Studio time!!

Drake · #1 01-30-2002, 06:50 PM

What are the ranges in price you can pay for recording in a studio? My band is going in soon and we need 3 songs good enough for the radio. I need to find the pricings out because we are shopping around studios soon. We have 2 appointments tomorrow.

For interest sake we are going to green house studios and turtle studios in the vancouver area tomorrow... If anyone knows specific prices of these or other vancouver studios that would also be appreciated.

I guess if anyone could give a complete summary of rough prices along with the quality at those prices that would be ideal so we can keep that in mind when we do our negotiations.

Thanks

Drake

Joshua Pickenpaugh · #2 01-30-2002, 07:01 PM

In Boulder, Colorado, I remember paying about $50(US) per hour. The guy who ran the studio out of his basement was cool enough to be slack on the exact amount of time we where there. During the time I got to lay down 6 tunes, vocal overdubs, and a bit of rough mixing.

I tell you what, knowing your tunes and what order to do them in shaves lots of time and money.

Van' is such a great city. I'm missing that great bass department at Tom Lee and Long/McQuade.

Drake · #3 01-30-2002, 07:05 PM

Thanks..

The long and mcquaid bass department is great!

How was the quality? radio? demo?
poor? intermediate?

keep it coming guys

later,

drake

Drake · #4 01-31-2002, 05:53 AM

BUMP like funk

Joe Nerve · #5 01-31-2002, 06:00 AM

Prices in NY rangefrom $25 an hour to over $200 with the average being around $50. I'd advise listening to the studios work before booking time as a good recording has a lot more to do with the person recording it than the amount of equipment, price, etc. We just payed 40 bucks an hour and are really happy with the outcome. Happier than our last CD, which cost us $60 an hour.

Bruce Lindfield · #6 01-31-2002, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joshua Pickenpaugh

I tell you what, knowing your tunes and what order to do them in shaves lots of time and money.
.

I agree with this - the rate per hour is almost irrelevant if you are going to take up most of it, deciding what to do and struggling to get a good take.

I think also that a lot of bands are happy playing their stuff with each other, as they would live, but when it comes to laying down "takes" - say as a bass player on your own, then they just aren't prepared for this.

ZuluFunk · #7 01-31-2002, 07:08 AM

$35-50 / hour in NE PA. Going digital helped in shaving time though some prefer tape for "real" sound. I don't really care. Being able to do multiple tracks at one time is nice to try but usually doesn't work. We did it with the guitar and backing vocals while listening to a scratch of the lead on playback and cut off maybe 2 hours. But backing vocals for us aren't too big a deal so quality wasn't an overwhelming concern.

Good luck and have fun.

CrawlingEye · #8 01-31-2002, 10:00 AM

Zulu, you should consider checking out Dan's. I know a lot of people who have recorded there, and everything I've heard was nearly professional quality. (if not professional quality)

He's not excessive with money, either.

If you're interested, I could give you his number.

I'm pretty sure he's under $50 an hour.

Drake · #9 01-31-2002, 10:27 AM

Hey thanks guys... i am getting an overall aura in here that it is around 50 bux american per hour for a decent recording with the amount of time spent putting everything together helping the quality. The other dark horse variable is your bands ability to lay down its tracks in a not so much "one take" manner, but in a well organized manner. Clearly this takes some prethought.

Thanks. Any more opinions are very welcome, and i am sure that there are a lot of TBers that have payed for studio time in the past...

Perhaps some information about the Vancouver studios in particular would be nice.. like quality and price of:

green house

turtle

mushroom

armoury

and any others. Those just happen to be some of the bigger names...

Thanks

Drake

Drake · #10 01-31-2002, 05:46 PM

Double Bump

**Josh Ryan** · #11 02-05-2002, 10:41 AM

In W. Mass it ranges from $25 (project studio) to over $300 (tape that keeps rolling, etc....) A good engineer will save you lots of cash as well. Like a mechanic who, while they may have a higher dollar per hour labour rate, they don't muck about ander the hood and take less time in general.

Drake · #12 02-05-2002, 03:44 PM

Wow 300 dollars... i could not imagine my band spending that in the next couple years... maybe if we get a record deal or something...

Thanks for the info!

Mike

Drake · #13 02-05-2002, 07:00 PM

We went to greenhouse the other day and those prices were about that, but they quoted 12 days for three songs.... we told them that was a crappy offer and left... We were then told by friends that they take their time and are a rip off.... They are not run by the same person anymore, same family but different person..