what we do

However far along
you are.

Some artists arrive with a finished album and need it captured properly. Some arrive with a voice memo. We can take a record the whole way, or step in exactly where you need us and leave the rest alone.

There’s a way into Panda
at most budgets.

Three rooms and five engineers, priced differently on purpose. Multi-day lockouts bring the hourly cost down substantially, and larger productions are quoted per song or per project. Tell us the budget and we'll build something real around it.

Get a Quote
01

Full Record
Production

Song development through finished master. One team, one throughline, one person accountable for whether the record is good.

What it is

We take creative responsibility for the record: shaping arrangements, choosing sounds, pushing performances, and steering the project from first demo to delivered masters. Production here means opinions, not just supervision.

Who it's for

Artists treating this record as the one that changes something. Bands with songs that are close but not there yet. Anyone who wants a collaborator willing to push past what feels obvious in the moment toward the version of the record that may only make complete sense in hindsight.

What Panda brings

Twenty years of records that still get cited, three rooms that can run at once, and producers who will chase the version of your song you haven't found yet. You're not renting time. You're hiring judgment.

Includes

  • Pre-production
  • Arrangement
  • Tracking
  • Performance coaching
  • Mixing
  • Mastering
Start a Production Conversation
02

Recording &
Engineering

Your songs, captured properly. Full bands live, or built up piece by piece, whichever serves the music.

What it is

Tracking sessions in purpose-built rooms with engineers who know what to reach for. Drums in a real live room, guitars through the amp collection, vocals through the right mic instead of the default one.

Who it's for

Bands who've done the work and need it documented at full strength. Artists who already know what the record should sound like and want it executed without compromise.

What Panda brings

Two acoustically distinct live rooms, an isolation room so amps can be loud while the band plays together, and a warehouse that works as a natural reverb chamber. Every mic, amp, and instrument is included with the session.

We track

  • Live drums
  • Guitar & bass
  • Vocals
  • Synths & keys
  • Percussion
  • Brass & woodwinds
  • Full live band
Book a Tracking Session
03

Vocal
Production

The part of the record everyone actually hears. Treated as its own discipline, not the last hour of tracking day.

What it is

Dedicated sessions built around the voice: finding the right take, writing and arranging harmonies, stacking backgrounds, and comping performances that feel human rather than assembled.

Who it's for

Singers and songwriters whose record lives or dies on the vocal. Bands who want more from their choruses. Anyone who's been told their vocals sound thin and doesn't know why.

What Panda brings

We don't just record vocals. We help make them work. Years of judgment and coaching go into phrasing, delivery, melody, doubles, harmonies, and arrangement, then we comp, edit, and tune everything until it feels effortless. If the part needs to be rewritten or rethought, we do that too. The goal is a vocal that connects, not just one that's in tune.

Includes

  • Take direction
  • Harmony arrangement
  • Comping
  • Stacks & doubles
  • Tuning & alignment
Book Vocal Production
04

Mixing

Where the record starts feeling like a record. Emotion, depth, and translation to every place people will actually hear it.

What it is

Mixing at Panda can start with a finished production from somewhere else, or it can be the final stage of a record we produced from the ground up. Balance, tone, dynamics, depth, automation, effects, editing, and translation are handled down to the smallest detail until the record feels finished.

Who it's for

Artists who want an outside mix perspective, bands bringing us self-produced material, and projects we have already been producing and shaping from the beginning. Some records need major intervention. Some already feel right and simply need to be preserved, organized, and finished at the highest level.

As much depth as the record needs

If you want us deeply involved, we can get surgical with editing, arrangement, transitions, automation, tone, effects, sample-level cleanup, stem architecture, and every decision that helps the production translate.

If the record is already exactly what you want, we know how to leave it alone and make it better without changing its identity.

The technical side

File organization, naming, routing, grouping, gain structure, phase, recalls, versioning, stems, alternate mixes, and future-proof deliverables are all handled deliberately.

When we mix our own productions

That process starts much earlier. Arrangement, performances, editing, tones, effects, and mix decisions are often being built into the record from the beginning, so the final mix is not a separate coat of paint. It is the last stage of the same production process.

We can zoom all the way out to whether the song connects, then all the way in to details most listeners will never consciously notice but absolutely affect how the record feels.

The review process

Mixing is collaborative. Reviews can happen here at Panda or remotely with high-quality audio and a live visual stream. Before Mix 1 is printed, we go through the mix together, make changes in real time, and get it where it needs to be. We repeat the process for Mix 2. Additional revisions after Mix 2 are billed hourly.

Good to know

Remote mixing is available worldwide. Send us your session or stems and we'll tell you exactly what we need.

Need it simple? No problem. Need instrumentals, acapellas, clean versions, performance tracks, grouped stems, recalls, alternate masters, or highly specific delivery requirements? We can build the project around that too.

The level of involvement is flexible. The level of organization and attention to detail is not.

Send a Mix Enquiry
05

Mastering

The final perspective on the record. Available in-house at Panda for singles, EPs, albums, stereo masters, and more detailed stem-based work.

What it is

Tonal balance, dynamics, loudness, sequencing, transitions, fades, translation, and final delivery. The goal is not simply making something louder. It is making the entire release feel finished.

Who it's for

Anyone with a finished mix and a release date. Especially artists pressing vinyl, where the wrong master is an expensive mistake to discover late.

What Panda brings

More than 20 years of records moving through every level of professional mastering. Records made through Panda have been mastered in-house and by engineers including Ted Jensen, Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, Brad Boatright, Alberto de Icaza, and others. Hearing what different world-class mastering engineers bring to a finished record has shaped how we approach the job here.

Mastering hardware

  • 2× UnFairchild compressors
  • 2× Alan Smart C2 compressors
  • 2× UTA MPREQ preamp/EQs
  • Precise digital processing
  • Detailed monitoring

For the right project, we can also work from separate vocal and instrumental stems, giving us more control over how the final record comes together than a conventional stereo master allows.

The details matter

Mastering is also sequencing, spacing, transitions, fades, naming, alternate versions, archival files, and making sure the project is organized correctly when it leaves. The master should sound finished, feel finished, and stay useful for whatever comes next.

A second set of ears

We also believe in the value of independent mastering. If a project has already spent months being produced, recorded, edited, and mixed inside Panda, sometimes the smartest final decision is letting a mastering engineer with completely fresh ears hear it next.

We can master the record here, or help decide when another trusted mastering engineer is the better choice.

Good to know

Stereo and stem mastering are available remotely worldwide, with organized deliverables for streaming, vinyl, instrumentals, alternate versions, and whatever the release requires.

Book Mastering
06

Editing, Reamping
& Additional Production

The unglamorous work that separates a demo from a release. Precision without killing the feel.

What it is

After more than 20 years of making records, Panda has heard just about every way a performance can pull attention away from the song. Editing is about removing those distractions and making every part feel intentional, so the listener stays inside the vibe.

Sometimes that means preserving the imperfections that make a performance feel alive. Sometimes it means making something literally perfect. The standard is not "natural" or "edited." The standard is whether it feels right for the record.

Reamping

Reamping follows the same idea. If the performance is right but the tone is not, we can reshape it through Panda's amps, pedals, cabinets, and analog chains until the sound supports the intent of the record instead of fighting it.

Panda West helps here. A custom control system can switch between eight amp heads and eight cabinets running simultaneously, so we audition combinations instantly instead of stopping to repatch. The performance stays identical while we move through radically different tones until we find what actually belongs on the record.

Who it's for

Projects where the performance is there but something about the timing, tuning, editing, or tone is getting in the way. Tracks recorded at home that need more polish. Guitar and bass DIs that feel flat, lifeless, or disconnected from the record and need to become finished sounds.

What Panda brings

A custom drum sample library built over two decades, a deep amp and cabinet collection to reamp through, and an approach where precision and feel are treated as the same job rather than opposing ones.

Includes

  • Drum editing
  • Vocal tuning
  • Time alignment
  • Sample layering
  • Guitar & bass reamping
Discuss a Project
07

Facility
Rental

Bring your own producer or engineer, or self-produce. The gear is included either way.

What it is

Book any Panda room and bring your own producer or engineer, or self-produce. We'll get you oriented and make sure everything is running smoothly. Need anything else from our team? We can provide it and price it into the session.

Who it's for

Producers and engineers with their own clients. Bands travelling with someone they already trust. Self-producing artists. Anyone who wants the rooms and the gear and is bringing their own team.

What Panda brings

The full instrument and outboard collection included with the room, 24/7 access in a fully soundproofed facility, and both on-site and street parking with room for vans and trailers.

Also available for

  • Band rehearsals
  • Live session prep
  • Photo & video shoots
Enquire About Rental
08

Commercial Audio
& Content

Not everything made at Panda is a record. The same rooms, equipment, and production experience can be used for podcasts, commercials, branded content, voiceover, corporate work, and video production.

What it is

Audio, video, or both. Record a voiceover, shoot a performance, produce a podcast, capture interviews, build branded content, overdub dialogue, or bring us a commercial project that needs to go from an idea to finished media.

Who it's for

Brands, agencies, production companies, podcasters, filmmakers, and anyone who needs professional audio or video without building the production team themselves. Work here has included podcast production for NPR, internal audio and video for PG&E, and voiceover audio recording for an Indeed commercial.

What Panda brings

A recording studio that can scale into a full content-production environment when the project needs it. Along with the Panda audio team, we can bring in an experienced video crew for filming, lighting, camera operation, editing, and complete audio/video production.

Come in needing a single voice recorded or a fully produced piece of content. Tell us what you're trying to make and we can put the right team, rooms, and production together around it.

Services

  • Commercial audio
  • Video production
  • Branded content
  • Podcast production
  • Voiceover
  • Dialogue overdubs & ADR
  • Interviews
  • Filmed performances
  • Corporate audio & video
  • Editing & post-production
  • Audio mixing & final delivery
Discuss a Commercial Project

Commercial Case Study

Indeed
COMMERCIAL VOICEOVER

Voiceover audio recorded at The Panda Studios for an Indeed commercial. The spot itself was produced elsewhere.

Watch the commercial

fremont, california

Not sure which
one you need?

Most projects don't fit neatly into one box. Tell us where you are and what you're trying to make, and we'll tell you what it actually takes.

Start a Conversation