if you were hired to record a band...

Even

Even

New member
Due to a wild stroke of luck I was asked to record a local band on my Roland to burn them a demo to hand out around town. Great bunch of guys, friends of mine. So I pretty much did it for free. Well it seems that they have shared the disk with other friends and the new bands, in liking the basic results, want me to hook them up. So the question is simple... what would one charge for this service? I know that actual pro studio recording can run a pretty penny. And I am not one to shirk a money making opportunity. $100 bucks a tune seem fair? I admit that I can not do half of what a "real" studio can do, but the machine does provide a decent sound and good mix for club demo cds...
all thoughts are most welcomed.
 
I agree. It is better to charge people by the hour. $10/hr is a fair price if your are just starting off with minimal gear. Charging by the hour forces the musicians to have their stuff together and be a bit more professional; otherwise, they may goof off and waste your time.
 
Ten bucks an hour?
That's not much more than 'minimum wage'.
I think you should charge $20 or $25 an hour if the results have been that good.
Otherwise, let them go pay somebody else four times that amount (which is about standard cost) and not get the same personal attention that a small studio can give.
$25 an hour is a very reasonable rate these days. Your equipment did'nt just fall out of the sky, did it? You PAID for it!
Why should you LOSE money, and put the extra "wear and tear" on your machines without getting properly compensated?
Heck, a decent waiter or waitress can make about $25 an hour.... should'nt you?
Charge em' the same rate for mastering too. Believe me, $20 or $25 an hour is VERY generous.
If you do this for only $10 an hour, you're gonna attract crappy garage bands and a ton of 14-year-olds who think they're the next Eddie Van Halen.
Time is a very valuable thing. The older you get, the more you'll realize that.
 
Look at it this way. You know your limitations, you know what your gear cost and you also know what you can and can't do. Now put all that together and compare it to what a pro studio would run you IF YOU wanted to pay someone to record you. 10 an hour is pretty cheap. One hour is a lot of songs or a lot of rehearsal time in which you'll have to hang out to watch your gear. You know someones going to want to play with it if your not around. Since you already got the start on a decent reputation, go with it and charge more than 10. What have you got to lose? You said "a stroke of wild luck....." so obviously you weren't anticipating this extra revenue source, nor the wear and tear on your equipment. 30 samolians an hour is fair. Your not total pro but you've proved that you know what your doing.
 
I have the same type of question, actually...I have some equipment and want to get more experience with the technical end of things and was wondering if it would be worthwhile to work out a kind of trade off system- in other words, I find a band, offer to record them (primarily as a learning tool for myself) for cheap, and build on my knowledge (and raise my prices accordingly) from there. Anyone gone this route? Has it worked for you or just sucked? Thanks, Nate
 
Its true, I do have plenty of cash in this room and gear. $20 is probably fair for both parties. And I agree flat hourly as opposed to do it when you want. I can't lie, its definately a twisted benefit to learn the pros and cons using other groups. as long as I am going to keep rewinding and editing I may as well be financialy compensated. Thanks gang
 
I will be taking on a similar situation in a month or so. I've never recorded anyone else before- and hey I'm working only with a cassette four track and minimal outboard eqipment and not that many (good) mics. honestly, I'd be embarassed to charge $10 an hour with my setup- but then again BECAUSE of my setup it takes more work to get things sounding good- but then again the results aren't going to be SPECTACULAR simply because of my setup. So I'm kinda stuck as to what I should be charging- I mean how much would you pay some guy with a four-track to come in and record you? I know I probably wouldn't want to pay that much!!! Since these guys are my first "clients" and I do hape to continue doing this cause It's a dream of mine to have A KICK-ASS STUDIO and to record KICK_ASS MUSIC. Really the only way that I'd feel justified in charging these guys a good amount of money is if a were to do some "production" with them- to really sit down with them and get them to sound their best, but that depends on them and how seriously they want to take this endeavor. And really i just need the experience. I guess we'll see what happens.
 
James: It depends alot on what the master plan is too. I sat with the boys day one and asked what it was exactly they wanted out of this. I knew from the get go I was in no position to rig them up with an airplay quality recording. They want to get booked in clubs first and formost. But to even get in the door at most clubs you need a tape or cd to give the manager that he/she may listen to it and see if it is something they want to support in their club. The sound quality hardly needs to be red book for that. An analog 4 track is fine in that case. It captures the basic sound and gives the listener an idea of what to expect::: loud/ soft, dance, vulgarity and basic tallent::: in that reguard you are doing them a vast service by recording them.
 
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