Let's turn the songs in your head into a classic folk album.

Our organic tracking, mixing, and mastering services guide folk artists through every step of the process to make  professional, radio-ready recordings that stay true to their artistic vision.

Let's turn the songs in your head

into a classic folk album.

Our organic tracking, mixing, and mastering services guide folk artists through every step of the process to make  professional, radio-ready recordings that stay true to their artistic vision.

What we do

We are a full service recording studio that offers

pre-production, tracking, editing, mixing and mastering services.

What our process

looks like:

PHASE ONE

Pre-production

The very first step in any project is to have a conversation with you that helps me understand your style, artistic goals, and preferred workflows. This phase can include creating demo recordings, mapping out song structures and lyrics, and listening to reference recordings together in order to build a shared understanding of our approach to your project.

PHASE TWO

Tracking

We will spend time in the studio capturing your best performances and bringing your songs to life. Whether you want to record your whole band performing live in the studio, or meticulously craft each song element one-by-one, we will make sure the process is inspiring and low-stress.

PHASE THREE

Mixing and Mastering

After everything is recorded, we carefully balance your tracks in order to craft a sound for your album that matches your artistic vision, providing an immersive listening experience and deep emotional impact. At the end of the process, you’ll walk away with great sounding master files that are ready for release.

Here's what our clients are saying...

Take a look at what previous clients have said about

working with Matt at Soft Cult Studio.

"Worked with Matt Castore on two songs coming out soon. The space was lovely, and Matt really helped make the tracks feel cohesive and meet our vision (and then some) in his mixes. I’m definitely going back—it was an ideal experience."

- DAN HORNSBY /

TRUE GREEN

"My band spent 2 full days recording an EP at Soft Cult with Matt Castore as our audio engineer and had an incredible experience! Matt is extremely knowledgable, friendly, welcoming, and an absolute master of his craft. He provided tons of great advice, constructive feedback, and creative ideas throughout the process. He works very efficiently and thoughtfully, and we were able to finish our project faster than expected and we’re thrilled with the final result."

- KEVIN ZECH / LARRIKINS

"As a solo artist I felt incredibly anchored in the space. I felt complete autonomy in the studio. Very impressed…and I’m beyond satisfied with the session."

- NIC SCHMIDT

"Super cool recording studio, really beautiful, great equipment and the audio engineers really know what they are doing. Loved recording my album here."

- SARA ABDELAAL / RRA

"Our band had an amazing experience at Soft Cult. They know music. Highest possible recommendation."

- PAUL DESCOMBAZ / MEAN MAGIC

"Best studio time money can buy! Superb room sounds, knowledgeable and experienced engineers, quality gear and mic selections. A+++"

- PAT DILLON

Check out my work

Explore some of the tracks I've been recording recently

You deserve a producer who actually understands your music.

I’m Matt Castore, co-founder and engineer at Soft Cult Studio in Minneapolis.

I’ve spent the past twenty years playing and recording music. All that time on both sides of the process has taught me a lot about recording sessions - why they work, why they sometimes fall apart, and how incredibly fulfilling it feels to see your musical ideas become a reality.

I like to be hands-on through the entire process, from our first conversations and pre-production planning, through tracking, mixing, and finally mastering.

There’s a lot of work to be done and decisions to make, and I want you to go through every step of the process with the confidence of knowing you have an expert in your corner who has taken the time to understand what you want and how we can create it.

That way, you can stop stressing out and instead just enjoy the process!
 

Matt Castore

Engineer and Co-founder, Soft Cult Studio

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Some of our most frequently-asked-questions:

Q. Who do you typically work with?

I will happily work with musicians making just about any style of music. I focus primarily on “performance-based” artists (basically meaning that you can sit down in a room and play your songs), rather than productions that are primarily constructed within the computer using digital instruments, intensive editing, and so forth. Space-wise, the studio is built to accommodate bands of up to roughly 6-7 people, so if you are a larger ensemble, we can work on finding a larger room to record in.

Q. What is the typical timeline for recording projects?

This varies a lot from project to project and depends on everyone’s personal availability, but for  full-featured EP or album production projects, I’d plan on 4-6 weeks from the start of our first pre-production conversations to you walking away with finished masters. For the recording sessions themselves, on average we’ll get two songs tracked for each full day you spend in the studio. We’ll spend roughly that same amount of time again on mixing and mastering, although you don’t need to be at the studio for that unless you want to be.

Q. What if I ONLY need mixing services?

That is totally okay and we do offer standalone services, whether that’s just tracking, mixing, or mastering.

Q. How does pricing work?

Once I talk with you to get a good understanding of the project and the scope of work involved, I’ll write up a proposal that will give you a detailed outline of how we will structure your project, including an all-inclusive package price. Unless the scope of work changes drastically, that package price is exactly what you will be charged, period. No sticker shock at the end of the process, no watching the clock worrying about using too much studio time. We will take a deposit at the time of booking, another partial payment when recording is complete, and the remainder is due upon final completion of your project.

Q. Who owns the rights to the master recordings?

You will own all the rights to any of the songs/masters/compositions that we create, unless other arrangements were explicitly made at the start of the project.

Q. Why shouldn't we just record it ourselves at home?

Home recording can be a fine option for some artists, but a professional studio offers a few things that home recording setups usually lack. First and foremost, it offers you a producer who has been down this path many times before and has a deep understanding of how to create a great recording. That guidance and expertise is very valuable, and takes many tasks and decisions off your plate  so you can focus on the stuff that is important for you as the artist. Second, the studio offers a dedicated, purpose-built working environment that has great acoustics, great gear, and provides a sense of focus that can be hard to achieve at home.

Q. Do you have instruments we can use?

Yes we do! I often encourage bands to bring a lot of their own instruments, since you are already comfortable with how they sound and how it feels to play them. That being said, we have a selection of instruments at the studio that will meet most people’s needs, including drums kits, guitars and amplifiers, an upright piano, and a Hammond organ. Get in touch for a full list.

Q. How do I get started?

Click the button below to schedule a call to talk to us about your project.

Are you ready to

make an album you can be truly proud of?

Click the button below and let's do it!