ENGINEER

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Most sessions start at 11:00AM and end at 6:00pm daily unless a different start and end time is agreed upon prior to the session date. For artists who have booked a full-day session or longer, your recording package includes a free 4-hour (load in/setup/sound check) "pre-session" which normally happens the day before your scheduled session. This way, you are ready to hit "record" at the start of your scheduled recording session. A few days prior to your recording session, we will contact you to schedule the "pre-session" start time.

Our Studio A is centered around a vintage MCI JH-636 analog recording console. The console's patch bay is how everything is wired throughout the studio. We have three types of recording mediums to use while you're recording. Our ProTools HD3 Accel system that is attached to an Avid C24 control surface (sitting sidecar on a motorized adjustable stand). Our converters are Digidesign 192s running on a 2011 Mac Pro running ProTools 10HD.  Along with our ProTools system, we also have a Radar24 system with "classic" converters (for more of an analog flavor). These two systems, as well as their AES outputs, can be patched into our control room via the ELCO/EDAC panel and our AES patch bay in our machine room.

For sessions on analog tape, we have a beautiful Studer A827 (2inch/24track with remote), as well as an Otari MTR90ii, which can be selected via the ELCO/EDAC panel on Studio A's control room north wall of the control room next to the Studer. On this same panel there is a connection labeled "BACK UP" and this connects the console, ProTools, Radar, or the Studer to an Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder (located on a pull out rack under the A80RC to the A827's right) which we normally used to make a safety backup of a 2inch tape at the end of every session, but the console can hook directly to it if you wanted to track to it the HD24 directly. This panel also has 1/4 inch connections for feeding guitar amps inside the vocal booth.

Our analog mix-down decks are a Studer A-80R (1/4 inch) and A-80RC (1/2 inch) The remotes for these machines are located on the right-end of the console under the console patch bay.

Our monitor controller is a Crane Song Avocet II. ProTools is fed to it through its AES Digital inputs, because the converters are top-notch. The Avocet remote also is where to enable via (SPDIF) Bluetooth music streaming connection from a phone. This remote is where the talkback facilities are located as well.

For "tie-line, re-amp, and cue feed" connections for all the rooms within the studio are all terminated to our main snake panel located in our Studio A's live room.  This snake panel has tie lines for microphone inputs 1 thru 32, 8 Cue Sends (note: Cue Sends 9/10 are hard wired to the piano room), all inputs and cue connections for all rooms including rooms in our Studio B, and our built-in boundary mics located in the ceiling of the live room are all accessed via this snake panel.

When plugging in microphones please be aware that our cue system is only tied to channels 1 - 24. If you are using microphones that require phantom power, please only enable phantom power on the main iPad ONLY and not on the MCI console. Doing so, would double the phantom power and fry the microphone. Phantom power for channels 25 - 32 only, please use the phantom switches on the MCI console's channel strips. There are also additional tie lines inside the control room located at the bottom of the rack at the left of the console for connecting instruments or other studio outboard equipment that is brought into the studio whether it be your own outboard processing or your own recording rig if you choose. 

If you require lodging, Amery has a few options:

Forrest Inn Motel - Lodging, Motel, Inn 

Camelot Motel

Cabin Rentals & Camping (May through Sept)

Our studio has a kitchen that has a refrigerator/freezer, pizza maker, Keurig, microwave, water cooler (cold/hot).  You are welcome to bring food to heat up in our kitchen or fill the refrigerator with beverages and snacks your bandmates prefer.  There are a handful of food options outside of our kitchen within a block or two including: Pizzaman, The Birch Street Bar, Subway, Mustang Sally's, Dairy Queen, McDonalds, and many more. We are just one block west of the main road in downtown Amery, so we are close to everything.

When you arrive at the studio for your "pre-session," you can park your vehicles in our private parking lot available at the rear of the building. You will use the rear entrance to load into Studio A. 

When your bandmates arrive and begin setting up, our staff will help you get each musician situated, as well as be available should you need anything during your session.  Our headphone/cue system is unique, because it utilizes iPads to control 24 channels of audio and effects for our headphone system alone.  Also, if you provide us with a USB hard drive or thumb drive, we can simultaneously record the headphone mixes in the background of the session, so you can have separated tracks of everything that happened between takes as well.

To help musicians get familiar with our headphone system and how to use it, please share a link to this page with your bandmates so they may watch the tutorial video at the bottom of this page.

Lastly, there are many great instruments and amplifiers in our studio, and they are always included with each booking of your session. We want to ensure the instruments and amps that you want to use while recording here are ready to go for your session.  Please take a couple minutes to fill out our (fill-able) PDF Session Info sheet, make your selections, and email it to:    jared@sugarsoundstudios.com   prior to your session and we'll take it from there.

Download our PDF Session Info sheet below.   

Thank you for your business and we look forward to making our studio your new home to create music!

Jared Rush

Owner