Welcome to the website for
Studio 9er

Overview

Hi. My name is Jim Miller aka Jimbo 9er. I am a musician and engineer. I am offering production assistance, audio mixing/mastering services, and musician for hire services to fellow artists whether they are working at home or in other studios around the world. This site is new, and my business model is evolving. Please bear with me. I also build custom tube microphone preamps - see the Ampex link on the left. I will not hype my service or try to sell you anything.
If you like my laid back approach and want to work with me, please

The first question that comes to mind when considering a service like this is: "What can this guy do that my friends and I can't do for ourselves?" In answer to this question I offer the following:

For mixing and mastering, I work in a room which has been carefully analyzed and acoustically treated to provide a hi quality monitoring environment. One which has a reasonably flat frequency response from 20 - 20k, and one with no flutter echo, reverberation or ringing issues. If you don't work in such a room, achieving the best quality mix is nearly impossible. Of course the gear IN the room is as important as the room itself. My speakers are PMC FB1 monitors, powered by twin Hafler power amps in a vertical bi-amp arrangement. Room/system analysis and frequency sweeps were performed with "Room EQ Wizard" software, TrueRTA software, an ECM-8000 measurement microphone, and a RS digital sound pressure level meter.
"You can't trust your ears if your room is lying to you."

For recording, I use Studio Projects, AKG, EV, Alesis, and Shure microphones. I use several different solid state and tube preamps (including the Studio Projects VTB-1 which I used for the buttons.) I use a Lucid analog to digital converter and clock in my system. My personal "goto" preamp currently:

If you are looking for Sax or guitar solos; rhythm section parts (guitars, bass, drums, keys); or horn arrangements, I am available. For more details about what I'm offering see the FAQ page and browse around the site.

 

More information

The world of audio mastering is undergoing many changes similar to the revolutions in home recording and project studios we saw in the 90's. What is mastering? It is the process of taking the stereo mix from the recording engineer and enhancing it to bring out the best in the recording. It sometimes involves working with partial mixes (stems) and in these changing times, it can involve many things outside the historical purview of the mastering engineer. Most gear required for mastering is specialized, very expensive, and quite different from the gear used for recording and mixing. The advent of high quality software emulations of mastering hardware has led to a proliferation of discount services (like mine.) However, do not assume that all one needs is a few plugins to do a good job at mastering. There is much more involved.

Until a few years ago, digital mastering was rife with problems due in large part to 16 bit digital audio. "Progress" has provided us with 64 bit internal processing and 32 bit files, so the problems are essentially solved (with the right knowledge.) This revolution has allowed guys like me to get into mastering, much like the revolution in home studios allowed musicians to record themselves. I have been a musician since 1970 and recording engineer since 1979. I don't have a list of commercial releases to which to refer you. My main focus has always been on producing my own music and working with local artists and friends. I have been trying to teach friends how to do mastering for themselves, but after a few years I have realized that I cannot teach in an internet forum what I spent a lifetime learning. So, ... if I can't teach people how, at least I can provide an affordable service for the amateur and Indie musicians.

Why should I trust Studio 9er (or any discount service) with our $50,000 CD project? You shouldn't. If you have spent that kind of money, for goodness sake, take your project to a respected, top professional mastering house with lots of experience and awards, (links on FAQ page) and spend the money to get it done. It can cost a couple thousand for a CD, though.

If these things describe your situation, please consider my services:
1) You are on a tight budget
2) You record at home or small studio (or band rehearsal space)
3) You do your own mixing/mastering
4) Your final product's sound quality is disappointing compared to commercial releases.
5) You are an online musician trying to stand out from the crowd.

My service is aimed primarily at the "Indie" musician community. As Indie's we want our music to sound as good as we can afford to make it. Since most of us do music for the love of it, this often means making sacrifices and settling for what we can do ourselves.

Many Indie musicians can manage to get their songs recorded in good quality: no clipping, low noise; in other words: a decent recording. What is often beyond the reach of many Indies, is the knowledge and tools required to polish the song and make it competitive, sound quality-wise, with professional recordings. This is where mastering (or more accurately premastering) comes in. It is a process which involves tools like: compression/limiting, stereo field enhancement, and aural excitement, in addition to more common tools like reverb and equalization. The process also includes volume and presence maximization, as well as verifying phase of the stereo mix to be sure it translates well to mono for lofi streams. CD mastering involves additional processes like adjusting balance between songs and spaces between songs. For the best results, different types of dithering are needed at different stages of the process. Understanding dithering is a must for anyone who attempts to do mastering exclusively in the digital domain.

Of course, all these tools are useless, unless one is working with a high quality set of reference monitors, in a room which has been analyzed, tuned and tweaked for accurate music reproduction. The other requirements are the ears to hear what needs to be done, and the knowledge of which tool to use to accomplish the task. If all this sounds like gobbledygook or like something you are not comfortable with tackling, my service might be just what you need.