Thank you for visiting thehawkstudio.com. This site serves as the home base for the E-Music Project (EMP).

EMP is a long distance music recording project made up of a variety of musicians from all over the world. Our goal is to create music using tracks that are recorded and transmitted electronically by its members to one of EMP's production studios. Anyone who wishes to participate in EMP is encouraged to contact us.

EMP 2011- News and FAQ

EMP and The Hawk Studio are going to make some radical changes in 2011. EMP currently has musicians from all over the world, but we are looking to make a large expansion on that. As of July 1, 2011 we will start a membership drive to improve our talent base. We will be recruiting musicians from all disciplines and hopefully run several recording projects at once. If you are interested in participating, please read through the FAQ below. Please feel free to register here and contact us at any time.

What is EMP and what do we do?
EMP was started back in 2006 by a small group of musicians to record various progressive rock covers. A title is agree upon, timing or backing tracks are made by whatever studio is producing the project and sent out to the project’s musicians. Each musician records his/her part and uploads it to the Hawk Studio site. Projects are assembled and produced by whatever studio is managing the project.

How do we start and manage projects?
Ideas for song projects come from our members. The idea is discussed in our forums where we decide to actually do the project. A studio generally volunteers to do the work, musicians hop on board and we’re off! Everyone records and submits their parts (including possibly videos) and the producing studio, with the help and feedback of EMP core members produce the final cut.

Who manages projects and how is it decided who participates?
Given that 90% of the work is done by the studio, the studio generally manages the project.  Up until now there has been no formal “command structure” to make decisions.  Participating musicians are generally on the same page and agree on things.  There have been no disputes. If there ever is one, the core members would most likely vote informally on whatever the issue is. This may change in the future as we expand our talent base

How many studios do we have?
Currently we have available three different studios which are owned by our core members. Hawk Studio, under the direction of Mark Estes handles most of the projects. Several have been done by Graham Seaman (Sack The Cat) in Liverpool and Larry Curtis in Texas. Larry also produces most of our videos.
When we say “studio” what we are really talking about are converted bedrooms or the like that are fully equipped for whatever project is assigned to it. Hawk Studio for example, is a 17 X 12ft converted large bedroom with several studio racks, electronic drums, keyboards, multiple computers using multiple recording software titles (Protools, SonarX1 etc), and many different instruments.

Is there any financial compensation or payments involved?
This is a no money deal. We do not charge for our services nor will we pay anyone for theirs. You will not make money here. This is done simply for the love of music….nothing more. If you are looking to make money then please move on.

Will EMP allow recording projects using original songs?
 Up until now we have been restricting ourselves to recording covers. We would welcome the opportunity to record original works from our members. You should read the section about copyrights which follows.

Do we do videos?
We love to record videos for many of the projects that we do. Given that our members are so far apart, each individual video segment is submitted along with the music from each musician. A video producer is selected for the project and he/she will assemble and produce it.

What about copyrights?
You recordings, if used in one of our projects, will be used for whatever EMP deems fit. We regularly post our music on youtube and around the internet. Your recording will be freely distributed. Our promise to you is that we will never take any financial compensation for it. It’s possible that in the future we may do charity work if called upon, therefore generating money for charity, but we are not currently doing this. We reserve the right to do so in the future and use any prerecorded projects in our library as material. This also covers any original writings (lyrics, music, or song parts) submitted by participating members. If you submit it into one of our projects, it is public domain.

What equipment do I need to participate?
All you really need to take part in a project is your instrument and the means to make a fairly decent recording to upload to our site. That’s it. USB recording devices are generally inexpensive. The lower cost units (like Tascam) range from $70 to$200 and are quite adequate. You can record to mp3, WAV or other popular formats and upload it to the site. We generally prefer to use WAV but are very flexible.