What did it cost you?

[full_bleed]

Anyone care to give a general breakdown of what they paid to have their cd made. How much was the recording part of it? Mastering? Duplication/Replication? Packaging? Anything else? Please give some details, if you don't mind, like the amount of time you spent in the studio, mastering changes with extra costs, how many discs you had made, what type of packaging did you go with, how many pages in your booklet, any color on the cd or the artwork, bla bla bla.

I'm in the process of getting everything togther to start the recording process and I was just curious as to what other people who do not have a huge budget or possibly a label shell out to get their music out there. Any suggestions are welcome also. Thanks guys/gals.

[Loosenut]

I spent about £3000 to start with on my own gear, now I can record as much as I want, when I want, so here goes.

Mackie 24/8 analogue desk (used) £1150
Cubase VST 5.1 £65 (used)
Built my own PC P4 3.0GHZ CPU 80GB HDD, Win XP OEM £300 (incl monitor, accessories CD drive e.t.c.)
Soundscape mixtreme 16 in 16 out 24 bit audio cards £500
SE electronics tube condenser mic £149 (great for the money!)
Native instruments Battery (drum programming) £100
TL Audio Ivory Valve compressor £400
2X Alesis Quadraverb £200, 1X Midiverb (has a great reverb for drums)£150 1 X Behringer 24bit MultiFX £120

Thats the backbone of my setup, I have other mics, keyboards, leads, FX e.t.c. but this gives me a great base with which to make decent quality recordings. The great benifit doing it this way, for me, is that I can spend as long as I need to get the sound I want without it costing me more money.

Pressing CDs including artwork normally works out around £3.50 each (including glass master) if you press more than 1000

[Introvox]

I have a studio that does albums, demos, soundtracks, jingles etc...

Studio Rate: $40 / hour
Basically I tell artists to book 8 - 12 hours per song, for recording, mixing and mastering

Your duplication should be about $2 per unit, which includes booklet printing and shrink wrap (usually you get a better deal the more you order, 5000+ is your best deal)

Of couse you have to have your artwork designed (or do it yourself), as well put a little money aside for marketing.

[addylewis]

Hmm...

I've only been in the studio with a band once and the guy was asking something like £130 for a day...

...not a great deal - the recording wasn't bad (but it was a bit rough around the edges - he didn't have time to produce it, and kept the singer in the car with her kid for 4-5 hours when she went to collect it...anyone else think he hadn't done anything and thought it would be a 10 minute job? The guitar solo was out of time, he didn't take out the duff notes like we asked and he didn't master it...)

I've done stuff myself since which is at least as good at what he gave us...

[Rocinante_x1]

500.00-ish.

[Frugle]

Originally Posted by addylewis

Hmm...

I've only been in the studio with a band once and the guy was asking something like £130 for a day...

...not a great deal - the recording wasn't bad (but it was a bit rough around the edges - he didn't have time to produce it, and kept the singer in the car with her kid for 4-5 hours when she went to collect it...anyone else think he hadn't done anything and thought it would be a 10 minute job? The guitar solo was out of time, he didn't take out the duff notes like we asked and he didn't master it...)

I've done stuff myself since which is at least as good at what he gave us...

they are engineers, not magicians. I've worked in many studios.. so I know first hand there are some things you can "fix". BUT YOU CANNOT POLISH A TURD.

if you play like crap it sounds like crap, they can't just "take out the duff notes" or make an out of time solo in time.. (yes there is quantasizing.. but it is not magic, it has to be somewhat close at least).


Guys, you can't sound like crap, go into a studio and pay 30 bucks an hour, and plan on coming out sounding like the latest U2 record. they paid thousands of dollars and highered top notch engineers (and they can play) to sound like that.

average, to get into a DECENT studio, its about 90 bucks an hour... there are all kinds of basment 30 dollar an hour studios, but trust me ... save up.. go into a real place.


Yes, you can build a studio for under 10,000 dollars... but just because you have the equipment, doesn't mean you can make a CD... you need experience and a trained Ear to make it sound the way you want.. if your going to spend 10,000 dollars, spend it in a good studio.

[full_bleed]

Please let's not turn this thread into a DIY or studio debate. I really apreciate the comments that have stayed on topic so far. I hope I can get get a few more.