Services
Tracking, Overdubbing, Mixing, Mastering, Production, Composition and Musical Direction
Benny’s W&D offers a variety of musical services to help clients execute their musical goals including live tracking, overdubbing, editing, mixing, mastering and full production, arranging, composition and Musical Direction. We can help you get your music onto the stage and into the studio; we’re happy to do as much or as little as is necessary to bring your music to life.
Tracking/Overdubbing: The W&D is well suited for live recording or overdubbing of individual instrumentalists or vocalists and groups of up to 8 people. We’ve got 5 individual headphone mixers with 5 adjustable channels, each with 2 outputs. Common group formats include jazz trio/quartet/quintet, pop/rock rhythm section (3-6 piece). Movable “gobos” (isolating sound walls) in the main room allow a some separation between instruments, but allow musicians to feel that they are still playing in the same room. The acoustically-floated 6×8’ sound-booth is most often used for acoustic bass, percussion, or one or several vocalists. In addition, there are 2 other locations where amplifiers can be isolated during group tracking. Lastly, by special arrangement, an upstairs space features a different piano (1907 Steinway O, 5’10”, rebuilt in 2007) in a larger, more ambient 20×20’ space with 11’ ceilings. Upstairs is wired with an 8-channel recording snake and individual headphone mixers.
Mixing: Many clients who record here also choose to mix at the W&D, providing continuity of environment and vision. We are also happy to edit/mix projects from other studios. We mix directly in ProTools which has the advantage of instant total mix recall. This allows clients to make changes or updates in mixes at any time- no time-consuming analog recall is necessary. Mixes can be reviewed at your home and quickly and efficiently updated as many times as necessary before they are finalized.
Mastering: Benny’s W&D is not a full-service mastering studio but we offer basic mastering services including assembling tracks in order, editing and fade creation, equalization and compression, level balancing and relative loudness of tracks and creation of red-book standard CDR masters. This allows clients who are creating demos or who are on a restricted budget to leave with a duplication-ready finished product. It’s also useful for comparing in-progress-mixes to other tracks in your music library as the relative volumes will be similar. We also offer referrals to many excellent full-service mastering facilities in a variety of price ranges.
Production, Arranging, Composition and Musical Direction: Bennett loves to work with artists to help them craft both live performances and recordings. Many of our studio clients begin by working with Bennett to arrange and act as Musical Director on their live shows, then progress to document their work in our studio. Others choose to work solely in the studio, taking advantage of his experience as a producer and arranger. We have a deep library of session musicians who we can hire to capture whatever vibe or style a project demands and we can craft in-house arrangements, create sheet music or lead sheets (in Sibelius) and produce sessions while engineering. In addition, Bennett can compose custom original music and he co-writes with other artists on request. Please inquire for more information about these services.
Benny’s Wash & Dry can help you realize your artistic vision- whether in studio or on stage. We wear a variety of hats to offer you complete services to bring your music to life- come check us out! Listen to our online sound samples or make an appointment to visit the studio today.