Special Projects

Recording Services devotes a portion of its workload each year to the production of professional audio recordings and performance videos for CMA Faculty and Graduate Students. Examples of our work can be seen/heard on the CMA YouTube Channel.

If you have an idea for a project, you may submit a Special Project Request Form to begin the process of entering your project into the production queue. Prior to submitting a request, please familiarize yourself with the CMA Special Project Policy below. If you aren't quite ready to submit a request, but have some initial questions, feel free to get in touch: Michael Laurello (mlaurel@bgsu.edu).

CMA Special Project Policy

In order to distribute the CMA's recording and videography resources fairly, the total engineering time for each project cannot exceed 20 hours. These 20 project hours will include all production and post-production time but will not include planning and pre-production time.

During the planning/pre-production phase of each project, Recording Services will work with the project’s sponsor to define the scope and deliverables to ensure that the project is technically feasible, and will reasonably fit within the 20-hour allotment. All projects must be of an attainable scope with well-defined timelines, benchmarks, and clear responsibilities for all parties.

Only one project per individual will be permitted in the project queue at a given time. Once that project has been completed, the project sponsor is welcome to submit a new project. To encourage an equitable distribution of resources, new project sponsors will be prioritized over sponsors who have had a project completed in the recent past.

There will be no charge for Special Project production/post-production time. There may, however, be ancillary costs associated with a project, such as the purchase of mechanical rights (audio) and/or synchronization rights (video). Such costs will be the responsibility of the project’s sponsor.

Certain projects may require clearance by BGSU counsel before proceeding from the planning/pre-production phase to the production phase. This clearance will ensure that all copyright and intellectual property ownership questions have been answered, and that all necessary contracts are in place, if applicable. Recording Services can assist in compiling technical/production information related to the legal approval process, but the project’s sponsor will be responsible for shepherding the project through the legal review stage.

Project sponsors should expect a three-month lead time between the proposal of a project and the commencement of the production phase of the project, although this timeframe may be shorter for certain projects.

Graduate students are eligible to submit a Special Project Request Form, however their project requests will be secondary in the queue to faculty and college-level requests. Graduate student projects must have a faculty sponsor in addition to the graduate student who is leading the project.

Full album projects will not be supported at this time. Full albums present several practical challenges, the most significant being that modern commercial LPs can take hundreds of engineering hours to complete at the level of quality and perfection expected by audiences today. This time investment in a single project limits the number of other projects that can be supported across the CMA community.  

After the completion of a project, you will be sent the digital masters, i.e. high resolution audio and video files. If you wish to also receive the raw session data (Pro Tools Session, Premiere Project, etc.), please ask. Recording Services will endeavor to store project assets safely for one year, however it is the project sponsor's responsibility to archive project assets long term, if desired.