how much to record a cd

[fastplant]

Last time we recorded was at a very very good studio and the engineers there recommended one day per song as a rule of thumb. At the end of each day the song (for that day) was recorded, mixed, and mastered.

They also charged about $350 a day...

I do it different, I do all rhythm first (bass, drums, guitars) while they are still miked the way I like it, for all the songs. Then move forward. I don't like doing different songs each day, because if the drummer is in a groove I don't want to wait another day, when he might not, be to do the other songs.

 

[BIg O]

Much of this has been said before, but depends on the actual sound you want to get, how tight you really are, and the experience/skills of the engineer.

We went to record a $400 (6 hour) demo after shopping for studios - we figured 4 songs max. The studio was top-notch, the owner/engineer had 25 years experience, and had many tiier 1 and tier 2 recordings under his belt. After the session we had 8 tracks recorded and mixed including vocals, and he suggested we could do a full "live from the floor" sounding CD with 8-10 hours more. That we did - total recording costs about $1400 CAD, plus another $1600CAD for artwork & production and we had 500 professional (looking and sounding) CD's.

I still am in the afterglow...

 

[ModulusFan]

My last band (original rock) recorded a 13 track cd in the drummers studio, he is an engineer for a living. The most of it was done when I joined, but I spent the better part of two long days just doing the bass tracks.

I'd asked him what kind of bill this project would of been had it been a regular, paying band vs. his own, and he actually had kept track of it.

Total recording, mixing, mastering, ect. approached 15 grand. Quality is as good as anything out. I have included my favorite track from this project on the TB sampler cd.

 

[Gallient Knight]

I did my disk in CT for about 600 dollars, decent digital recording great and GREAT mastering room.


This same studio just did a punk disk with 15 songs for about the same

Almost ALL of the cost of recording is in re-takes, overdubs, mix down, re-mix down, re-mix down. Control that and you are way better off

Mastering is usually a fixed cost per song unless you want them to do something weird

PM me if you want details on that studio

 

[miko]

i was gonna suggest a project rate of $200 per tune. if you have 15 tunes, i assume they're all fairly short, and if you guys are tight, you should be able to bang them out quickly.

i would suggest more than 2 takes per song, though. get your best work on tape. sometimes it's hard to tell what your best effort is when you're busy playing.

we knocked out a 7-song demo for $100, with a guy's home recorder. how crazy is that? bottom line though, is that only 4 songs were usable, and the quality isn't all that, however, it's good enough to get gigs, and actually, if we remixed some stuff, i'd be fine with using it as a real give or sell-away item.


good luck!

 

[Heavy_E]

Here are the rates at local studio here in town... seems about right...

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Recording Rates: $400.00 a day (12 hr max)

$1500.00 a week (lock out)

$50.00 an hour

Mastering Rates: $50.00 an hour

PIA Rates $1250.00 an hour

CD Duplication: Call for quote.

 

[Heavy_E]

Oh yeah... I forgot...

We did an unmastered 5 song demo... it took 2 days.

 

[AJ Love]

the Rock band I am in will be able to record a full length album for free because the bandleader owns the studio. a nice situation as we're able to take our time and get things right and do alot of pre-production, plus we rehearse in the studio so we really know the place well

trust me, after 20 years in this business I recognize what a fortunate situation this is...

the Reggae band I am in begins recording an album tomorow afternoon actually. we're using the same studio (DNA Studios in Madison) but I have to pay $45 an hour. worth it though because the studio is great and the engineer we're working with is brilliant. I have no idea how much $$ total the album will cost. probably around $2000-$4000. we plan on recording once every 3 to 4 weeks and it will get done when it gets done. tommorow is mostly about getting a great sounding demo for gigs and to get started on the album. we have a 10 hour time slot booked and hope to have 2 or 3 demo quality songs completed by the end of the day and to have gotten started on 3 or 4 other songs. somewhat ambitious but everyone in the band is experienced pros who have done this kinda thing before many times

 

[danshee]

Some of you said this already. It dependes on your sound that you want. My last studio recorded album costed over $2000 per song. Famous producers too though. In reality, this is cheap for the work that was done. Now, I record everything at my own house. Spent a few grand, got it set up and recording time is relaxed and free. Although I do miss being in a studio sometimes. Good fun in there.

 

[Joe Nerve]

our recording process has begun, i started another post on that - but want to add some relevant things to this post.

the guy producing the cd is a friend, and i'm seeing now why he decided to charge by the project and not the hour. he's an artist, (and a perfectionist) and it would be virtually impossible for us to pay him for the work he's doing. we'd be sweating bigtime on the hours he's putting in to make sure that this is the best possible product we can all create together. i am confident that we got ourselves the best recording deal under the sun. i feel really indebted to this guy and my hopes are we sell enough of this cd to really take care of him when it comes time to put down the next.

we put in a few 12 hour days do far, guitarist is traveling cross country for a couple of weeks, and when he returns we're going to finish it all up. we're approximately a third of the way there.

recording feels like giving birth, although i have no idea what giving birth feels like and i imagine the recording hurts a whole lot less. maybe i take that statment back.