A studio engineer is a person who controls all the gear in the studio and is ultimately responsible for keeping the whole process running, and getting your music to sound the way you want it. We currently have 3 engineers at Digital Services Recording Studio. All of our engineers can work with any type of music and project. Each engineer is listed with some of their work they have done, years in the business and their current rates which includes the studio rate.

James Hoover - $115 per hour with a 3 hour minimum and $50 dollar session fee.
James Hoover is a Grammy award winning audio engineer from Houston, TX. With over 18 years of engineering experience in multiple genres of music, James has what it takes to make any project shine. Over the years, James has played in multiple bands of different styles including Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues, and Heavy Metal. In addition to playing Keyboards, Bass, and Guitar, James played Trumpet, French Horn, and Flugelhorn in both high school marching and concert bands. Hoover attended Houston Community College studying under Mark Erickson, and received an Associate’s Degree in Audio Engineering, graduating with honors. While attending college, James began working as a house engineer for Digital Services Recording Studios, a pioneer in the digital audio world, and for many years, the only world class studio in Houston. After just a few years he became the head engineer here. At Digital Services, he has worked with countless clients in every genre of music, as well as film, and spoken word, in both live and studio environments. Some of James’ work includes Destiny’s Child, Scarface, Frankie J, Geto Boys, Chamillionaire, Baby Bash, Motley Crue, Marilyn Manson, and ZZ Top.

Mark Kidney - $90 per hour with $50 dollar session fee.
Mark Kidney is a Grammy award winning audio engineer from Houston, TX. While growing up, Mark played drums in several bands and quickly became interested in the recording aspect of music. After graduating from the Art Institute in Houston, TX in 1994, Mark enrolled for an internship at Sound Arts Recording Studio and eventually landed a job with Uptown Recording Studio. Jam Down Records had also hired Mark on for a position running and managing all sessions with Jam Down studios. After working with these studios Mark started working with Digital Services Recording Studio and South Coast Recorders and eventually took a full time position with Digital Services where he has done work with several well known names such as Destiny’s Child, South Park Mexican, Frankie J, Baby Bash, Bun-B and many others.

Charles Ray - $50 per hour or $450 per song.
Charles Ray has gone from running a small home based studio to running a nationally well known world class recording studio in a quick 6 years. Right out of high school Charlie immediately started building his home studio and began learning recording and mixing by guess and check along with some advice of some well known professionals out of Los Angeles, CA and Houston, TX. While in high school Charlie got his first taste of a world class recording studio while attending a tour of NRG Studios with Linkin Park after doing some web work for them. After moving to Houston, TX, Charlie converted the second floor of his house in to a recording studio where he helped out many local rock bands around Houston. Charlie has been in 2 locally successful rock bands, both which have enjoyed radio play on Clear Channel owned 94.5 The Buzz (with songs recorded and mixed by himself and mastered by Mark Kidney). Charlie had recorded in Digital Services with Mark Kidney in one of his bands before owning the studio. After realizing the potential of Houston’s best recording studio, Charlie took over Digital Services in June of 2007. Charlie now does all booking and managing, and also engineers Rock music and a little bit of everything else.