Frequently Asked Questions.
    Solo Artists
    Bands

Solo Artists

Q. Do I need to hire/bring my own musicians to record?
A. No, if you wish to bring your own band to back you up you are more than welcome to. We work with a variety of professional and experience musicians that can be hired, most of them have worked with the studio on numerous other projects.

Q. What is the process of a vocal demo?
A. If you are using backup music from a compact disk we will put the track onto the computer, then record your voice on a separate track.
Note: We cannot take vocals off of a cd or any other media, so you must bring instrumental music to sing over.

Q. What if I make a mistake, do I have to start singing from the beginning? What if my pitch is off?
A. No, we can punch in on almost any part of the song even separate words, though we may have you re-sing phrases in order to ensure that there is a natural sound. We use antares auto tune in order to fix pitch this program fixes pitch while assuring the sound is natural.

Q. Can I sing my own backup vocals?
A. Yes, we record everything on separate tracks which allows you to go back and sing backups while listening to your main vocal track.

Bands

Q. Do we get charged for set-up time?
A. Yes, we charge our standard rate for set up time.

Q. How long does it generally take to record an album?
A. After the initial set-up process, it varies how rehearsed the band is, generally for a well rehearsed four-five piece band it will take an hour per song to get final cuts. Once again this varies with how well you know and can play your songs. After the initial recording process time must be allocated for mixing and mastering which can range from one to three hours per song, depending on how perfect you want it to be.

Q. Do we all get to play together?
A. Yes, we will record final takes for drums and bass on the first cut, this is when the entire band will be playing together. There are enough windows that you will be able to see everyone in the band and some will be playing in the same room together. The rest of the parts will be played again individually for sound and time management purposes. It can be very time consuming when there is the possibility of five people messing up at any point during the song. Vocals will be done alone for sound isolation purposes.

Q. What is the difference between and album and a demo?
A. The real difference is how well the band is able to play together under the pressure of the studio experience. Another large factor is money, during a demo you might expect to spend two to three hours on a song, but albums take a tremendous amount of effort. There is a reason why bands with virtually unlimited funds can take up to a year to record, mix and produce a single album. Due to the quality achieved at North Star Studios, some bands who came in looking for a demo, left with a polished album.

Q. Do you do mass production?
A. Not at the moment, we are looking in to whether it would be feasible to upgrade the studio to mass production capability. We can recommend where to get this done.

Q. Do you do album art?
A. No, we can recommend artists that clients have worked with in the past.

Q. Can we visit the studio before we decide to record?
A. Definitely, please call or email us to make an appointment.