Same 2 songs on separate albums, different mixing studios?

Dusty Ol' Bones

Dusty Ol' Bones

Full of green dust
Hello everyone, sorry if this is the wrong subforum. Had trouble finding one for my question.

I recorded 2 original songs for an album I completed in 2019. Recorded at home on my equipment but mixed and mastered at a recording studio. Now it's 2023 and I wish to put those same 2 songs on a different album of which all the songs are recorded with my own equipment, then have all of them mixed and mastered at a different studio than I previously used. Since I want uniformity and for the 2 songs to sound the same as all the others, is it acceptable for me to take the same raw WAV files that were previously mixed/mastered and have the raw tracks re-mixed and re-mastered to match the new set of songs?

I'm really just trying to get out of recording the songs over again. I own the copyrights of the 2 songs. My main concern is if the first studio will be upset or otherwise unhappy that I took the same 2 songs they mixed and mastered and had them mixed and mastered by someone else for use on a different album.

Thanks!
 
What does your contract with the first studio say?

Generally, hiring someone to remix a song that was first mixed for hire by someone else isn't a big deal. They did a mix and master. They (presumably) got paid. The album was released. End of transaction.
It only really gets sticky if you promised to pay them in residuals or something. If you did that, remixing it does look like you're trying to weasel out of your obligations there.

(Remastering is so common, it doesn't really even need a mention. Release a cassette version of the album? Remaster. Put the song on a compilation? Remaster. Do a second run of the CD? Possibly a remaster)
 
VomitHatSteve said:
What does your contract with the first studio say?

Generally, hiring someone to remix a song that was first mixed for hire by someone else isn't a big deal. They did a mix and master. They (presumably) got paid. The album was released. End of transaction.
It only really gets sticky if you promised to pay them in residuals or something. If you did that, remixing it does look like you're trying to weasel out of your obligations there.

(Remastering is so common, it doesn't really even need a mention. Release a cassette version of the album? Remaster. Put the song on a compilation? Remaster. Do a second run of the CD? Possibly a remaster)
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Excellent, thank you! They did their work, I paid them, their name is in the credits.... end of transaction. No promises of residuals or anything like that. Had I recorded in their studio with their equipment, I think they would probably have more say in the future of the recordings.
 
Make sure you post the songs when they're done. I'm really interested in hearing 2 different takes on a mix from the same source material.
 
The worrying line is "their name is in the credits?" If you were in the UK, and did not specify any rights in the contractual stuff, then it would go like this. The song would be in the PRS database with you as writer. You would get the PRS fees, if any were generated. The actual recording would be administered by PPL - logging into my account and picking a recording at random - the data shows the artist - which would be I assume, you - and "studio personnel - non-performing" and my guess is that is where your engineer is entitled to have his name, and probably receive credit for his work on your song. Unless you sell millions, it's hardly worth worrying about, and if you become a millionaire, then you can afford to pay him - although here, PPL would do that from their collections. In essence, they were people for hire, but that doesn't exclude them from rewards from their work. A PPL member can simply add themselves to the database. When you distribute your work through an agregator like songtradr or distrokid you allocate rights and percentages for streaming and downloading, and the engineering could be added, but usually isn't - unless you decided to!
 
If you are using a professional studio then they should be used to people taking projects elsewhere to be mixed and mastered - and possibly adding extra tracks too. It happens all the time. There are amateur studios around who seem to be precious about their work but a proper professional studio won't mind at all.
 
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