Recording Packages - Page 1

Record a Rehearsal

Available as a £10 add-on to the cost of a rehearsal, we can record 80 minutes of your rehearsal straight to audio CD for you to take away at the end. Ideal for developing song ideas, lyric writing or just to keep a record of how your live set is sounding. Please let us know if you would like this option when booking rehearsal time with us.

Live Demo Band Recording

Does exactly what it says on the tin - you set up in the live room as you would a rehearsal, we mic everything up and hit record! Typically you can expect to lay down between 3 and 6 tracks in the three hours allocated, then we use the final hour to mix and burn CDs for everyone. This is a no-frills (yet still high quality), cost effective way of making a demo and perfect for capturing a band's raw sound.

Recording Packages - Page 2

Standard Studio Recording

Our standard studio recording sessions offer a cost-effective way of making a band recording. Whilst the backline is recorded live (as with our live demos), time is also set aside for guitar and vocal overdubs, giving the finished product added clarity and definition. This is a great mid-range recording option that has a little more finesse than our live demos, yet is still great value for money! Typically you can expect to lay between 3 and 5 tracks in the allotted time.

Full Studio Recording

This is the creme de la creme a la SoundARC and includes the full works - total isolation of instruments (utilising all three live rooms), facility to fix playing errors (with both punch-ins and edits) and full suite of plugin effects and virtual instruments as well as full use of our sample library to create just about any sound imaginable! Have as little or as much say in the creative process as you desire - with this option we can take your tracks and produce them to create polished, commercial-quality recordings.

Rehearsing

We have 6 fully equipped rehearsal rooms all including PA (typically 1000w), mics and mic stands, guitar amp (typically 100w), bass amp (typically 250w) and quality drum kit.

Our standard sized rooms are available to hire at the following rates:

• Daytime weekday : £6.00 per hour
• Evening weekday : 10.00 per hour
• Weekend daytime & evening : £10.00 per hour

Our larger sized rooms are available to hire at the following rates:

• Daytime weekday : £10.00 per hour
• Evening weekday : 15.00 per hour
• Weekend daytime & evening : £15.00 per hour

Block bookings welcome. Please call John on 07931 985 801 for availability.
Please note that cancellations within 48 hours of a booking will result in the entire cost being billed.

Rehearsing

Further Information for Drummers

Kick pedals, snares and cymbals are not included with the drum kit, but can be hired for an additional charge. Please see posters at the studio for more details or call John on 07931 985 801.

Need Any Spares?

Guitar and drum spares & breakables are all available to buy from our shop. For more information call John on 07931 985 801 or click here to visit our shop's web site.

Why Not Record a Rehearsal?

Available as a £10 add-on to the cost of a rehearsal, we can record 80 minutes of your rehearsal straight to audio CD for you to take away at the end. Ideal for developing song ideas, lyric writing or just to keep a record of how your live set is sounding. Please let us know if you would like this option when booking rehearsal time with us.

Audio Mastering

What is Mastering?

Mastering is the process undertaken once mixing is complete - giving your tracks that polished commercial "sheen". It also helps create continuity between tracks that have been recorded and mixed at different locations or at different times.

I've got my Finished Mixdowns... What Happens Now?

By using a combination of EQ, gentle compression and limiting, we can enhance your mixes to create a fuller sound. We can also do fancy stuff like fading tracks in and out of one another and perform a general balancing of volumes between tracks.

The final stage is the creation of the Red Book standard-complient audio CDs ready for duplication and mp3 versions for uploading to social networking sites or file sharing networks.

Mastering is charged at £25 per hour. For more information please call Gareth on 07742 526 138.

Tuition

Learn how to Turn your PC into a Recording Studio!

We offer software studio tuition to anyone who has an interest in the art of music production. Sessions are informal and all levels of computer literacy and musical ability are catered for.

Topics covered include:

• Sound engineering basics
• Recording and editing MIDI and audio
• Using virtual instruments and effects
• Mixing
• Mastering

Tutoring can happen at your place or ours - weekdays or weekends.
Please call Gareth on 07742 526 138 for more details.

Music Promotion

SoundARC Promotions runs in association SoundARC Studios. We are proud to say that our gigs have a different bill each time and we've never booked the same line-up more than once. SoundARC Promotions gigs are not confined to booking just one genre as we book original rock, punk, metal, ska, indie and alternative (full) bands, acoustic acts and more recently, covers bands.

Our Gigs

1st, 2nd & 4th Thursday. Originals/full band @ Red Lion, High St, Stevenage (since 2007)

1st Sunday of every month. Acoustic acts @ The Victoria, Ickleford Rd, Hitchin (since Jan 2010)

Annual Garden House Hospice Benefit Gig @ Club 85, Whinbush Rd, Hitchin (since 2006)

If you are interested in playing at one of our events, please send a CD of your music to:
Andrew, Unit 3b, St Francis Way, Shefford, Bedfordshire, SG17 5DZ.

or for more information visit our myspace page at www.myspace.com/soundarcpromotions.

PA Hire

Available to Hire for Small to Medium sized Venues.

Equipment includes:

• 1200w PA
• 2 x FOH speakers
• 2 x 300w Powered floor monitors
• Microphones, cables & stands
• Coloured lights

Engineer is included in the price.

For more information and bookings call Andrew on 07796 480 464.

Bass Drum Art

Custom Bass Drum Printing

Your band's logo? Your band's name? A picture of you? A picture of your mum?! Whatever you want!

All you have to do is supply us with your artwork (as a hi-res jpeg) and we'll supply the head and print your design on it!

From a simple text logo to a full image, get your band name out there every time you play your kit!

Prices start at £50 including drum head.

For more details please call John on 07931 985 801.

Clothing

Wanna Look like These Cool Cats?!

Then get yourself some official SoundARC clothing from our shop!

Tight & regular tee-shirts and hoodies available in a wide range of colours!

For more information including prices & availability call John on 07931 985 801.

Meet The Team

Gareth James - Sound Engineer / Producer

Gareth has been involved in music for as long as he can remember, but his passion for sound engineering began aged 9 when he started sequencing on an Amiga 600 and furthered aged 13 when he got given an 8 track PortaStudio to play with.

From school, it was an obvious choice to study Music Technology at college and in January 2002 he landed a job at SoundARC.

Since then he has worked with literally hundreds of bands and artists covering just about any genre imaginable.

As well as his SoundARC post, Gareth also tutors in piano, music production software & sound engineering and designs web sites (including this one!).

For more information visit his website at freakyleaf.co.uk.

Meet The Team

Chris Hollis - Sound Engineer / Producer

Since first tinkering with recording at the age of 10 (using a tape-to-tape karaoke machine to multitrack!) Chris has been obsessed with all aspects of recording music.

After playing in and recording with a number of bands (Big Day Out, Vanilla Nightmare, Scream! Shout! Say Nothing and Frog Stupid to name a few) he began working as a freelance producer and has since recorded albums with the likes of Stuart O'Connor, Escape 1942, Katie Brayben and Arms And The Man.

As well as recording bands, Chris also specialises in radio production, having created audio for a number of UK stations including Kerrang! and Jack FM Hertfordshire. He has also produced audio imaging for media companies and advertising agencies across Europe.

For more information visit his web site at www.chrishollis.co.uk.