Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[JoeVictim]

What happened? Who did the recording? Does he mean the quality is bad or the performance?

Quality. My friend did a live recording for free. Guess I can't complain too much. Going to hit up Bill Douglas. Guy that did Gish, Siamese Dream, and more. Hello second mortgage. J/k. My drummer knows him. Getting friend rates. Going to be in June... Once I get back from mini vacation, I'll be ready to ship shirts. Is PayPal best for shirt orders?

 

[JoeVictim]

Be back Sunday

 

[beebassdude]

I believe the tuck and roll pa towers from Kustom are 412s and a bit deeper than our 212+210s and can actually provide bass frequncies. They have speaker cone area for sure though. Im turning mine into light boxes eventually because they are cool looking cabs, just not speaker cabs.

they were actually guitar cabs from what i read in their 1970 price guide.

what i still cant figure out is why some of their cabs had the stupid plush foam on them, and why others were just tolex.

 

[twhitedc]

NPD see what it does later

 

[The_Janitor]

You're the one who was posting about that, right?

Why not just rant about all of it, if you don't think the band meeting will change anything? Since you seem to have a good head on your shoulders, I'm sure we'd probably all agree with you that it's ******** being handed to you, so at least we could properly commiserate, or point out more problems with whatever **** people are trying to pull now.

If you do walk, but you're keeping the drummer with you, though, that'll make starting a new group a hell of a lot easier.

Not me with the practice space issue, I think that was mr CL400.

A local promoter offered us a show next week opening for two Australian stoner/sludge bands. Apparently the promoter sent a FB message to guitar player offering us the show. I didn't see it on my feed. Yesterday one of my coworkers who's friends with the promoter asked me if we were going to play the show - that was the first I had heard about it. Shortly after that guitar player sent me a FB event invite for the show saying that he's going - but there's two bands from Milwaukee opening the show. So apparently we turned it down. Drummer hadn't heard anything about it either.

It was really short notice, and if guitar player couldn't do it because of work or something I would have been fine with it - but to not even mention it to the other two guys in the band is not OK. Taken on its own I'd mention it and forget about it, but this is just the latest in a long line of BS.

It's a lot like the time that Max informed me that our band name had changed. I'm sick of hearing stuff about the band that I'm in second and third-hand from other people.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Quality. My friend did a live recording for free. Guess I can't complain too much. Going to hit up Bill Douglas. Guy that did Gish, Siamese Dream, and more. Hello second mortgage. J/k. My drummer knows him. Getting friend rates. Going to be in June... Once I get back from mini vacation, I'll be ready to ship shirts. Is PayPal best for shirt orders?

Shop around before committing. There is a local band who I'm acquaintances with who are doing an Indiegogo to raise $5000 to record their album and release it on CD. Seriously, $5000?! This is what makes me hate crowdsourcing. Their perks are crappy and they don't even give an itemized list on why they need $5000. It's 2014, you don't need $5000 to record and album and release it on CD.

We spent less than $1250 to record mix and master Filaments. I dare anyone to say the audio production on that isn't top notch. Sure, we were in the know and friends with the guys we worked with, but they still charged us fairly competitive rates. You just gotta figure out what your budget is and then work within that.

I really liked that we were able to work out a flat rate. When I asked John how much he'd charge us to mix and master, he asked how much we could spend. I told him about a grand. He goes ok that's cool, I'll do it. Granted he's more of a DIY guy, who doesn't have a studio and really just has a collection of mics, an audio interface, and a laptop. But we worked our connections and managed to borrow some spaces a few times to record in, and came in within our budget with a fantastic sounding album.

 

[Korladis]

Not me with the practice space issue, I think that was mr CL400.

A local promoter offered us a show next week opening for two Australian stoner/sludge bands. Apparently the promoter sent a FB message to guitar player offering us the show. I didn't see it on my feed. Yesterday one of my coworkers who's friends with the promoter asked me if we were going to play the show - that was the first I had heard about it. Shortly after that guitar player sent me a FB event invite for the show saying that he's going - but there's two bands from Milwaukee opening the show. So apparently we turned it down. Drummer hadn't heard anything about it either.

It was really short notice, and if guitar player couldn't do it because of work or something I would have been fine with it - but to not even mention it to the other two guys in the band is not OK. Taken on its own I'd mention it and forget about it, but this is just the latest in a long line of BS.

It's a lot like the time that Max informed me that our band name had changed. I'm sick of hearing stuff about the band that I'm in second and third-hand from other people.

Oh, that's right, it was CL400. Doh!

Why the shag would he turn down the show if he's going to it anyway? That makes zero sense.

Our communication in Catapult is pretty decent when it comes to shows. If the main two guys who do booking get show opportunities, they usually immediately text the entire band with "[date of show] at the [location of show]. Can everyone do it?" And then we all respond yes or no.

If a six-piece with members scattered across the bay area has better communication than your band... you have a problem (I've said the same thing about set-up/tear-down times).

Shop around before committing. There is a local band who I'm acquaintances with who are doing an Indiegogo to raise $5000 to record their album and release it on CD. Seriously, $5000?! This is what makes me hate crowdsourcing. Their perks are crappy and they don't even give an itemized list on why they need $5000. It's 2014, you don't need $5000 to record and album and release it on CD.

We spent less than $1250 to record mix and master Filaments. I dare anyone to say the audio production on that isn't top notch. Sure, we were in the know and friends with the guys we worked with, but they still charged us fairly competitive rates. You just gotta figure out what your budget is and then work within that.

I really liked that we were able to work out a flat rate. When I asked John how much he'd charge us to mix and master, he asked how much we could spend. I told him about a grand. He goes ok that's cool, I'll do it. Granted he's more of a DIY guy, who doesn't have a studio and really just has a collection of mics, an audio interface, and a laptop. But we worked our connections and managed to borrow some spaces a few times to record in, and came in within our budget with a fantastic sounding album.

Catapult's album release cost about $3500, but that includes both cassette and vinyl. Plus the new batch of shirts and other merch that we made in conjunction. We did the recording itself DIY, but paid a pro for the mastering.

Who'd you go to for CDs? Did you release CD only? We considered it but apparently decided against it because it was too large a minimum number of copies.

 

[The_Janitor]

Why the **** would he turn down the show if he's going to it anyway? That makes zero sense.

Our communication in Catapult is pretty decent when it comes to shows. If the main two guys who do booking get show opportunities, they usually immediately text the entire band with "[date of show] at the [location of show]. Can everyone do it?" And then we all respond yes or no.

If a six-piece with members scattered across the bay area has better communication than your band... you have a problem (I've said the same thing about set-up/tear-down times).

Makes absolutely zero sense to me. ...and yes - we have major communication issues.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Our drummer is a graphic designer. He designed our digipaks and created 150 of them, and we had CD Baby print 150 CDs, then we assembled everything together at band practice one day. Wasn't huge on the idea of having CDs made, but they've done well in Europe and also surprisingly well at a lot of shows. We're almost out.

 

[Korladis]

Our drummer is a graphic designer. He designed our digipaks and created 150 of them, and we had CD Baby print 150 CDs, then we assembled everything together at band practice one day. Wasn't huge on the idea of having CDs made, but they've done well in Europe and also surprisingly well at a lot of shows. We're almost out.

Interesting. How much did the CDs cost?

I mean, we have the art already, as evidenced by my avatar, and I doubt CDs would have really any additional art, as we'd use the same front and back cover as on the upcoming vinyl. If I land one of the jobs I've applied for, I might consider putting up the money myself to get CDs done, if I could get a small enough batch that I was sure could all sell. Especially if they were digipaks (cardboard > jewel cases, in my opinion).

 

[mbelue]

I've always liked digipacks better. Wish now people would fit forgo the plastic crap.

 

[Korladis]

I've always liked digipacks better. Wish now people would fit forgo the plastic crap.

Yeah, they're way more durable, too. Jewel cases are always cracking, and those little plastic tabs are weak points that usually break off. The cardboard covers take up way less space, too, and look classier.

 

[mc_muench]

If my estimation are correct the total for VEGA recording and putting out a double LP and a CD, we can fit it all on one disc with 45 secs to spare thank god, will be around 3 grand.

 

[Korladis]

If my estimation are correct the total for VEGA recording and putting out a double LP and a CD, we we can fit it all on one disc with able 45 secs to spare on time, will be around a 3 grand.

What companies are you guys using?

I don't know what the specific cost breakdown for ours was, but I want us to get as good a deal as we can on the next album as far as printing up LPs and CDs goes.

 

[mc_muench]

Pirate press for vinyl has the best pricing I've found so far. Otherwise United pressing. I know were saving some money by doing randomly mix colored vinyl. If we do black vinyl it will be the more limited vinyl ironically. We won't be doing vinyl right away, but it'll be out by the new year.

No clue on CDs yet, but I think well go digipak, so thanks for that advice guys. CD will be out by hopefully early fall.

 

[Pelham Bleu]

For MDT's (my band's) EP, we're recording, mixing and mastering in-house. Both my guitarist and I have experience with this. The final result won't be top-shelf, but it'll be very solid. Cost? $0.00.

We're going to do digital download only through, I think, Bandcamp. Then we'll create physical (CD, again, in-house) on a per-order basis. I'd like to do vinyl, but the economics just don't work unless we did some sort of split and, even then, it's next-to-impossible to have it make economic sense.

I'm happy sacrificing a little bit of quality for a whole lot of cost. Of course, this model works if you have enough in-house experience and inclination to do the work.

 

[mc_muench]

Also not being electrically cursed is a plus for DIY.

But holy poopie, you get for what you pay and lemme tell you'd guys, we sound damn fine, TAKE MY MONEY!!! We will have an unmastered track or two on our bandcamp in this next week, or next day or so if I get drunk enough to say shag and post it.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

I can't remember how much 150 CDs ran us. We also had them do a graphic on the CD as well. I want to say it was less than $200?

Pirates Press is probably your best bet for vinyl, both in quality and pricing. But you're going to have to do a 250 minimum quantity order. That's a lot.

 

[mbelue]

I can't remember how much 150 CDs ran us. We also had them do a graphic on the CD as well. I want to say it was less than $200?

Pirates Press is probably your best bet for vinyl, both in quality and pricing. But you're going to have to do a 250 minimum quantity order. That's a lot.

That's a great price for CD pressing with art in such small quantities.

 

[mc_muench]

But with a double LP 250 vinyls actually means 125 albums. That's not as much.


My guitarist wants to start a kick starter for the vinyl release but I'd rather just pay the money from our pockets and then sell them, how ever long that takes, and also make a chrude pre order list to help offset the cost a little bit. Also hoping the CD and other merch sales help a little too. There is a screen printng company up stairs that will give us a great deal on shirts. Hence staggering the CD and vinyl releases. Idk crowd sourcing eh idk, just doesn't feel right to me.