Tracking, overdubs, mixing, original scores: we can do it all.
Mixing
The reality of today’s recording process is that it often gets done at multiple studios/space at various times; drums in a larger space, bass and some guitars at home, vocals at a third place… Then comes the time to tie it all together. Mystery Machine can take all the disparate elements you’ve recorded and make them sound like a finished piece of music.
Our mixing room was acoustically designed from the ground up with offset walls, extensive room treatment and a well calibrated and positioned monitoring system. All of these elements come together to create an excellent room to mix in.
We’ve also recently invested in a outboard summing box, the Dangerous Music 2-Buss LT, which allows multiple stereo “stems” or groupings of tracks, to be summed in the analog domain. In layman’s terms, it vastly improves the depth and clarity of mixes compared to our experiences mixing “in the box”: clear separation of kick drum and bass guitar, well-defined “thump” in the low-end and more overall width to the stereo field. All in all, a vastly improved end-product that translates very consistently to other listening areas.
Production
Not all artists are 100% certain of how they want their project to develop in the studio. If you’d like a higher degree of feedback about the music, extra musicians brought in, scoring services and the like, just ask. There’s no shortage of wonderful musicians in Portland who we can bring in to assist in the performances on your record.
Pre-mastering
We can do rudimentary “mastering” of your work for shopping the LP around and for making the music more uniform as it first makes it way into the world. However, there’s no replacement for a proper “pro” mastering job: there’s a reason great Mastering engineer’s get paid so well. If budget doesn’t allow for an outside mastering job though, we’ve got the tools to make your project sound polished and professional.
We are also well-equipped to assist with sequencing your record – putting all of the songs in the order you’ll want the LP in play in, adding segways between songs and getting the album to sound like a coherent body of music, even if the songs are pulled from multiple sessions.
Recording for film/TV/internet
Original music can be composed to give your project a polished feeling.