Songwriting

We approach our songwriting service as a collaboration with our clients and customize that experience based on your or your group’s wants and needs. There are too many variables to list them all here, but just know that our goal is to have every final recording be something you love and stand behind as strongly as if it were yours alone.

This is accomplished by including you in the total process — and this is where Bandog becomes a great partner. We just now are making available to clients our catalogue of more than 600 songs and backing tracks. Because we want you to bring these across the finish line, we intentionally have left room for you to do your magic.

Our sessions are set up for you to add your personal touches and truly own the songs we place with you. Below are some basic notes on the most common band components.

Questions? Just contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your specific situation.

 

Vocal 

  • Songs of all styles with no vocal melody or lyrics. You collaborate with us to complete the writing process.
  • Songs with partial melodic or lyrical ideas. Although Bandog provides the starting point, you help achieve the final product.
  • Songs with complete melodic and lyrical ideas. These are totally ready for you. Just put down your beautiful voice and walk out of the studio with a world-class single.

 

Guitar

Admittedly, we are guitar freaks here at Bandog, and we have our process for creating some really cool material. That said, there is always room for adding guitar layers or replacing some parts with your own playing. That way, you get the personalized sound you want.

 

Bass

As with the other instruments, we can separate out your part and replace or layer your performance with the rest of the tracks. This way you get the full, live bass sound that defines your style.

 

Keys 

Key parts are tricky due to the complexity of some digital patches. We can work with you and your gear to get a close match, or show you how to set up your rig to reproduce our patches in live performance. Also, in most cases, we can provide sheet music.

 

Drums

We try to use live drummers when we can, and we try to make synthetic drums sound as genuine as possible, but nothing beats the real thing. Budget, time, and access to a good studio become the biggest challenges to recording you drum parts. However, we have plenty of ways to get the drums sounding just like you want.

 

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At Bandog, we are songwriters and musicians. We have played in bands and collaborated on songwriting projects with hundreds of tunes and dozens of artists. We believe that the most important part of the process is having all artists walk away with a finished musical product that is inspiring to the artist and will be exciting for the fans.

The art starts from within us, but it’s you and your fans who complete the process. It is their support that allows us to continue working on the craft we love.

Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is our most exclusive service.

Some clients request more privacy and need a discreet production house that can work in the background. Bandog keeps strictly confidential those clients who hire us as ghostwriters.

All rights are purchased from us, but unlike most licensing agreements, no credit ever will be attributed to Bandog Entertainment. As far as the world knows, you wrote the song we provided you. Don’t worry, we can resist even extreme forms of torture.

Because we get no press, no credit, and no royalty, your fans will praise you, and only you, for your song. Consequently, this is our most expensive option.

Due to the sensitive nature of the information discussed even in pre-pro, we require a retainer and a signed mutual nondisclosure agreement in place before work begins.

Please call or email us for details.

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Here are some real-world scenarios and how Bandog can help you handle them:

 

Problem The Bandog Solution
Established Artist with fan base expecting all songs to be written by the artist. We can write music to match your style and assist you in completing your album. With us as ghostwriters, no one will ever know which songs you had help with.
Need to reinvent your sound. We can collaborate with you to create a new, yet familiar, sound for your next release.  Whether you want a drastic overhaul or merely minor tweaks, we can help you develop your new path.
Band or artist wants to own music and not be beholden to another artist for royalties, licensing fees, or ownership disputes. We take a higher one-time fee for this work, but you never have to pay us again.

 

 

Music Composition and Arranging

 

Commercial Video Soundtrack

You have seen those corporate videos — the ones with the cheesy stock elevator music soundtracks. Use this uninspiring generic music, and you may cheapen your brand. Instead, you can inspire your clients and/or employees with a custom-written soundtrack that will connect the audience with the message you are presenting.

Music is an underutilized tool in the current marketing universe, and you can boost concept retention and product interest by using quality music in your informational videos.

We can help with your special projects, including: HR videos, product promo videos, new business promo videos, public service announcements, and more.

 

Movie/Film/TV

Have you ever watched a movie without a soundtrack? It can be downright bizarre, even disorienting, which is why many filmmakers use placeholder music while a movie is in production.

Music drives the emotion of your story, and we can help you express your vision in a way that pulls the viewers deeper into the world you create. From classical instrumentation to rock or pop songs composed specifically for the project, we will do our part to collaborate with directors and music supervisors to create music for your film, movie, or TV show.

Projects we can help with: independent movies, short films, TV series, documentaries, pilots, and more.

 

Arranging

Many of our past clients have come to us with a song/melody/lyrics and the need for a musical arrangement or backing track to complete the piece. We can help you bring your song to where it can be fully appreciated by the listeners.

With our arranging service, we also can help you by creating versions of either a complete work or alternate styles of a piece of music. Want a rock version of your acoustic song or a string quartet version of the pop song you wrote? These are things we can do for you.

Projects we can help with: adding instruments to a current arrangement, creating new version of a complete song, expanding or simplifying an arrangement of composed works, and more.

 

Mixing

Need help with mixing your record? Want to replace keyboard sounds? Do your drums sound flat? Did your tracking engineer cut corners to save time/money?

We know how to help. We’ve got the education, experience, and staff to handle any project. With our process and state of the art technology, we can improve the sound quality of most musical recordings.

Common Problems We Solve:

The Problem The Bandog Solution
Dull, flat, or low energy drums
  • Extract the drum performance and add perfectly recorded sounds
  • Process and mix existing audio
  • Completely replace Drum track
  • Re-Record Drums (we have studio drummers for any style)
Fake sounding strings or virtual instruments
  • Resample with high-end instrument samples.
  • Re-arrange and use real instrument articulations
  • Replace with live recorded instrument tracks (We have studio musicians)
Recording needs a professional mix
  • Let a highly trained engineer with great ears and industry standard equipment go to town on you session
Mix great but its not quite polished and/or loud enough
  • Mastering pass – while we are not a dedicated mastering house that charges $500 plus per track, we can make your mix shine and take that final step toward sounding “professional”