This place is horrible and my experience was a total nightmare! I guess if you're a nice guy with money you'll be totally taken advantage of by the owner "E" who has no morals or ethics. I would always think that there's no way an average musician could afford what I was being changed for but later found out "E" wasn't charging everyone the same so don't tell him your financial situation maybe you'll be all right.
I was recording there for close to three years getting ripped off left and right, complaining but to no avail. My drummer who referred me to this clown and kept on telling me how great he was and to wait until he mixes and masters my CD. I couldn't wait no longer after spending over $35,000.00 at this studio for 13 songs I had enough. From buying "E" a hamburger, fries and coke and him charging me his hourly rate to eat it, to not getting CD's of what the musicians were recording at his studio unless I paid him $400.00 to burn a CD of what we recorded. Sadly, one of his musician friends that he brought in the studio to record on my CD spilled the beans on E by telling me after all the years he worked with E he never charged anyone else but me to make a CD's! I was shocked, it was the typical CD of what each musician took home and listen to to make sure their performance was good. Each Bill I received was different and if I had 15 minutes left in a session it always went to backing up what I recorded which should be on his time, not recording time. Then without explaining the video taping of each session to me I paid him hourly to set up camera's, change batteries, etc. etc. At the end you would think I'd get those video's that I paid for going on three years right? No there was a huge additional charge and If I didn't pay it I wouldn't get my videos regardless of the thousands of dollars I paid him over a three-year span to film all these musicians I brought in while he used my studio time to make these videos.
Wait there's more! When I finally had enough I told "E" to get my Hard Drive together and that I want to pick it up. I was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer and he put me through hell just to get my Hard Drive back. When I finally picked it up over a month later I brought it home to find out he spent 7-8 hours sabotaging the Hard Drive by deleting tracks and removing all the labeling. Then I found out the two musicians that he brought in to record on my CD and were suppose to have signed a Work For Hire Agreement after I paid them in full to record, on top of getting paid for their services and not saying a word until I wanted my Hard Drive back they wanted me to give them rights to my songs or they would all hold my music hostage. After they got paid in full they said, "You better not use our tracks or they'll sue me" The person who I had replace the guitar tracks said, "Who are these people? I never even heard of such a thing, we get paid, we sign the contract!" Not these evil people that have no soul. They prolonged the signing of the Work For Hire Agreement all the way to the end while they tried to pull off their criminal act of taking advantage of good, honest people. After paying over $35,000.00 in full, paid everyone, my music was held hostage by these low lives. I was forced to hire an attorney and pay even more just to get back my property that I already paid for. My attorney told me even though I paid these musicians in full and everything they asked for since "E" didn't get them to sign the Work For Hire Agreement I was forced to pay another singer and guitarist to record on my CD and pay them for something I already paid for once. I once ask one of them when this all came to a head, "What did I pay you for? I mean really, I told him did I pay you for me to take my CD home to listen to it in my car all by myself? lol!!!" he had no answer. He said I didn't own his voice, lol! Everyone I've been working with now signs the agreement after getting paid, unlike these musicians at E's they're actually honest and trustworthy. It's these people with no morals that are ruining our world, they take advantage of good, honest people, because of them a hand shake today means nothing, because them now everything has to be in writing and you have to be on your guard because you never know when you're going to come across criminals like this.
Yes, this nightmare was finally over and justice was served but with a huge additional cost but I could've caved in to these extortionists by giving them everything they wanted but I'm so glad I didn't. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that these low lives' won and thief's prevailed. I wonder how they sleep at night? They have no God inside and no Conscience. Lastly remember there's an all knowing God who sees everything and Karma always takes care of things. It's my duty to tell you about my experience at For The Record, I wish I read something like this before I was taken advantage of. read more
