Story First Audio
Recording Studio
Subscribe to a plan & request as many jobs as you'd like.
Streamlined process requires very little of your time.
Receive high quality results, crafted for your needs.
We'll revise the results until you're 100% satisfied.
We compose music for story-based film projects and video games, using the world's best virtual instruments from Spitfire Audio, Native Instruments, and Vienna Symphonic Library.
Whether you have an idea you want to hear composed from scratch or you've already written or recorded part of an idea and want to add additional backing tracks to it such as drums, piano, violin, or more; we will compose music to go with it, using virtual instruments, live recordings, or both.
If you need custom music composed for a YouTube video, radio spot, podcast, or social media platform, we will compose a custom piece for your ad or introduction.
Mixing an audio project includes several tasks such as adjusting the audio levels, drawing automation curves, applying EQ, reverb, sound effects, fade-outs, panning, and many other tasks in order to create a polished and professional product.
Editing an audio project includes all of the miscellaneous tasks in creating a clean end-product. For example, removing unwanted noise, trimming the quiet segments or ends of audio clips, splicing and rearranging clips, and comping together multiple takes to create a seamless track.
The mastering process is the last stage in the audio production pipeline. During this process, the mastering engineer will carefully listen to the audio track, make some final adjustments, such as to EQ, dynamics, volume automation, and the surround field so that the track will sound louder, ready for publishing, and maintain uniform dynamics across a large project, such as a full album or film.
Do you have an existing project that was recorded in stereo that you'd like up-mixed to Spacial Audio / Dolby Atmos for Apple Music and surround playback? We can help. Our studio is equipped with a professional 7.1.4 speaker array, capable of mixing in Dolby Atmos. We use professional software and plugins (Steinberg Nuendo) for placing and mixing sounds in the surround field.
Many project require not only music and dialogue, but also sound effects. Some sound effects are created digitally and made to sound unnatural, such as a lightsaber, or an alien spaceship, others are meant to sound organic, such as the sound of someone walking on gravel or closing a door. Reverb comes into play, too, for example, maybe you want your recording to sound like it was recorded in a large stadium, or a small area like a car. Story First Audio provides all of these capabilities.
Do you have a book you want recorded to audio, a video with custom voice dictation, or a custom voice actor performance? We have a special recording booth designed for this purpose as well as bring custom voice actors into the studio as needed on a case-by-case basis for specific roles.
The studio is equipped with a professional recording booth perfectly suited for recording vocals. Let us take care of the technical details so you can focus on your performance. You'll put on a pair of headphones, pull up your song on an iPad Pro, and sing into a high-quality Neumann microphone in order to capture the perfect take.
The studio's recording booth is the prefect environment for recording audiobook content. Our booth is whisper quiet, which means no unwanted atmospheric sounds will enter into the track, and the low noise-floor, high-quality equipment will capture an intimate reading of the source material which will result in the best playback experience on end-user equipment. We also provide ADR services, or Automated Dialogue Replacement, which is used when audio from a film project is re-recorded by the actor within our quiet studio environment and then synced back up to video content.
Need some help with something specific? Or perhaps you're already working on something and need a second pair of ears? Bring your project into the studio, we'll load it up, take a listen, and work on it with you. Whether you have a technical issue, want to work on mixing together, or need some tips on music theory and composition, these are all great reasons to bring your project into the studio.
Add as many requests to your board as you'd like. Requests are completed as they're received, without meetings.
Scale up or down as needed, and pause or cancel at anytime (on the monthly plan).
You're not locked into a long term contract if you don't need it.
No surprises or unexpected bill increases.
Pay the same fixed price each month.
Amazing audio fidelity at your fingertips with fast time-to-value from the moment you sign up.
Each file is made especially for you and is 100% yours.
No minimum commitment. Pause or cancel anytime.
Pause or cancel anytime
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We'll record your audio using live musicians and voice actors for a more personal human touch.
Submit a ticket on your project board at anytime after checkout and request this add-on and
mention the number and type of performers anticipated.
The idea for the name came from a quote by Hans Zimmer in one of his online classes, where he said, "Without 'story' you have nothing." The idea is that story should be the primary consideration and the soul of any creative work. What "story" does the audio tell and what impact does it intend to have on the listener? By staying true to the story, a creative work is able to have an impact that transcends the technical and material appeal, allowing the technical mastery to augment, rather than distract, from the listener's experience.
While working on your project, Story First Audio will ask about your intent behind it - it's story - so that your creative vision will shine through in the end result.
Good question!
Our subscription plans are designed to remove as much friction as possible between the request and result cycle of a project. Music composition and audio engineering work is frequently variable and required on a case-by-case or project-by-project basis, which doesn't make it feasible or cost-effective for every project to keep a full-time person on staff at all times. However, with a monthly plan with Story First Audio, you can pause and resume your subscription as often as you need in order to ensure you're only paying for composing and engineering services when you have work available for them. The Quarterly and Yearly options are then also made available to you if you anticipate a large project but would rather work with a studio that specializes in this field than you would go through the process and maintenance of hiring a full-time employee and vetting, onboarding, training, and hand-holding them.
Plus, our studio utilizes the latest state-of-art software and equipment and delivers consistent, high-quality results. With a subscription plan with us, you can be assured that you will be able to submit a request and get a quality result back within the time that you need it and with little upfront time and cost.
Allen (owner and engineer) is the point man for your project.
He often works collaboratively with his brother, Michael, who specializes in music theory, is a professional musician, plays several live instruments, and who may help with editing, mixing, and mastering.
We may also hire voice actors or musicians to work on your project on a case-by-case basis, by request. (See the Add-On section under the Membership options.)
Learn more on the About Us page.
Story First Audio offers a ton of flexibility in how you request designs, using Trello. When you have a new request you'll create a Trello card and then attach any relevant resources to the card. Some common ways clients attach relevant information is by sharing cloud documents or recording a brief video description (for those who prefer not to write their briefs out; using a service such as loom.com is helpful). Basically, if it can be linked to or shared in Trello, it's fair game.
Why Trello? It provides an efficient mechanism for moving each task from one state to another along vertical lanes, starting from the Backlog, to In Progress, to Finished (known as Kanban in the world of project management). This ensures that both you and the studio will always know the status of each task within a project on any given day. Plus, it's free to use, simple, and very easy to get up and running with quickly.
Once subscribed, you're able to add as many requests to your queue as you'd like, and they will be delivered one by one.
We prefer to work in Steinberg Cubase / Nuendo and Logic Pro X.
We also use a large variety of plugins and virtual instruments, and are regularly expanding our collection. Some prominent virtual instruments we like to use are made by Spitfire Audio, Native Instruments, and Vienna Symphonic Library.
After you sign up, you'll receive a private link to an iCloud Drive folder created for you and shared with the studio. After every request is fulfilled by us, a new folder labeled with the current date will be created with your new stems available for you to download or sync to your computer. These stems may include the most recent project file (such as for Cubase, Logic Pro, etc), the raw audio files, the mastered audio file, or all of the above, depending on the task. This allows you to have results delivered to you in an easy, secure, and seamless process.
Your project files will be regularly backed-up, both in iCloud and on our in-house SSD drive, until project completion.
What if I use Windows? No worries. You'll receive an iCloud link that will allow you to view the files in a web browser and download them. You can also install iCloud Drive from the Windows App Store in order to automatically sync files once they're available.
This is highly dependent on the task at hand. For small tasks, you can expect a turnaround of between 2 to 5 business days. However, more complex requests can take longer.
We understand you may not have enough audio work to fill up an entire month. Perhaps you only have one or two requests at the moment. That's where pausing your subscription comes in handy. Billing cycles are based on a 31 day period. Let's say you sign up and use the service for 21 days, and then decide to pause your subscription. This means that the billing cycle will be paused and you'll have a credit of 10 days of service remaining to be used anytime in the future.
No worries! We'll continue to revise the audio until you're 100% satisfied. Revisions can be requested for as long as your subscription is active.
That's fine. You can pause your subscription when finished and return when you have additional audio needs. There's no need to let the remainder of your subscription go to waste.
Due to the high quality nature of the work, there will be no refunds issued.