dry.

So, we have decided to work on a proposal-based fee. We will sit down with you and get a feel for how much work will be involved. How many songs are there? How many instruments per song are there? How much will be involved in recording each track? Based on this information, we will calculate how much time we feel it will take record and mix the album. The current rate per hour is $50.

Once we have a final dollar amount, you decide whether or not to continue. If we do, we will keep track of how much time is used to record the album. If, by some great stroke of luck, we go under the estimated time, the cost is re-figured to represent a lower amount for you. If we take longer to record (as is usually the case), the cost will not go beyond the original proposal - given that all parameters of the proposal remain the same. However, if you decide to add a new song, or add a large chunk of work to an existing song, a new proposal will be created and added to the original cost.

One of the problems with this method comes in the form of artists who like to write music in the studio. We highly discourage this. If you are come into the studio unprepared, we reserve the right to make the proposal by-the-hour (it will be one or the other - you will know ahead of time). This is to protect our time and efforts and keep the studio available for those artists who are prepared.

“…create a basic demo?”

This implies that you don’t have a full band. We have a variety of musical tools that you can use to create basic drum patterns, bass loops, etc., to accompany your music. Together with your talents, you can create a professional sounding demo to pitch to record companies, send as examples for gigs, or have as your own personal treasure. The cost of this work falls under the same rules as recording a full band.

“…have you mix down tracks I recorded elsewhere?”

We use the basic rate of $50 per hour when mixing down tracks recorded from another studio. Final price is negotiable. Again, we’re in the business of making music!

“…restore old recordings?”

Yes, we restore old recordings! We can restore old tape and vinyl recordings and get them sounding better than they ever have before. Keep in mind - we are not miracle workers! We have to have something to work with. However, we can remove tape hiss, pops, and clicks. We can even punch up recordings so you can hear them better. We can also convert tapes or MP3’s to CD to preserve that hard-or-impossible-to-find album.

Got a recording of one of your grandparents telling their childhood on tape? Send it to us and we can make sure it lasts for generations. Got a video tape and want the audio on CD? We can transfer it! Odd video formats are generally not supported - but hey, if you have the video player, we can use it! We also have connections with video studios in town to help connect you with someone who has the right video player for your needs.

Basic conversion involves the transfer of media from one form to another with simple hiss removal (if necessary). For more extensive restoration (such has mastering and pop/click removal), the standard studio rate of $50/hr is used.

Basic conversion rates are as follows:

1. $5 per song conversion (basic hiss removal
2. $15 per album conversion (for entire tapes or LP albums)
3. $10 to convert MP3’s to CD (up to 80 minutes worth)

Shadow Closet Studios is full service recording studio with virtually unlimited tracking capabilities. We will record any style music at any volume. The studio is computer-based and is capable of recording both audio and MIDI. As all work is done on the computer, we use very little out-board gear here. Instead, we use application plug-ins to add reverb, compression, etc. Once recorded, we can supply you with individual tracks on CD-R for mix-down elsewhere, or we can mix the music in-house and supply you with the final product on CD-R.

Are you a singer who wants a professional sounding demo? We can transfer back-tracks from tape and digitally record you singing along. We’ll mix you right in and make you “part of the band.”

Have a full band and want to make a full length album? We will take the time necessary to record each member of your band with high quality microphones and pre-amps to get the best sound your performance can deliver!

Take a listen to some of the recordings made at Shadow Closet Studios in the “Music” section of this website…

Shadow Closet Studios started as an experiment in the fall of 1998 when its founders (Paul Kimbrel and Steve Hampton) wanted to see what it would take to record high quality sound (specifically music) with a computer. After several attempts to record a song with a cheap sound card ($28) and an even cheaper microphone ($5), the first song was recorded. It was… well… interesting. From there, the lack of material to record became an issue. Enter our first artist - Chad Lemons. Chad had tons of material - enough for an entire CD. Paul, Chad, Steve, and several other friends worked together to create ten new songs. With a lot of trial and a whole lot more error, a bit of luck, and some divine intervention, we recorded our first CD at Shadow Closet - “Verisimilitude”.

Since then, the studio has improved by leaps and bounds (and moved). We now have a dedicated facility, better equipment, and a lot more knowledge. We have had the privilege to record several incredible artists - such as Amy Curl, “Doxazo” (also known as the “Momma’s Boyz”), Jillian Tully (also known as “Rainy Day Assembly”) and many others! Check out the “Artists” page on our website to sample some of the work done at Shadow Closet Studios .

The Name

Shadow Closet? What kind of name is that? Well, the computer that we used to record/store/mix the first audio recordings was called “Shadow Catcher” (after a song by Daniel Amos). That’s where we got “Shadow”. The first version of the studio existed in our student apartment (not the most ideal place in the world to record music). To get some peace and quiet, we isolated our instrument players and singers from the rest of the apartment in one of the spacious (5′x6′) walk-in closets. We got everything in there: congas, guitar players, singers, etc. That’s where we got “Closet”. Shadow Closet! Chad was the first to have the guts to really call it that name outside of the studio.

Side note: For those who are wondering… No, we didn’t get an entire drum set in the closet - we took over one our parents’ basement for that.

Thankfully, we have graduated well beyond the closet. The studio now has a larger facility to record any instrument you want (sorry, no full orchestras yet).

Paul Kimbrel

Paul Kimbrel is the sole owner and operator of Shadow Closet Studios. He has recorded all the bands listed on the “Artists” page and more. He works full time as a computer programmer for a mid-sized insurance company, but has done live sound since 1993 and studio engineering since 1998.