Music Production and Recording for $250

One track fully recorded, mixed and produced by Detroit-based Americana music producer Bunky Hunt

Pro studio with the best gear.

Raised during the vinyl heyday of the 1970s and '80s, Hunt had grown up loving the honest, analog rock & roll of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, and Tom Petty. He wasn't just a fan of the songs themselves. He was drawn to the production, too. The sonic stomp of Glyn Johns' recordings. The crisp clarity of Al Schmitt's work. The otherworldly swirl of Daniel Lanois. Something about the classic sound — a sound rooted in tube amplifiers, outboard recording gear, and vintage microphones — fascinated him.

"My passion as a producer doesn't do me much good unless I can help artists get their records released, too," explains the multi-tasker. "My work begins with capturing a cinematic, powerful performance, without getting in the way of the sound that's being created. From there, I take on a different role with each project. The goal is to do what's needed to get these albums heard."

Bunky launched WhistlePig Records out of his home studio in Michigan, with a handful of vintage microphones and preamps serving as his earliest pieces of recording equipment. "I learned a lot about moving microphones around the room and getting a good sound with just a few pieces of gear," he says. Since then, the proud gear-head has accumulated a first-class collection, taking cues from recording meccas like RCA Studio A, RCA Studio B, Motown, and Muscle Shoals' FAME Studio along the way. Specializing in a mix of Americana, heartland rock & roll, and roots music — a sound he calls "Motown Shoals" — he's been steadily building his own Mecca in Motor City, one song at a time.

"I'm just trying to make records the right way," he says. "The common denominator on all my projects is a front person with an interesting voice, combined with songwriting that turns your head. It's nothing complicated or glamorous — just great songwriting and a unique voice. I don't want to change that sound. I just put some salt and pepper on it."