Here are a few of our best practices:

1. Be prepared— do you know the total number of songs you are looking to record? Do you know the instrumentation for each song? Can you play the songs at a consistent tempo or to a click track?

2. Are your instruments ready? Have you recently had your guitar restrung and setup? Do you have fresh drum heads? New sticks?

3. If you are adding any pre-recorded material do you have hi-res WAV files shared with your engineer in advance of the session?

4. Do you have a plan for feeding yourself

Pre Production is the process of gathering and recording demos for a collection of songs. This collection generally gets whittled down to the strongest group tailored to the format for the release. This process is a critical step in making a great record or EP, and takes into account the tempo, key, and structure of the songs, and may be when an outsider producer becomes involved. The end goal is making sure that the release can be as solid as possible. Remember that the more planning and work done outside of the studio will come back ten fold when it comes time to start recording in the studio.

Recording or tracking is the process of capturing the best performance and desired tones from all instruments. Often in a full-band context we first focus on “basics,” or making sure the drums and bass are locked in, and then we can overdub guitars, vocals, and any additional instrumentation to those tracks. When instruments are properly setup and preproduction has been completed then it really comes down to making sure that the vibe of the song is achieved. There are a lot of approaches to achieve this process, and the workflow for tracking is usually decided case-by-case depending on instrumentation, genre, and other stylistic needs for the songs.

Mixing is the process of assembling and balancing all the elements (instruments or tracks) together and getting them ready to present them in the vision of the artist or band. This process sometimes relies on EQing, dynamic control, time based effects and in some cases re-amping certain signals in order to achieve the desired result. This process is the most artistic and fun step of making a record. Most modern music is mixed in stereo and in Dolby Atmos, whereas vintage, era-specific music may be mixed in mono. These are all solid formats and sometimes this becomes a stylistic choice depending on the vision of the artist. There are no wrong answers in this process.

Mastering is the last step, and is focused on optimizing the mix to translate to the final format(s) (Vinyl, digital streaming, CDs, etc) with a consistent and balanced volume and sonic spectrum from platform to platform. This is also the step when we determine the sequence order for songs, time between tracks, Metadata is embedded, and overall volume continuity between songs gets addressed. This is a very very important step. We don’t master at Acadia, but work closely with Pat Keane Mastering, who runs his studio next door to us. Think of this like the process of framing a painting. The correct frame really presents the painting the best that it can without getting noticed, whereas a painting with an incorrect frame usually destroys the presentation and gets noticed sometimes more than the painting itself.

We have an extensive range of well-curated gear that’s over 10 years in the making. Our Gear Page lists equipment available for sessions including our mic locker, a range of Vintage and Modern amps, effects pedals, Drum kits, keyboards, synths, and guitars.

Food and drink are welcome in the studio. Acadia has a small kitchenette with a mini refrigerator, induction burner, toaster oven, crockpot, microwave, and coffee & tea maker. You are welcome to bring and prepare food for your session, or you can purchase food close-by. Acadia is minutes from Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Hannafords, and also restaurants including Chipotle, Wilson County BBQ, Leavitt and Sons Deli, Bayside Bowl, and Coals Pizza.

There is a permitted parking lot with an entrance on Kennebec Street— please ask us for a parking pass to park in that lot for free. You can also park street-side on Hanover Street.

You need to make sure you have the appropriate license, and have purchased the beat in advance. If you purchased beats from some place like beatstars.com you should have the option to download hi-res WAV files. We would prefer to work with stems, an WAVs at a minimum resolution of 24-bit/48KhZ

As of January 2024, a full day lockout for a band is $750. We define a day as a good amount of time in which you, your band, and the engineer feel comfortable working. Most days start at 9am and run until 5pm. We charge by the day for your convenience, so you won’t need to watch the clock the whole time and we don’t have to charge an additional “lockout fee” when you use more than one day in a row. We also book hourly with a two-hour minimum for $100/hr.

Acadia accepts cash, checks, debit/credit cards, Pay Pal, or Venmo. Cash and checks are preferred. You should arrive at the studio with the means to pay for your session. For multi-day sessions, payment at the end of the consecutive blocked out dates is fine. Unless other arrangements are made in advance, all sessions must be paid in full before files are released.

No. Check out Sun Tiki for space rentals, or Grime Studios.

Please. No early birds. We would like you to arrive promptly at the time indicated for your session start, typically 9am. Our staff needs time to set up and breakdown between sessions.

Yes we do! We have a Dolby Atmos certified mix/mastering room at the studio. We can remix pre-recorded material, as well as build an Atmos mix from scratch using stems. We can use the stereo mix as a template or get as nuanced as we want when mixing in Atmos. The sky is truly the limit with Atmos, and it is quickly becoming an industry-standard.

We unfortunately do not have capacity for internships at the moment. We are tight for space and we are a tight ship with multiple sessions a day. That doesn’t allow us enough time to properly teach the skills that we would like our interns to learn.

We do as long as our schedule allows us to accommodate all parties involved. It’s best to reach out to us (studio@acadiarecording.com) and see what's available.