Have experienced Musical Horizon® engineers create crystal clear audio recordings of your professional recital, senior recital, junior recital, or other special event. A recital recording is great to help you track your progress, to give or sell to friends, family, and fans, or simply to just save for yourself as a personal keepsake. We come to your location in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. All you have to worry about is sounding your best.
The basics of your recital recording
No matter if your recital is for educational or promotional purposes, we have the savvy and high-tech equipment to get the job done well. A recital recording captures a featured solo performer with or without accompaniment. On occasion, our clients’ recitals have had small ensembles, and we will work to ensure that your talents stand out among the crowd.
Our typical recital recording clientele consists of:
- Solo performers
- Solo performer with piano accompaniment
- Student performers
- Groups of musicians, with one performer featured
- Teacher or professor recitals
- Professional performers
Your recital’s recording is made to match your concert program. The tracking and titles of compositions will be presented on a printout album cover.
Musical Horizon® Recital Recording Packages
We offer three standard packages for recital recordings: Audio CD Package, Digital Audio Package, and the Audio CD & Digital Files package.
The services for these packages include:
| Audio CD Package | Digital Audio File(s) via Downoad or USB Thumb Drive Package | Audio CD & Digital Audio File(s) Package | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recorded at your location | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Microphone Placement | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Classically Trained Musician as Audio Engineer | Always | Always | Always |
| Live Audio Mixing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dual Audio Capture Recording System* | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio CDs | 3 copies included | No | 3 copies included |
| WAV Audio File(s) via Download | n/a | Included at no charge** | Online Storage Fee |
| Password Protected Download | n/a | Yes | Yes |
| WAV Audio File(s) on USB Thumb Drive | No | Included at no charge** | Fee Per required CD Set or USB Thumb Drive |
| MP3 Audio Files | Additional Fee | Additional Fee | Additional Fee |
| Online Storage Fee | No | No | If Online Storage Chosen |
| Copy Protection*** | Never | Never | Never |
| Background Noise Reduction | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Normalization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Removal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CD Mastering | Yes | n/a | Yes |
| Splicing and other advanced editing | Upon request | Upon request | Upon request |
| RAW Audio | Additional Fee | Additional fee | Additional Fee |
| Student Discount Available | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Travel Fees | Free within 30 min. | Free within 30 min. | Free within 30 min. |
| Rush Order Option***** | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shipping Fees | Free UPS Ground****** for up to 5 CD sets | n/a | Free UPS Ground****** for up to 5 CD sets |
| Payment Plan Available | Yes | Yes | Yes |
** You choose either Audio File(s) via Download or on USB Thumb Drive. If both are desired, there is an additional fee.
*** Musical Horizon® engineers do not put anything into our Audio CDs or Audio Files that will prevent you from copying them yourself. However, you are required to follow our copyright policies.
**** You get free MP3 conversion also!
***** Available, but upon approval of the audio engineer. We charge a premium price for this. Please schedule early!
****** This is an overnight shipment for most areas we service!
What is Custom Microphone Placement?
One should never record without first deciding where to place the microphones and how each microphone should be positioned. To achieve the best results, different combinations of instruments require different microphone placements. Unlike some recording engineers, a Musical Horizon® engineer does not just plop the mic stand in the same place for each recording.
What does it mean to normalize my audio and why should I do it?
We increase the volume of your CD after recording. Without this, your CD would sound significantly lower in volume than other CDs. Our philosophy (for live recording) is that your finished product should be a direct representation of the music being recorded. We use a constant normalization value for the entire performance. See the editing page for more details.
Add-ons to your recital recording you may consider:
- Video recording. Musical Horizon® professional videography services provide you with high-quality video and audio footage of your performance.
- Album production. Many performers giving recitals also have CD albums at their concerts, usually sold at the end. Another trend is digital download cards. We recommend that these albums have at least one song that you just performed.
- Live albums. We can format your CD for sale.
Things to keep in mind for your recital recording
- Before you hire a Musical Horizon® engineer for your recital or concert recording, be certain the venue you perform in allows outside recording equipment. Clear any issues with your chosen venue so our engineers are free to place microphones in optimal locations for best sound quality.
- Always schedule your recording session well enough in advance of your recital date to ensure our availability. Recording sessions are scheduled on a first-come-first-serve basis. Musical Horizon® engineers only create professional recordings, which cannot be made available immediately at the end of the session like consumer grade cassette tapes, MiniDisc, or Flash recorder recordings. Our recordings can take a week or longer to process, depending upon your recording’s needs.
- Reserve your recital’s location for at minimum an hour before your performance and an hour after your performance is scheduled to be completed. Our equipment takes time to be setup and taken down. For example, if your recital is an hour long, you need to schedule the recording location for a minimum of 3 hours, preferably 4 hours.
- If you are using an accompanist make sure that they know what time to arrive and that your piano has been recently tuned prior to your recital.
- Make a request to your audience to turn off all cell phones prior to the performance. These extraneous sounds sometimes cannot be removed from your performance.
Speak with a knowledgeable Musical Horizon® engineer today
Let us help you achieve your professional and educational goals. Give us a call today at 973-287-4029 or email us at recording@musicalhorizon.com to schedule a free consultation with our lead engineer.
When contacting us, please include the following information:
- Do you need audio recording services? Video recording services? Or a combination of both?
- Are you a student, amateur, professional?
- Do you plan on giving more than one performance a year?
- Are you planning to use these recordings for professional/commercial/fundraising/marketing/other purposes?
- Do you need digital product (WAV, MP3, MP4) or physical product (Audio CD, DVD, Blu-Ray Disc)? Or both?
Relevant Information:
– Giving a Performance?
– Recital Video Recording
– Rates (PDF)
Click-To-Call
BY POPULAR DEMAND:
We now offer Video-Only Services!
Relevant Articles on Our Blog:
Recording On Location
- How Should I Go About Recording My Upcoming Student Recital?
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Hiring a Professional to Record Your Live Performance
