VU in NYC — 4-Day Intensive
The Craft Of Studio Writing & Production
The Nightfly, Brooklyn
April 15-18 2027
Prerequisites
-
Arrive at camp with a song in progress. Have some lyric and melody ideas which can be fleshed out in writing or co-writing sessions. Attendees can focus on finishing a song and creating a demo.
-
If you would like to focus on tracking and studio production techniques, bring in a finished song or a very rough demo. Attendees can focus on polishing tracks in a studio setting and leaving with a produced track.
-
Attendees without lyric or melodic ideas can start from scratch with our mentors and work through various songwriting and production techniques during the weekend. This is a do-it-yourself model and attendees will leave camp for the weekend with either a finished song, or a partially written song with a demo.
DAY 1 - Thursday
3pm — Arrival/Sign-In/Meet & Greet
3:30 - 5pm — Studio Walkthrough / FAQ w/ Nick & Nightfly Producers • Why do we need recording studios?
• Better sounding room/control over recording
• Benefit of professional mics, pre-amps, recording quality
• Go-bos and separating a room out depending on your instrumentation
• Control room overview
• Order of operations: Demo, get your song in the correct key, in the correct tempo, chart it out for yourself for ease of manipulating it in recording sessions. When you arrive at the studio, either have a stems and a click track for your engineer, or have a tempo that you would like to record to.
• Tempo Map — If your song has a lot of pauses, tempo changes, or is rubato, you might want to map it, or have someone map it for you.
• In the studio: Track basics (bass, drums at the least, with additional piano and guitar to establish feel and tempo of track), comping basics (what is comping, choosing feel over perfection), track overdubs (additional guitars, keys, synths, horns, strings, lead and background vocals).
• Mixing/Mastering (Alessio can take this)
5 - 6:30pm — Dinner (places around Bushwick)
6:30 - 8pm — Artist Freestyle (songwriting, co-writing, exploring the facility, ask questions, figure out individual game-plan for the rest of the weekend; whether getting right into tracking, or songwriting first)
DAY 2 - Friday
9am — Arrival
9:15 - 11:15am — Songwriting Clinic w/ Lynda • Lyric Writing Techniques/Rhyme Schemes
• Song forms
• Melody writing
• Help some of the students with their current projects
11:15am - 12:30pm — Lunch 1 (places around Bushwick)
12:30 - 1:45pm — Lunch 2 (places around Bushwick)
11:15am - 12:30pm — Songwriting Breakouts 1 (Revisions, Writing & Co-
writes) 6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso
room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
12:30 - 1:45pm — Songwriting Breakouts 2 (Revisions, Writing & Co-
writes) 6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso
room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
1:45 - 3:45pm — Production Clinic 1 (Thomas & Nightfly Producers) • How to create your own tracks using live instruments and soft synths
• Production techniques for electronic and non-acoustic tracks
• Using Plug-ins
3:45 - 4:30pm — In-class presentation/feedback session of where your
songs are now
4:30 - 5:30pm — Mingle, write, edit, based on feedback
5:30 - 6:30pm — Dinner (places around Bushwick)
6:30 - 8pm - Artist Freestyle — (songwriting, co-writing, tracking)
DAY 3 - Saturday
9am — Arrival
9:15 - 11:15am — Vocal Production w/ Juri • Getting to know your voice and how you like to be recorded (delays, eq, compression, vocal
chain)
• Stacking background vocals
• Coming up with background vocals
• Use some of the demos we’ve created this far to show techniques
11:15am - 12:30pm — Lunch 1 (places around Bushwick)
12:30 - 1:45pm — Lunch 2 (places around Bushwick)
11:15am - 12:30pm — Songwriting/Tracking 1 (Writing, Co-writes,
Tracking, Production) 6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
12:30 - 1:45pm — Songwriting/Tracking 2 (Writing, Co-writes, Tracking,
Production) 6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms
can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
1:45 - 3:45pm — Production Clinic 2 (Thomas & Nightfly Producers) • Mixing and Mastering techniques
• Use some of the student’s material to show different techniques
3:45 - 5:45pm — Vocal coaching if needed (staggered)
3:45 - 5:45pm — Staggered recording/production (Attendees who tracked their songs can work on recording vocals, bgvs, track sweeteners, mixing.
Attendees who were writing can now demo their songs. Producers — 2 Nightfly Producers, Thomas, Hunter, Nick)
5:45 - 7:15pm — Dinner (places around Bushwick)
7:15 - 8pm — Artist Freestyle (songwriting, co-writing, tracking,
production)
DAY 4 - Sunday
9am — Arrival
9:15am - 11:15am — Songwriting finalized -> Tracking
Tracking finalized -> Production
Production finalized -> Mixing
11:15am - 12:30pm — Lunch 1 (places around Bushwick)
12:30 - 1:45pm — Lunch 2 (places around Bushwick)
11:15am - 12:30pm — Production / Mixing 1 (Tracking, Production,
Mixing) 6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
12:30 - 1:45pm — Production / Mixing 1 (Tracking, Production, Mixing)
6-7 stations (Lyric Writing Station is 2 people, control rooms can be prioritized for people already demo-ing) [control room 1, control room 2, iso room, drum room, vocal room, live room, lounge]
1:45 - 3:45pm — Artist Freestyle (final touches on where your song is)
4:45 - 5:45pm — Listening Hour (all songs are presented in the main
control room)
5:45pm: Closing night dinner
