Who We Are and What You Should Know About Mail Order Productions

Copyright (c) 2007

Holston Valley Music has produced over 8000 demos since 1992. Since that time, much has changed in the music production industry. With more powerful personal computers and recording software, many musicians, artists, and vocalists, are turning out their own projects from home.  We believe there is a place for everything. But there is certainly no substitute for experience. And that is what Holston Valley Music brings to your projects. More importantly, we produce your material at a BUDGET you CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE!!

Do you have a dream of writing a #1 Song someday? Is Songwriting a “creative release” or a hobby or an interest that has been a part of you your entire life? Maybe you aren’t so technical to produce your own recordings and never thought you could ever afford to get a “real demo” done.

Are you an Artist looking for “A Team” studio musicians with an experienced producer, to produce a CD in your name for promotion and Internet sales, such as “CD Baby”?

Perhaps you are a Vocalist, or pursuing a career as a Recording Artist, and interested in a project where Custom Sound Tracks are the need and you want to record your vocals over our sound tracks we produce for you?

Whatever your reason you might have for visiting our website...the bottom line is, you’ve definitely came to the right place! A studio demo service that is versatile enough to also produce nearly every genre and style imaginable!

 Are you looking for a “radio quality” sound, that will more than compete with the most expensive demo studios on the web? Are you searching for a cost effective approach that will not break your bank account? You can easily pay three or four times our rates, and receive far, far less in return than what we offer! We have references available by request.

Our approach to producing demos and sound tracks through mail order and online, certainly is not unique, as there are many others out there to choose from. However, check out their rates compared to ours. Listen to the song samples on our website and other more expensive sites and ask yourself if there is any difference in quality between Holston Valley Music and our more expensive competitors.

With any mail order studio production service, there are drawbacks. First, you are not sitting beside the engineer to place your finger on the STOP BUTTON  if something should stray a bit off course to your liking or expectation.

With all the demos we have produced to our credit, here is a fact worth mentioning. Most experienced songwriters work well with distant production houses.  This is usually because songwriters create in volume making it necessary to find affordable places to produce their products. Otherwise they would only be able to put out a few demos a year at standard studio rates as opposed to dozens. Also we have found that the more musical knowledge, the more experienced the songwriter, the more detail that is sent to us that enables us to produce their work. Additionally most songwriters  are never in the control room to guide a studio session because they are accustomed to their work being interpreted.

On the other hand, there is a rule of thumb that says , SAVE BIG MONEY, lose some control. And that very well could easily be the trade off. Yet even if you are present in the control room, say, at your local recording studio, you still need vocalists and musicians who are open minded, and have the knowledge and talent to deliver upon your expectations. So even if you are right there when the session is taking place, at $250.00 an hour or more including the costs of the studio hourly rate, the musicians, vocalists and engineer…not to mention a possible producer’s fee…there is no such guarantee whatsoever, you’ll get exactly what you expect.

At Holston Valley Music we work tirelessly with experienced and the up and coming writers. If we run into an issue with a song that we produced, that you just cannot accept or live with, we try to communicate through it and make the necessary adjustments… to meet your satisfaction, most of the time, at our own expense. However, if you are an inexperienced writer and we “did it exactly as you requested” there are times where it would be reasonable that you should invest in allowing us to clean up your work.

There are 1,000 or more ways to go about producing a single song. Your work CD, Mp3, or cassette…is going to be your vehicle to your own satisfaction. These “song sketches” that we are speaking of, provided by you the client, can say allot about the quality of your song, and how well it is composed, by simply reading the lyric sheet…without even listening to the song. If a publisher, for instance, receives a song written by you…he then opens the package you sent to him or her, and they can see that there are 14 syllables in the 1^st line of the 1^st verse, and 19 syllables in the first line of the second verse, your song will not even get a chance to be heard, for this alone, indicates a problem with the meter of the song.

The “song sketches” that are sent to us as a work tape, CD, or mp3…come to us on all levels of writing experience.  Some, you can write a numbers chart right then and there by listening to the sketch..and begin the recording. Others we receive, it’s total “interpretation”…as to where the song is going, and how best to move forward to get a good result in the end. We see this everyday.

Your “song sketch” that you submit, with lyric sheet of course, need not be professionally recorded. You can even simply sing the melody on any recording device and this will work fine, even without musical accompaniment.

It’s most helpful to let us know up front, if you’d like our help on the melodies. And if you’re NOT a “natural singer” it is usually a very good idea, to give us “latitude”, to make the song as commercial as possible. There are some who are will expect, and insist, that your melody is nearly an exact replica, or rendition, of the song sketch you submitted to us. So helping us, to help you…by giving us insight on such matters, is very important when it comes to meeting your satisfaction pertaining to the finished work.

IF YOU ARE A LYRICIST only, and do not compose or write music, please click on our COLLABORATION link on our website. We will be more than happy to assist you in this area…and we do not compose “stock melodies” and arrangements like most other studios. The music will be completely original, and you will own the copyright 100%.

Thank you for your time, please contact me if I can assist you in any way…and best of luck with all your future projects.