Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Great question, and a very common one. There is a standard in the recording studio industry that the prices are not normally advertised. That said, we understand this can be frustrating when trying to choose a studio to work in. As far as I’m aware, the current rate for a commercial recording studio is somewhere in the range of $500 - $1500 per day. We fit in the lower half of that range.

For a detailed rate at Union Sound Company, reach out to Chris on our contact page or chris@unionsoundcompany.com.

A day booking is a standard 10hrs while a half-day is 5 hrs. There is the opportunity to add additional hours in special circumstances for an additional cost.

When you confirm your session with us, we will send you a questionnaire to fill out. This form will ask for your billing information, if you need a piano tuning, and other general details about your session. This data is for our internal use only and will allow us to contact you through the correct channels as well as allowing us to prepare for the day of your session properly.

We require a 50% deposit to confirm bookings. Once you have completed the questionnaire and it has been reviewed, you will receive an invoice to the email address you provided.

If piano is an important part of your recording, we recommend booking a piano tuning through us along with your recording date. We only charge you the amount that the piano tuner bills us - $150. On average, the Yamaha C7 is tuned more than 2 times per month so it is generally perfectly acceptable for non-featured use.

The saving grace of Chris and Ian at Union Sound Company is our main engineer, Darren McGill. Beside the fact that Darren has excellent ears, extended engineering experience, and lightning quick hands, he is a really nice person and very easy to work with. In short, Darren gets unbelievable sounds - you’re in good hands!

First things first - you should bring your breakables. Breakables include strings, picks, sticks, cymbals - things you can… err… break.

Otherwise, our recommendation is to bring along any part of your normal instrument/rig that is possible. While we do have a selection of vintage amps, keyboards, and drums readily available to use (see our Equipment list on our Studio Page), we know that many of you spend a lot of time on your sound and we want to preserve that.

Yes! If you have in-ear or a pair of wired headphones you prefer, feel free to bring them along to the session. Anything that makes you more comfortable is a great idea. Our Livemix headphone system allows you to plug in both 1/8” and 1/4” jacks, but bluetooth headphones aren’t supported (or recommended).

Yes, you should bring a hard-drive. If you don’t have one, you should buy one. The reason is both to have a backup and to take your files with you. While we do hold sessions and files for 30 days, we do not hold files forever.
If you’re unsure about what you need, any usb hard drive that is more than 500GB will do. Here is a great, affordable 1TB option. It will provide you with more than enough space.

WD 1TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive

We highly recommend that you spend time dialing-in and documenting the bpm of any song you would like a click for. Finding out that you are playing a song way faster or slower than you normally do is very common in the studio. Our recommendation is to record your rehearsal on your phone and listen back later, after you have chosen bpm. Compare these rehearsals with any other demos or recordings you have. This will save you from the awful realization that the perfect take you just got in the studio actually needs to be re-done.

Well, you know your instrument better than we do! But if you’re unsure, remember that you are likely about to hear yourself better than you ever have before. Little buzzes, squeaks, and intonation issues are fine for live performance but should be addressed before recording for best results.

Sessions generally start at a recommended 10am. When you book your session and fill out our questionnaire (See What information do you need from me?) , you will have the option to specify a different start time if preferred.

Yes, we’re lucky enough to have quite a few restaurants within walking distance of Union Sound. Favourites include Impact Kitchen, Mengrai Thai, and Souk Tabule.

What kind of studio would we be without coffee? That said, if you are looking for something a little fancier than drip coffee or require a short, lovely alley walk, Tandem Coffee on King st. has the nicest owner/operators you’ve ever met. They are also (lovingly) total coffee nerds.

This one is tough to answer, as it completely depends on the complexity of the session. Generally speaking, though, our engineer will have already begun setting up by the time you arrive. It could be anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours to begin getting real takes. In order to help the process along, please try to communicate any setup specifications you have (see What information do you need from me?). The more information we have beforehand, the faster we’ll be able to hit record.

We do run into sessions that require an extra hour or two at the end of a 10hr day. The best course of action is to mention any time concerns to your engineer as early as possible. We do our best to accommodate in these situations (mostly successfully) but cannot 100% guarantee availability. This will depend on both the engineer’s and studio’s other commitments.

Overtime on a session is billed hourly on top of the existing rate quoted, which will be clearly communicated.

We do not allow indoor smoking or vaping of any kind at Union Sound Company. But thank you for asking!

Our official policy is to keep files for 30 days, but we assume no liability or guarantee of this. The fact is, we do often still have session files for longer than 30 days, but this should never be Plan A or even Plan B. Please bring your hard drive along with you so that your precious files can be taken care of.

Yes, yes, yes! Please back up your files… not for us, but for your own sanity and peace of mind.

A good rule of thumb is 3-2-1… 3 different copies in 2 different formats, 1 of which is off-site. What does that mean? Have two copies at home on different hard drives (eg. external and computer) and a third on a cloud service like dropbox. Fire, corruption, damage, theft, misplacement… you’ll be safe in all of these situations.

Final invoices will generally be sent out for the remaining 50% of your bill on the day after your session (which are due on receipt).

We do! But usually not at the Union Sound as we don’t need all of that space! All of the Union Owners/staff are career recording/mix engineers. Please reach out to Chris if you are looking to have your project mixed.

Fedge, AKA Jeff Elliott, is our resident mastering engineer. Check out his amazing studio within Union Sound Company or his website, www.fedge.ca.

Fedge >>> ffeJ >>> Jeff
It was embarrassingly long before Ian learned this.