LeeRosario
New member
Hey David,
Can you give us a ball park figure on the size and material make up of the rooms? Also, any additional information on artists/songs? All the possible information in fact. Whats the intent and target audience here?
In brief...
It's very practical and common to do what you're asking. But that's done solely with the right ears for hire. But like was mentioned, not every studio can handle that kind of session. You may not have enough inputs to work with, or enough cue mixes to work from, or just not enough space to work comfortably.
Of course, you can always pull off a Phil Spector and break up your orchestra into sections, then overdub them in sequence.
The song tempos can be the issue. It has to do with problems that come up with reverberant trails and decay times of that room, then getting them to work with the groove of the song.
Preamps, mics, placement, room dimensions, physical makeup, outside room treatment, how thick you want to layer, instrumentation...that stuff counts too. A preamp can have the ability to cancel out a room or emphazie it.
What may work perfectly in a slow ballad may not work in an uptempo beat. What sounds good in person may not translate at all on tape.
So there's a very real issue to deal with there. But again, you can maximize that with the right ears for hire. Each engineer has thier own way to deal with that.
I think if you're serious about this, then everything is going to rely on that desicion. That's a big and fat "Yes". In fact, it's key.
Actually, the way that usually works out is you bring in your own engineer and then that in house engineer, being familiar with the studio, functions as the assitant.
Depending on your budget, you can always find engineers under representation by a manangment firm. Of course, not always so easy to get. I wish I know of an engineer's black book you could look up.
Mixonline, prosoundweb and 1212.com can be a great example of somewhere to start.
Of course, I would love to take a crack at the opportunity, which I'm perfectly capable of. Dispite how young I am. If only Florida wasn't all the way over here and plane tickets where affordable.
If you need more elaborate help, just let me know brotha.
We found a good studio, I will have 12 string players for two sessions, in addition to a band and lots and lots of pre-done synths. I have 5 days to track the whole CD. I think thats possible, since the band people will have had practice in advance. The strings will be easiest, everybody will just read charts down, its the same people I work with every day, solid experienced pro. Actually, everyone in the band is a serious pro too. 
I will NOT be engineering. Repeat, I will NOT be engineering. 
Its going to happen in about 3.5 months from today. It should be a big learning experience.