Recording at a Studio

There is nothing more fun than recording a song or performance at a studio. All the gear, people paying attention to what you need and how you sound, makes for a great experience.

Once upon a time, that was pretty much the only place to record. With the onslaught of cheaper smaller consumer oriented gear, more artists are choosing the home studio route because it’s cheaper, more convenient, and for certain genres, pretty much the same. And if you’re the only one recording-you only need 1 pair of headphones, maybe 1 mic, only stereo inputs and converters into your digital system-not so complicated.

A great way to enhance what you do at home is to add something you might not be able to do at home. Live strings, horns, drums, percussion, group vocals-all can really make a track pop! Other things like harmonica, a style of guitar or stringed instrument you do not own or play-all can take your production to the next level.

Many of my professional musician friends with home facilities choose to come to my place to mix, because its very hard to have the depth of knowledge, experience, and gear it takes to do a really killer mix, especially if there is a lot of things going on. That’s also true of mastering. And it does not have to cost a lot to take your tracks to your favorite studio and add some stuff or mix. If you are very familiar with the situation, just sending over a stereo mix and having someone add some guitar can very economical and easy.

We just did a string session on a high profile pop tune for producer Ishmael Moody. We used the “Dallas String Quartet”, and they did an excellent job, and everyone was comfortable and had fun.

Ishmael shot some video, and I edited down a snippet of the actual session-the 2 links are below. I’m told the artist (singer) has gone with just piano and strings after hearing it. Ishmael has a great setup at home, but not 4 music stands, 4 pairs of headphones, a big enough room with silent air conditioning, and a large mic collection to accommodate recording the quartet. He also was free to keep track of the charts and the musicians, without having to worry about what might come up in the recording process (and stuff does come up) Nothing worse than trying to track down a problem somewhere with 4 musicians sitting there on the clock!

So check out the video and the audio clip, and give some thought to expanding your horizons at JOMUSIK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjEF1WAK5o0

https://soundcloud.com/jo-musik/string-session-at-jomusik

 

 

 

MAY 25, 2018

Already mid 2018. Things are cruisin at JOMUSIK, doing a variety of projects for a variety of people. I've been posting more videos of interview questions-check out my Youtube channel-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY4zNkVm3fQbSnJb4JJ6HiQ

Had a nice article in Voyage Dallas Magazine, highlighting the studio and myself.

http://voyagedallas.com/interview/meet-joe-milton-jomusik-eastern/

We've been doing more mastering, and have added tools to that end. Open Heart Musicals has begun its second book for Choristers Guild, and the first one- "Praise takes Flight" is in its second printing. JOMUSIK also just completed re-recording and producing a musical for Dianne Beckstead called "No Crib For A Bed".  She's out of Pittsburgh, and we appreciate her coming to Dallas to do her project. Not a lot of folks out there with a lot of experience producing musicals. A solid hour or more is way different than a collection of tunes, not to mention dialogue, sound effects, and a lot of ensemble singing. We are blessed to have a lot of talent in the dallas area.

We also just finished 15 tunes for Harry Hewlett-very fun stuff. Harry's a great story teller-look for his album "Garbageman" coming out soon on a cloud near you.

 

 

Shout Out To Our TV Contest Singers

Hi Folks

I wanted to send out some good luck to Dalton Rapattoni, who is in the finals of American Idol.

Dalton is a great singer and a great guy-he sang in 1 of our musicals and recorded his Dallas Based band here. We've had some good luck-our former first call singer, Amber Carrington, made it to the top 4 of the voice, and the guy who played Zak in our first musical, Trevor Douglas, made it to the top 12 on American Idol last year. He's a great songwriter and a very creative guy all-around. Amber has moved to Nashville and is doing great things. She recorded over 50 songs for us, and has a magic voice. And who knows what is in store for Dalton!!

 

Studio upgrade complete!

We are pleased to announce major upgrades to our core setup. Protools HDX DSP, 16/16 Analog converters, and lots of new softwear including Native 9, Waves Platinum and classic compressors, Omnisphere, and Trillian. We have just completed the audio portion of "Praise Takes Flight", a book with innovative ideas for youth choir, including 39 original songs and tracks, featuring our killer collection of very young singers, for Choristers Guild. Open heart Musicals most recent musical "Land Of The Lost And Found" has received J W Peppers editors choice award-Lots of great original songs and a great story. As always, we are recording and producing numerous songs for various writers and artists. Check out the music page.

We have also been doing a lot of music and melodies for lyric writers, and finishing songs for writers and artists who sometimes can't quite get over the hump with a song. If you come in here, your song will get finished to your liking, no matter what it might need. Song production tends to go hand in hand with writing consultation, which can keep cost down and have a working demo created through the writing process.

Things are poppin at JO-MUSIK

First off, we would like to congratulate one of our favorite singers, Amber Carrington, for getting to the finals of The Voice. She's done numerous tunes for us, as well as Open Heart Musicals. Shes a great girl, and WHAT A VOICE! Just finished 5 tunes for Trevor Douglas, and up and coming singer/songwriter who also happened to be the voice of Zak in Open Hearts "Whats Up Zak". He's had a lot of recognition, is involved in the Septien Program where he has won some competitions, and is writing some great original stuff. Just did a Kickin Christian tune for Miriam Relyea, called Blessed. She is out of Austin-hope to be doing a lot more for her. We did 14 cuts for a new rapper-Simile-very original sounding stuff. He's headed to basic training for the US Army, where I hope they can march to some good beats. I'll be a judge for the DSA songwriting contest this year-hope you entered!

We are doing more and more work for various lyricists, adding the melody and music, the most prolific of which is Roger Russell, president of the Dallas Songwriters Association.We have about 15 tracks done, available for various uses. Check out all the new music on the music page, and check out Open Heart Musicals to hear the new musical, "Land Of The Lost And Found".