First time in a studio . . .
If it's your first time in the studio, and you're not sure what to expect, then come and see us first - that bit is free of charge. Talk through your material. Let Mark know what you are looking for, how much assistance you need, and what you expect with your finished product. A meeting a few days before you start will allay any of your fears or worries and will make you feel a lot more relaxed when you come for your first session. If you have elected to use your own band or session players or want them provided, we can talk about that. Whoever you use, it is critically important that you and any fellow musicians coming in on the day are well rehearsed, know your parts and if further production is required like drums, guitars, percussion or any one of a plethora of virtual instruments, you will need to work to a click, or at least be edited to one. Unless of course your timing is good enough to be able to work without. Turning up at the studio, unrehearsed, with unfinished material, untuned or defective gear, will burn your time and your hard-earned cash faster than anything. We understand there has to be a little give and take, and you will find Mark extremely patient when it comes to re-takes and editing and correcting. After all, he wants the very best results too!
Some artists have by arrangement used the studio and Mark's creative skills to develop and arrange their material further, prior to any recording. This is acceptable as long as it happens by arrangement providing you have sufficient budget, and you are happy that in some cases we will not start the final recording process until you are happy with the content.
S0 you have been in a studio before . . .
Fulton Sound Studio as you will have gathered is a home based studio - our clients like it that way. We don't have huge mixing consoles, and rackfuls of gear because it's less threatening that way. In today's digital-age we don't need them either - results so far speak for themselves. As all of our clients agree, it's easier to relax here and we never have to compete with any background sounds or strangers waltzing in and out of the recording areas. (We also make great cappuccinos.) Tracks are recorded one or two at a time. This gives the engineer a much greater degree of control of the timing, tuning, and overall sound and balance so that each take and the fitting all of the pieces together in the final mix becomes a lot easier and less cluttered, organic but still very polished.
Backing tracks . . .
A few words about backing tracks. We know that there are a lot of backing track beat providers some of whom produce wonderful work, and of course there are some who don't. We see and hear some awful material, poorly mixed, timing errors, full of clicks, pops and digital bloopers so heavily maxed out and then compressed that they are mushy and lifeless with no dynamic at all. Fulton Sound Studio can do some work in cleaning these up but will from time to time suggest you trash them and either find a better version or allow us to generate them for you.
How we can help
-
engineering a basic recording
-
mixing and mastering
-
providing backing music
-
sourcing specialist session players
-
producing a professionally finished product
-
giving help and advice
-
composing original music
-
linking music to film, video & presentations
-
teaching bass guitar
-
working in a variety of genres
Fulton Sound is a small, friendly studio based near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
If you need some help or advice, call Mark at 0744 693 6075.
It's not about the gear it's about the ear
Sound Illustrations
Thanks to Mark Fulton for his tireless efforts. Who would know when I started on this project that I would find someone so talented. He contributed drum programming, bass, electric guitar riffs, nylon guitar riffs and pedal steel guitar.
