DEMOS In the wonderful world of making records with big budgets, you have the luxury of sitting around for days on someone else's dime, eating pizza and trying a million cool ideas to make your tune special. As much as I love doing that, it's hard to do on a demo budget. When I begin to produce and record a tune, there are several steps I usually go through in order to get a cohesive, creative, and original sounding track. First, I sing and play through the tune in my mind from top to bottom, always mindful of the old adage "you should know how its gonna sound when its finished before you start." By the time this first step is done, I have hopefully decided how the tune is going to sound and what instruments and singers I'm going to use. Then I record what I hear, lay the vocals down, have a good listen to make sure its working and there are no holes, and then mix it. With any luck, it will sound like a great demo and have whatever it needs to make the song complete and original, with great sonic quality. For this I charge $650. If you provide the vocals - $500. If song-development is all you're looking for, I can do a 1 part (piano or guitar) and 1 voice (mine) demo for $150. Not intended for shopping! If you're looking for something more extravagant, I can produce a full-on artist master recording for $1100. This means way more time spent, more layers of production, all live instruments, more singers-not only whatever it needs, but also whatever it wants. I will put music to your lyrics for $100 a tune. With a 1 voice, I instrument demo $200. I can write lyrics to your music - call for details. If you are an artist or a band, I will record and produce/co-produce your album for $1000 a tune-you bring the band, or $60 an hour. FINISHING These days everyone has a studio at home of some sort. Most folks, however, don't have one quite like mine, or the experience that 3000+ songs will bring you. I'm always cutting drums or horns or strings, adding guitars, live grand piano, cutting vocals, or mixing tunes or cues for my professional musician buddies who have almost everything, but are lacking the space to cut live, a bathroom and kitchen in the studio, (which really comes in handy for that larger entourage), mixing chops, etc., to complete their project, or just don't want to mess with it. I now offer that service to songwriters or artists that need some help, but want to keep some or most of what they have already done. I just recently started doing this because most recording formats are way more compatible than they used to be. I do this on a per project level-I don't want to make up some laundry list of stuff and prices - just call and wečll work it out! FILM AND TV A lot of my time has been spent doing score and cues for tv, film, plays, commercials, etc. I am the go-to producer/engineer and sometimes writer for several major composers and music supervisors. I just recorded several tunes for Disney's "Desperate Housewives." Again, no laundry list of pricing, but I'm sure I can bring home or completely produce what you need within my size capabilities, or point you in the right direction for facilities to handle major orchestra dates, contracting, etc. I offer special services to writers. I am a singer/songwriter/guitar player outside my studio business in Los Angeles. After leaving North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) and touring non stop for 7 years, I settled in LA, and started making my living as a performer, writer, and studio musician. All of my own time and money was spent in the studio, writing and recording whatever project or band I was working on at the time. Around 1990, I borrowed what I figured to be one years worth of estimated recording budget and bought a small 8 track setup. I applied what I had learned watching and asking questions in the bigger studios I had been in, and set about the task of really learning to engineer, as well as learning to sequence on my new M1 workstation. It was the biggest learning curve I have ever experienced, (maybe with the exception of computers) and I still ended up blowing a bunch of dough in my usual haunts, to get the sound I needed. After a while though, things started sounding pretty good at home. Soon my friends were asking if I could produce and record their songs. That coupled with the fact that I could play and/or write most any style, prompted me to start JO-MUSIK. 1500 songs and countless other stuff later, the studio has grown into a state of the art, free standing studio that can handle most any live, programmed, or combination session in a variety of formats. I now do all my own stuff here. (Unless its HUGE!) My keyboard and programming chops have come a long way, and I am able to offer guitar, vocals, and harmonica in addition to the usual synth demos most places offer, without the expense of hiring additional players. Even though I love (I really do LOVE!) to produce big expensive projects with a band or lots of hired players, I can also get it done in a BIG way for less than $10,000 a tune. I do lots of tunes by mail, with just a scratch tape or sheet music for reference. I also consult (I love that word), which means I can help you finish the writing end of your project, whether it be musically or lyrically. I can write words to your music, or music to your words, if you need to get it done fast! Or produce and record your song or project, on whatever level your budget will allow. I can do songs or album packages for a set price using my players, or I can produce your band, supplying whatever you feel you need to get it done, here or in any other studio environment you like. In addition, I know lots of folks on all levels of the industry to call on when I need help, and to further projects I am heavily involved with after they are done. I have done music for film and TV (with or without video lock-up), music for plays, live shows, jingles, industrials, videos, websites, funerals, and that's about all I can think of right now. I do take-downs, tracks, editing and some limited CD compilation and mastering. Providing original songs for singers, as well as songs, cues, score, background music, parodies or custom lyric writing for other purposes are other services I can provide. As a writer, I also have a large catalog of all the things previously mentioned, which is available. Give me a call. I'll do everything I know how to make your project work, I like repeat business, and I try to put my heart in everything I do. Hope to hear from you and thanks! - JOE MILTON

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