I have to disagree here... How is he gonna keep the gigs coming if he's only got ONE mic?? And judging from his gearlist, this is not gonna be a 500$ mic!
Anyone with a PC and a decent soundblaster can do recordings. And for 100$, they can probably just buy the same mic as he has. Or they can get 2 ECM8000, and since most bands have some sort of mixer in their vocal setup, they can do stereo recordings on their own!
If you want to charge people, you gotta have the equipement necessary to make a decent recording. And you need experience. You don't get experience from ripping of friends. You get experience by recording these friends over and over again, trying different things. And since YOU are the one that is experimenting, it's actually YOU that should pay THEM. But, if you agree that you'll give them the recording, and you'll do the best you can, they will play for you just as many times as you need to experiment, and you''l have a healthy relationship with the band. And once you've gotten better equipement, and some experience, that band will surely come to you to record their demo, since they know you, they know what you're worth, and they know that you are the best guy for their bands, since you have grown with them, know what they want to sound like, ...
Another thing you should do is get mixing experience, and start doing live-mixing for the bands you experience with. That's THE way to get mixing experience. You start doing this for free, since there's alot for you to learn. Once you can assure that you'll get them to sound better as 70% of the clubmixers (which is not THAT hard since you know the band and their sound), you can start charging them.
You don't grow as a mixer/recording engineer by ripping of people. You NEED friends in this business, and alot of 'em. I know ALL the bands in my area. They ALL know me, and I've been livemixer for the best of 'em. I got to know ALOT of other engineers, they are all helping me out if I ask them... And I HARDLY EVER asked a price. In fact, the first paying demo is planned this month, and I've been recording for over 2 years now. I've got about 8 mics, and ALOT more. I can assure a decent recording, a decent mic, and some basic mastering. Now I can get in the local business, doing budget recordings. Budget, since I record on lacation, and don't have the mics and rooms the local budgetstudio has. But most people have more faith in me since my demo's have always sound just as good as the ones from that studio.
Now, THAT's the point you can start asking $$. When you can deliver the quality necessary to compete with the other local budgetstudios. If you can't do that, you'll never get any customer. Local bands are all familiar with eachother, from sharing the same stages. Rip one band, and you'll loose 5 others!
