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A teacher asked me what kind of studios are ther in sdaint-john , big small. Are there any great recording studios in Saint-John ?

I know of one in milford , and ive heard of one uptown.

I pass this question to you.

There are no great recording studios in Saint John.

I would have to go along with Scott on this on and say there are no "great" studios in greater Saint John.

Of course "great" is subjective, and my idea of great, and most people's idea of great may be very different.

There are very few "great" studios in the entire maritime region. An example of a studio that I would consider "great", and is in this region, would be "The Sonic Temple" in Halifax. If anything you are looking at in this area doesn't look anything like that... I, myself, wouldn't call it a "great" studio.

There are people locally, who will record your material in some form or fashion. They are not working out of "great" studios... myself included, but if you find someone you can work with, you can get a decent, if not excellent results.

OK, that all being said, with Scott and I picking apart language, would you like to rephrase the question?

Shure,

What are some of the better equiped studios in the Saint-john area?

Roderick wrote:What are some of the better equiped studios in the Saint-john area?

Fluid Audio - Al Benoit's place
Weatherstation - Marc Gosselin
Basque Studio - Curtis Basque
Wooden Studio - Wes Jagoe has a decent bunch of gear...

... and of course yours truly though I'm working on having a better space to work in right now.

Those are the only places/folks that I can speak for as having a decent collection of gear to record anything with. There are other facilities such as "LA Studios" - Mike Boyer, which I have no knowledge of and don't even know if he's still active, and Derrick Barr's new place which I know nothing about. Gary Morris - Morris Music/Prime Time is usually recording somebody with something.

There are many independent recordists who haven't a facility but can do some form of recording/overdubs of projects such as Shelley Brown, Sean Roach, Scott DeVarenne, Mike Girouard, Sam Patterson.

I'm sure there are lots of people I don't know about as well... Anyone?

Saint John may not have the "great" studios that you can find other places. However one thing I have found about Saint John, in the short time I have been here, is that it has a "great" audio community.

There are more knowledgeble friendly guys, who are interconnected in this area than in just about any other area i have lived in, Including PEI, most of southern NB and Ontario.

Anyone who knows, a guy who knows how to make the best of the gear/room he has is far better off than an average engineer in a "great studio". One only has to look at some of the records of old to prove this point.

That being said Fluid has one of the best live rooms for recording drums that i have heard in a long time.

Andrew, great to have you join in.

Curtis has a wonderful live space as well. Some of the music that has come out of there has benefited from that quality.

Anytime I need a live space, I'll break down and go to the Imperial Stage, which is, of course, outstanding. For the most part, I've been tracking in a dry space because of physical limitations, and dealing with it afterwards. I prefer the control, in this case, over bad live for the sake of live.

Again, nice to hear from you, and I hope you keep stopping by.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:(snippety).......usually recording somebody with something.

Bwahahaha. That's pretty good.
I think Fluid has a good facility, with knowledgeable people running around the premises.....but I could be slightly biased.

Fluid Audio Group just plain stinks!!

im recording with curtis basque and i think he is doing an incredible job of capturing our sound. this is my first time recording a full length album, and its been a wonderful experience so far. he's a great guy to work with, and really knows his shit.

gamblor wrote:im recording with curtis basque and i think he is doing an incredible job of capturing our sound. this is my first time recording a full length album, and its been a wonderful experience so far. he's a great guy to work with, and really knows his shit.

What artist is it you're recording with?

I haven't heard much in the way of proper releases done by Curtis, but what I've heard as far as clips of stuff has been quite good. Once again, he benefits from the wonderful space he has.

U1176 wrote:Fluid Audio Group just plain stinks!!

Well, their saving grace is that they have a really good guitar amp in-house.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:

gamblor wrote:im recording with curtis basque and i think he is doing an incredible job of capturing our sound. this is my first time recording a full length album, and its been a wonderful experience so far. he's a great guy to work with, and really knows his shit.

What artist is it you're recording with?

I haven't heard much in the way of proper releases done by Curtis, but what I've heard as far as clips of stuff has been quite good. Once again, he benefits from the wonderful space he has.

my band is called born under satellites. we've been recording with him for almost a month now and so far it sounds waay better than what i expected. he definately does have a great room to record in... nice high ceilings with no annoying echoes and stuff like that. he also has some pretty solid gear too, and knows how to use it inside and out.

i think what really has impressed me the most about him though is how easy it is to work with him. i can only imagine how stressful it could be to have a bunch of strangers coming into your studio, touching all your expensive gear that you worked hard to earn. not only is curtis very laid back about it, but often times he lets us control the gear ourselves when we do the tracking. he's also had some really solid ideas for extra layers to add that weve used.

overall... we all feel right at home when were recording with curtis. mind you, this is the first time i have recorded anything major (its going to be 10 songs when its all said and done) and i dont have much else to compare with..... but ill tell u that i am definately having fun in his studio.

no doubts about that.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:

Roderick wrote:What are some of the better equiped studios in the Saint-john area?

Fluid Audio - Al Benoit's place
Weatherstation - Marc Gosselin
Basque Studio - Curtis Basque
Wooden Studio - Wes Jagoe has a decent bunch of gear...


There are many independent recordists who haven't a facility but can do some form of recording/overdubs of projects such as Shelley Brown, Sean Roach, Scott DeVarenne, Mike Girouard, Sam Patterson.

I'm sure there are lots of people I don't know about as well... Anyone?

Actually, due to a sudden turn of events in the marital life about a year ago, i find myself alone in a fair size bungalow surronded only by guitars, computer /recording gear and my beloved canine. In reality, i have quite a large recording studio. We can track in any room you choose - 2 good drum rooms! Alas, there's nobody here yet and i'm still too busy to care.....

sammyp wrote:Actually, due to a sudden turn of events in the marital life about a year ago, i find myself alone in a fair size bungalow surronded only by guitars, computer /recording gear and my beloved canine. In reality, i have quite a large recording studio. We can track in any room you choose - 2 good drum rooms! Alas, there's nobody here yet and i'm still too busy to care.....

"Single Sam Studios"???

"Single Sam Studios"???

Sure, that would've worked too. It's called The Hifi at 32!

www.hifiat32.com

sammyp wrote:Sure, that would've worked too. It's called The Hifi at 32!

www.hifiat32.com

Most excellent... and you have to have a good studio dog...

Malcolm Boyce wrote:

sammyp wrote:Sure, that would've worked too. It's called The Hifi at 32!

www.hifiat32.com

Most excellent... and you have to have a good studio dog...

house back up vocalist, whether she's in tune or not, don't criticize.....she doesn't take it well.
I meant to get some better pics up but i get so lazy with that stuff ya know.

It took a pretty big shovel but I decided to dig out this dinosaur. Mostly because I wanted to know where we were at now for studio in Saint John. I've been so busy running things at Fluid Audio lately that I haven't been noticing what else has been popping up into the area lately.

The ones I know about (in no particular order) are:

Basque Studios
Middle Audio
Atlantica Studios
Ripple Effect Music
Fluid Audio Group
Lancaster Recording Studios

Are there any other major players in the area that I may have not heard of? I'm just curious as to how the audio recording world has evolved around here in the past 4 years.

My spelling and grammar sure has evolved.

What is a "studio" these days?

Just from that list you posted, there is a huge variety in the size and dare I say quality of those "studios". Fluid has the closest thing I would consider to a proper room for hire that anyone could walk into and work at a pro level. I don't know of any others in the Saint John area that fall into that category. Atlantica and LA would like to consider themselves that, but IMO they fall short for different reasons.

Many of this region's "studios" are personal facilities built around a specific producer/recordist and their choices and aesthetics. Mine would certainly fall into that category.

Other rooms are scaled low end in their functionality either with gear, space, or schedule limitations. Some even promote themselves aggressively as "studios" but that would be stretching it IMO. This is like someone with a pair of Mackie powered boxes, a 16Ch mixer, and some 57s and 58s calling themselves a "production supply" company. That being said, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Where so many of these "project studios" are linked to a given recordist, I link the person to the work more than the facility.

One obvious person missing from the list you mention is Sam Patterson who I believe is still active out of his home space. I know Wes Jagoe continues to do projects in his new space up near the Public Gardens. Looking back at this thread, I believe the Barrs called it quits trying to make something out of the recording business. We all know Marc moved his gear into the Atlantica conglomerate.

Is Curtis still active with a facility?

Would you put Headbanger on your list?

Where do we draw our line as to who a "major player" is? I ask because I really don't know.

Does this go on the list?

http://saintjohn.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-se ... Z194783020

The problem these days is, clients with no experience going in can't distinguish between the folks with decent gear and time using it, (dare I say "professionals") versus someone like the above ad would indicate.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:The problem these days is, clients with no experience going in can't distinguish between the folks with decent gear and time using it, (dare I say "professionals") versus someone like the above ad would indicate.

I was about ready to say that until I had a client come in two days ago, that was refered to me by another client. They had a few bad experiences at another studio (I won't name it, but it was on my list) so he booked me and it was a simple session: Vocals over a pre-recorded backing track.

After the session was over, Alain and I were discussing the circumstances. Alain was very pleased with my work, and so was I. It was a very good recording of the performance and the client seemed very pleased. Alain made the comment that if this client could tell the difference between the two studios that could be a good sign. I cautioned him that maybe he'll complain about us after the fact, maybe he just complains in general and the other studio did a decent job after all.

Then today I get a message from that client wanting to book a bunch more sessions because he was so impressed by not just the product but by the quality of the service and the professionalism.

It really makes me wonder what exactly goes on at some of these other places. It's not the first time this year or even in the past month that we've gotten work because someone was looking to get away from somewhere else.

The kicker is that we charge more in most cases and the clients are still coming back. Something to think about... At any rate this has been our busiest year yet by a long shot. I think between Alain and I we have close to 100 invoices for 2010 and we are currently booked more or less straight through until the spring.


PS - That KMP doesn't go on my list. But Sam's place certainly would if he's still active. Curtis was active as of this summer, he was recording the Hads. I'm eagerly anticipating this new release. They had approached us for the project but I think we were well over their budget unfortunately. Great band, would've loved to have worked with them if the budget permitted. Is Wes recording commercially or just doing his own projects?

I guess if I was to set the bar around here as to what a "studio" is, I'd set it to studios that sell their services to external clients and that declare their income to Revenue Canada. Does that set the bar too high?

The other thing I'd add is that any engineer could walk in an make a recording with nothing more than his skills and a house assistant. That may be pushing it, but that's what we're trying to build Fluid Audio Group to be: A facility that can be hired by any producer or engineer. As opposed to a facility that needs to be owner operated. We welcome outside engineers, I'm not sure if anyone else in town does.

Drumwaiter wrote: The other thing I'd add is that any engineer could walk in an make a recording with nothing more than his skills and a house assistant. That may be pushing it, but that's what we're trying to build Fluid Audio Group to be: A facility that can be hired by any producer or engineer. As opposed to a facility that needs to be owner operated. We welcome outside engineers, I'm not sure if anyone else in town does.

Sound Expressions & Express Duplications in Utopia could be added to your list of studios, although it is outside the Saint John city limits by about 40 minutes.

Chris has had his studio in operation for many years now. I have an arrangement with him where I can rent out his space and record my clients when needed. He also declares his studio income with Revenue Canada

I would refer his facility as professional mainly since it is his primary source of income. Not so much recording as of late but swamped with duplication work.

Drumwaiter wrote:...because he was so impressed by not just the product but by the quality of the service and the professionalism.

That is the whole trick in a nutshell.

Drumwaiter wrote:The kicker is that we charge more in most cases and the clients are still coming back.

Something lost on the newer players in the game. If "price" is all you have going for you, it won't last long.

Drumwaiter wrote:PS - That KMP doesn't go on my list. But Sam's place certainly would if he's still active. Curtis was active as of this summer, he was recording the Hads. I'm eagerly anticipating this new release. They had approached us for the project but I think we were well of their budget unfortunately. Great band, would've loved to have worked with them if the budget permitted. Is Wes recording commercially or just doing his own projects?

I guess if I was to set the bar around here as to what a "studio" is, I'd set it to studios that sell their services to external clients and that declare their income to Revenue Canada. Does that set the bar too high?

Following the latter part of this section, I doubt Sam would satisfy the CRA requirement. Curtis? Dunno. Yes Wes is recording primarily other artists actually. I know I had walked him through keeping his books straight some years ago, so I assume/hope he's playing legit.

Drumwaiter wrote:The other thing I'd add is that any engineer could walk in an make a recording with nothing more than his skills and a house assistant. That may be pushing it, but that's what we're trying to build Fluid Audio Group to be: A facility that can be hired by any producer or engineer. As opposed to a facility that needs to be owner operated. We welcome outside engineers, I'm not sure if anyone else in town does.

I submit that until someone changes my mind, Fluid is the only proper room for hire in this town. That is essentially what you are getting at with this part of your post, and I agree.

Most of us probably aren't shooting for that, I know I'm not, but several who are don't pass the test for me to put them in that category.