Owner John Parks and studio manger Rosco Weber at the entrance to Saint Claire Recording Company in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Aspiring music stars will watch the Grammy Awards on Sunday night dreaming of someday being on that stage like Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne and Green Day.

If they are going to get there, at some point they have to stop off somewhere like Lexington’s St. Claire Recording Co. After all, the Grammy Awards are for recordings.

The lush location off Spurr Road is loaded with state-of-the art recording equipment and a studio with an array of options for guitar amplifier heads, drums and other equipment.

“Our policy is, if it is here, you can drag it out and play with it,” studio manager Rosco Weber says.

The rest of the building ­includes bedrooms, a kitchen and a break room for artists who come in from out of town.

Duane Lundy, musician, producer and owner of Shangrila Studios. Photo by Mark Cornelison | LexGo.com.

And they come.

“I tell everyone to come here,” legendary producer Tony Visconti, whose many ­collaborations have included David Bowie, says before starting a day of work at St. Claire on Alejandro ­Escovedo’s next album. “You can’t get space in New York like this anymore.”

But before you call St. Claire or embark on a ­recording project anywhere, you have to get your act together.

“We’ll get these ­entertaining calls from people who say, ‘Hey, I have seven songs I want to mix and put out on 1,000 CDs next week,’ and that’s when we say, ‘Wait. Let’s back up,’” St. Claire owner John Parks says.

Recording has changed a lot in the 52 years that the Grammys have been given out. There was a time when putting out an album meant an act had reached a point in its career that it could afford to go into a studio and have a vinyl record pressed and packaged.

Now, anyone with a song, a microphone, a computer and a MySpace page can make a ­recording and distribute it worldwide. Still, in the 21st-century music world, having some sort of recording is important for any act trying to be heard.

“With (computer) programs like Garage Band and a good microphone, you can come up with a pretty good recording in your bedroom,” says Duane Lundy, owner of Shangrila Studios and a guitarist for the Lexington rock band Chico Fellini. “The recording process can be a great way to find yourself as an artist.”

Every once in a while, that home-brewed recording will catch someone’s ear.

Visconti cites a new artist from Wales, ­Debbie Clarke. Her talent came through on rough demos he heard online. He ended up producing an EP using Skype, an Internet phone service, to direct her vocals. The tracks will be available soon on iTunes.

But, Visconti says, for every act whose recording becomes a viral sensation, millions of others are never seen or heard beyond a small circle of friends.

“It’s just like it’s always been,” Visconti says. “One in a million.”

To really start to make a move, artists need to get the objective ears of a producer and the sound-shaping ­technology of a recording studio.

Lundy says a band seeking an initial recording is probably looking at spending $5,000 to $10,000. He cautions, though, that there are many variables, including the number of songs an artist wants to record, the music genre and the number of musicians.

“Obviously, a singer with a guitar is going to be a lot less difficult than a heavy metal band,” Lundy says.

At St. Claire, Parks and Weber won’t even state a ­ballpark price for an act ­taking its first shot at ­recording.

When local artists call, they say, they offer a ­consultation to figure out what will best serve the act.

“A lot of people come in with an idea that they can ­record 12 songs over a ­weekend and walk out with a CD,” Weber says. “In reality, you would be lucky to get three songs down.”

Parks says acts that have not been in a studio before don’t appreciate that when the record light goes on, they want to get every note right, with feeling.

Winging it or working songs out in the studio is ­verboten, because “time ­literally is money,” Weber says.

Parks says, “What we’ll ­often say to a new act is, ‘Why don’t you come in and do one or two songs, to get your feet wet?’”

Lundy and the St. Claire guys say it is crucial for an artist or band to determine the goals of a recording.
“Do they want to press 1,000 CDs to sell at concerts, or do they want a few to give to their family and friends?” Weber says. “We try to help them figure out what they can do within a budget.”

Referring to Visconto and Escovedo, the St. Claire guys note that their sessions are planned so they know what is supposed to be accomplished each day.

“It is very businesslike,” Weber says.

But it is a business where they can have the fun of ­shaping sound, developing craft, and maybe, if everything goes well, win a few awards.