Services

3rd Ear Productions is a provider of audio, lighting, video, and staging products with offices in Cleveland, OH and Fraser, MI. We've made our reputation by supporting star performers with dynamic concert sound and recording services.

Our Services Include

In 2011, we opened a new office in Troy, Michigan, allowing us to better serve the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana regions.

In 2018 we moved from Troy, Michigan to a larger location in Fraser, Michigan.

3rd Ear is committed to partnering with our customers by providing guaranteed on time services, integrated coordination of audio, lighting, staging and total satisfaction regardless of the size or scope of the opportunity presented.

3rd Ear Productions is a member of the prestigious Audio Engineering Society and our work has been featured in industry trade magazines such as Pro Sound News, Front of House and Mix.

Service Area 

Clients

Live Sound

Live sound is where we built our reputation as one of the area's best, especially among bands, musicians, and special event promoters. We'll work with you to provide the best system to meet your needs on stage while making sure the front system provides just the right coverage for the given environment. If necessary, we'll use industry standard software to perform modeling and simulation of venue acoustics to explore options and evaluate what works and what doesn't - before the virtual venue becomes a job site and changes become time-consuming and expensive. Listed below are some of the main components we might use in a given situation. If you don't see something listed and you absolutely must have it, just say so and we'll get it. Also check our listing at the online Event Production Directory. Contact us for pricing and availability.

The Studio

Studio 

At the heart of the studio are two choices of DAW. Harrison MixBus 32C or Sonar 7 PE, as well as a Tascam MX2424 Digital Hard Disk Recorder, and Mackie Digital 8 Bus.

The 8 Bus is loaded with Mackie's own MFX cards for multi-effects, compression, limiting, etc., as well as the Ensoniq DP4 mutli-effects processor.

Two Tannoy Reveal Active near field monitors and/or two Mackie HR824 Active monitors drive the audio in the control room.   The microphone arsenal is replete with names like Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, and Audio-Technica.

Instrumentation can also be provided, if necessary.  We have several acoustic and electric guitars, and basses on hand by Ibanez, Epiphone, Yamaha, Carvin, and Carparelli, as well as a six piece Mapex Pro-M serires drum kit.  An ancient, but honorable Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesizer stands ready, along with a Yamaha RX-7 rhythm programmer and an E-Mu Virtuoso 2000 Virtual Orchestra module for orchestral and synth sounds.  Guitar direct?  No problem with the Line 6 Helix Floor. For sequencing and additional tracks, we can always use Sonar 7 Producer Edition, or anything provided in the Ubuntu Studio (Linux) suite.

The recording area is simple, but cost effective and audibly stable.  We began with the idea of being able to do live setups while still having the ability to control the amount of "spill" into adajcent mics.   The result is a single 720sq.ft. room that can be sectioned off into smaller areas using professional damping walls and gobos.  This provides considerable damping and isolation from adjacent live instruments where desired, allowing the engineers to control amount of leakage between mics, and allows the artists to remain in eye and ear shot of each other, with or without headphones.

The Control Room is 120 sq.ft. Arranged and furnished to provide comfortable seating for the engineers, artists, and even a few guests while allowing everyone to hear what is happening in the mix.

Mastering 

For mixdowns and mastering, our primary tool is the Alesis ML9600 Master Disk Recorder.  From here we can arrange your songs in the right order to create the proper "flow".  We'll also listen closely to the material and apply various processing techniques such as compression, EQ, peak limiting, and normalization to give each song and your entire recording a professional finish that will make it competitive and comparable to other professional recordings.  We also use Sony SoundForge to edit, enhance and correct the sound of individual tracks or mixed tracks.

Replication/Duplication

3rd Ear is a Discmakers Studio Partner. We have all the templates and rate info necessary to assist in the layout and final steps before having your project sent to Discmakers for professional quality, replicated, printed and shrink-wrapped Compact Discs (highly recommended).

From Jingles and Voice-Overs, to music CDs, to Video Post Production - even 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound mixing for DVD, 3rd Ear Productions can help you pull off whatever your imagination can dream up at several affordable price points.

Discography

2000 Sugar Magnolia 1996-2000 Independent Release E, MA

2000 Kurt Tischer - White Christmas Rigel Records, Ltd. R, MX, MA, P

2001 XOR - Victrola Rigel Records, Ltd. R, MX, MA, P

2001 Various - North Coast Noel Rigel Records, Ltd. R, MX, MA, P

2001 Jim Tigue/Matthew Weiland - Anyone Can Dance Superkid R, MX, E, MA, CP

2001 M.U.T.T - Stuck Independent Release R, MX, E, MA, CP

2002 Rare Blend - Evolution Theory TSM Productions R, MX, E

2002 Various - WDUB Vol. 1 Independent Release MA

2002 Seven - Fade Out Independent Release MX, MA

2003 Temple 8 - Enter The Temple Rigel Records, Ltd. R, MX, MA, P

2003 Fractured Past - Fate Independent Release R, MX, MA, CP

2003 Waterband Independent Release R, MX, MA, CP