Frequently Asked Questions
Sparrow Sound Studio is a recording service owned and operated by record producer and audio engineer Steve Sparrow. Steve has been involved in the recording business most of his life. He is also a highly regarded musician, entertainer and recording artist. He has a wealth of experience as a recordist, session musician and producer.
Sparrow Sound Studio is a recording studio located at Birkdale, Queensland.
It is a four room, fully soundproof studio consisting of a control room, main studio area, vocal booth and another attached room often used for recording drums. All rooms are soundproofed and acoustically designed.
Whether you are a soloist, duo, group or band, Sparrow Sound Studio has the right recording solution for you. Steve is also heavily involved with radio production and undertakes the recording of voice-overs, jingles, and promos.
Yes. If you are a vocalist, you do not necessarily have to play an instrument to make a recording.
In fact, many artists do not play on their albums. We have a wide selection of world class session musicians on our books. Producer Steve Sparrow is also an exceptional guitarist and also plays a range of other instruments and will be very happy to help you to arrange and produce your music. He will often contribute musical backing to your project, if required.
There are a lot of stages to making a record. There are also a lot of variables depending on what you require. Here is a very brief overview of the general way things are usually done: –
The first step is to talk to Steve about your work and your thoughts and ideas. Pre-production sessions are scheduled to talk and play through music and discuss various ways of tackling the production of material. These pre-production sessions can be time well spent as it means that when we start recording your work, we have a basic idea of what the outcome will be. This can often save a lot of time when recording. There are many ways of recording your project and the time of the recording process can range from a few hours to several weeks depending on what you require.
When the recording, overdubbing, and editing is complete we then mix your project. You can think of mixing as kind of like an assembly process of your work, volume levels, equalisation, dynamics and panoramic position of vocals and instruments are manipulated or enhanced. Effects are added for extra colour and depth.
When this is done the final stage for your project is the mastering stage. Briefly, Mastering is a final smoothing and levelling process for your product. The mastering engineer will also prepare the project, ready for distribution. We do a lot of mastering at Sparrow Sound Studio, but if you have the budget, we often recommend that a specialist mastering suite is used to maximise the sound of your music. We have access to a couple of excellent and very well-respected mastering engineers.
For most multi track recording we run PROTOOLS. We also use Logic and other audio programs for certain applications.
Yes. At Sparrow Sound Studio we have a number voice over artists available. We also produce jingles for advertising campaigns.
Yes. If you require a demo of your work for promotional purposes Steve Sparrow will take care of this for you. He can also advise you on the best way of going about recording your demo.
If you plan to use session musicians, chord charts will be required. We have an excellent chart writer who can assist you with this task. However, Chord charts are not always required at the beginning of the recording process. Talk to Steve about your recording needs before making your charts.
Yes. We can make backing tracks on request.
You are welcome to self-produce, or if you have someone who knows what you want to achieve, bring your producer.
We do not offer promotional packages. However, Steve has a lot of experience in this area and can provide you with information and contacts to help you to promote your work.
If you are recording songs not written by yourself, a copyright fee is required to be paid to APRA AMCOSS. This ensures that royalties are paid to the composer of the material, when you sell your product, and receive radio Air play. We can advise you on how to go about the process. If you are recording your own material, it is also very important that your songs are Registered with APRA, so you can receive royalty payments from your sales and Airplay.