Hello Everyone!
Our Instagram photos and Facebook posts don't do justice to the amount of time and creativity spent while working on our album. Without delving into our writing process and rehearsal schedule, here's how it all happened:
David Benitez
Culver City Music Factory
Photo by Peter Demore
Decisions
We had our songs fully written for the album and needed to decide where, within our budget, we could get the highest quality recordings. Every musician "has a friend who records" but this album means a lot more to us than a mic set up in a living room could provide. The OC/LA area is dense with recording studios both pocket-breaking but top-tier and nearly free but aurally inadequate. We compared studios run by people we knew or were recommended by other musicians; some were just too expensive and others didn't have the equipment we needed. In the end, we got lucky working with two studios run by talented musicians/sound engineers: Culver City Music Factory (Recording) & Overboard Recording, Co. (Mixing/Mastering)
Culver City Music Factory
Photo by Peter Demore
Tracking
Most of the band lives in Orange County so we booked full days at Culver City Music Factory to cut down on driving. All tracking was done by David Benitez at Culver City Music Factory in Culver City, CA. David is a talented sound engineer with a great ear for clean sound and an obsession for recording equipment, both digital and analog.
Jeannette (Drums) and Oli (Bass) were the first ones to get started (Check out the go-pro footage in this video). Peter Demore from ORC lent his ears to us for a full day of recording Jenna and Erica's guitar tracks as well as vocals from the whole band. Throughout the process, both David and Peter were a pleasure to work with and were always making sure we sounded perfect. It was a relaxed but professional environment where we were able to try new things, thanks to David's suggestions, and capture each note we had tirelessly created.
Erica Torres
Vocalist in Frequency Within
Photo by Peter Demore
Mixing/Mastering
Waiting for the mix is the most agonizing part of the recording process from a musicians perspective. After spending days bleeding into microphones, our numb hands were idle. All of the songs were mixed at Overboard Recording, Co., in Orange County, CA which is run by Peter Demore and Shaun Carmer. We mostly worked with Peter who was patient with us while explaining how we wanted everything to sound.
The first mix blew us away as Peter and Shaun added the keyboards we discussed perfectly. Google Drive made sharing and reviewing the mixes very easy so we were quick to provide feedback and settled on our sound. Peter then worked on the master.
Peter Demore
Sound Engineer at Overboard Recording, Co.
Artwork
Digital artists are abundant in 2016, so much so there are websites where a client will submit a project and digital artists upload their vision. We looked into many designs but, after none of them sparked our interest, we turned to Abskure Artistry which was referred to us by Los Angeles based artist, Inksap.
Oli Navarro
Bassist in Frequency Within
Photo by Peter Demore
Final Product
SoCal Indie Musicians set us up for copyright, licensing & distribution. The album will be available on CD, download & streaming July 30th, 2016. Until then, you can enjoy the early-release of our track "Hundred Proof" on SoundCloud.
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Jeannette Lawler (left)
Drummer in Frequency Within
Jenna Alonzo (right)
Guitarist in Frequency Within