anybody have a clue as to how much i should be charging?

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Hubbawho

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if you're interested. listen to the quality of my recordings and tell me what price range i should fairly be charging clients. so far i'm not having any problems finding clients, but that may be because i'm undercharging. I have no clue. lol

www.unrestrainedstudios.com/id13.html
 
Hubbawho said:
if you're interested. listen to the quality of my recordings and tell me what price range i should fairly be charging clients. so far i'm not having any problems finding clients, but that may be because i'm undercharging. I have no clue. lol

www.unrestrainedstudios.com/id13.html
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Alright dude, you asked, so I'll be honest. I listened to three samples; melodic, hardcore, and punk. Melodic sounds like $15; hardcore and punk are better, maybe $20 and $25, respectively ;) . The guitars sound pretty good on the latter two, vocals are fine, but you really gotta focus on the drums. The drums sound terrible on the melodic cut; I'd take that off the site. They are OK on the other two, but not up to the level of the guitars, vocal.

Run a spellcheck on the site, which otherwise looks good. Re: mics, the SM57 is not omnidirectional, it's cardioid, and "large diaphragm" is standard nomenclature, not "wide" :)

Overall I think you'd want to bring the studio quality and rates up to your music instruction rates, otherwise you are wasting your time on low rate work, no? If you're just fillin' in downtime, it's gravy, but $20 gravy tastes better than $15 gravy ;)
 
wow man, good review. that's exactly what I was looking for. And by the way, you completely nailed it in the exact order of experience. the melodic band was recorded like 6 months ago, 2 months ago for the hardcore, and the "punk new sample" is farely recent. However, i was happy with the drums on the punk sample and the metal-core sample. But as for the rest of the samples I get your point.

For recordings, my top priority are the drums...and if you say they don't sound good even on my most recent recordings, do you think maybe you can pinpoint for me what about them doesn't sound good so that I can work it out myself? thanks again man. peace
 
Hubbawho said:
For recordings, my top priority are the drums...and if you say they don't sound good even on my most recent recordings, do you think maybe you can pinpoint for me what about them doesn't sound good so that I can work it out myself? thanks again man. peace
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The most recent recording, the drums just sounded thin. Overall I'm wondering about your recording space. I don't mean to be a hardass, drums are hard, and they are even tougher in a small space. I wonder if you could use some acoustic treatment in that space. What is your space like--size, shape, floors, walls?
 
I listened to a couple of clips.... there's no way to say this without sounding harsh, but I've not heard anything that leads me to think you're ready to charge anyone yet, unless you're doing it as a $20/song hobby kind of thing.

I think you need to be concentrating on practicing and developing your engineering chops far more than worrying about what you'll charge. When your mixes start sounding like commercial products, then you'll know how much you should be charging. It takes a long time to develop marketable engineering skills, so don't rush it....

That being said, if you're just targeting teen garage-band clients for the practice, then undercharging should be no concern!
 
i respect that...you are certainly one of the pro's on this forum. But, you don't think that work should be accounted for with compensation? I understand i'm not near your level, but you know what I mean. Also, can you please tell me what you've listened to out of my mixes? I just would like to know your referance point. My samples do vary a lot in quality because they range anywhere from when I knew very little about recording till now. Who knows, it's slightly possible that you only listened to my poorer mixes. lol
 
That's why I mentioned about the teen garage-band thing -- the expectation isn't as high (for you and the clients) and so you charge only a little, and gain a lot in experience and practical skills.

In my strictly personal opinion, I think an engineer should only charge professional rates if they can turn out professional-sounding product. In other words, their skills should merit their "compensation". Which also means that as a novice, you shouldn't be expecting commercial rates, but rather consider the difference between garage-band rates and commercial rate the cost of your practical education in recording!

Incidently - I listened to several of the clips at the top of your list.

I'm not saying you can't get there, just that you shouldn't worry so much about how much you should be charging until you've got your chops in place.... you keep working and practicing at it!
 
It has been my experience that what you should be charging and what you are able to or what you will charge are two totally different things. If your an honest guy that probably won't be the case. Unfortunately there are a lot of crooked people in this world. I am certainly no pro and I am not out to put you down so take this for what you will.
I checked out the metalcore (I think i heard this one before?) and the melodic clips. Overall the mixes just sound unbalanced to me. So here is where a problem of morals begins. If there are not many studios in your area and plenty of bands, you can probably charge whatever the hell you want (within reason). I've known many bands who paid top dollar for total BS work. If there are alot of studios you can probably still make descent money by having the lowest prices. Obviously this is going to get you some not so good bands but either way it is experience.
If you were in my area I wouldn't pay you more than $10 an hour, if that. Now with that said, there are many days where I feel like I wouldn't pay myself 10 an hour. Just the nature of the beast man.
 
Well I guess I asked for that. lol Okay, understood, i'm not ready to play ball yet. Atleast I know I'm decent at musical performance...in which case I'd be judging others just the same as you. Any other opinions? Preferably more constructive criticism?
 
Hubbawho said:
Well I guess I asked for that. lol Okay, understood, i'm not ready to play ball yet. Atleast I know I'm decent at musical performance...in which case I'd be judging others just the same as you. Any other opinions? Preferably more constructive criticism?
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How about trying PMC #12? That way you can focus on mixing skills apart from tracking skills, and see how you rate against 30 or 40 other board members.
 
Hubbawho- no ill intentions were meant by my post. I was just being honest as if I were looking for somewhere to track my next album. I say no more than $10 per hour because if you start getting up around $20-35 an hour (around here) the quality level jumps up quite a bit.
Im not trying to bust your chops, its only my opinion which you did ask for. As far as being more specific, I am almost certain I posted many times in your thread concerning the metalcore track.


The guitars sound like they need a hi-pass and the drums are fairly up front for this style. I think part of the problem with the guitars is the fact that the drums are so bright. Its sort of a contrast thing, the guitars are muddy but probably wouldn't sound as dull if the drums weren't in such sharp contrast with their brightness.
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Im sorry if you felt my post was knocking your work. Honestly there aren't many members on the board who I would pay money to record my tracks. This is Homerecording after all. LOL
 
yeah man I understand I wasn't taking any offense...just waking up from an ego trip.

As for the pmc#12 ..? can you explain what that is, I have no clue what you mean.
 
Hey guys I'm interested in another honest opinion...I'm not necessarily still wondering "how much should I be charging", but rather, if my mixing has improved over the last 2 months or not. I have many new samples up on my website. I'm interested to hear any opinions, but more so, I'm interested in those who had previously judged my work based on my old samples. Just tell me if I'm at least going in the right direction and improving...thanks, I'd really appreciate it.
here's the link:

http://hubbawho0.tripod.com/id13.html

p.s. if the new hardcore samples sound familiar, it's because I re-recorded the same band.
 
Hubbawho,

Sorry but this is going to be an answer to your first question about rates. It seems like everybody here is giving you advice to charge based on your skill. Well in my opinion that has very little to do with what you charge. More important is the MARKET. I mean there are several things. Are you the only project studio in the market, the only studio at all?

Look at it this way as well. Even if you had absolutely no skill at all you would still have to charge people as if you were a rental outfit. How much would it cost for somebody to rent all of your gear by the hour? That's worth something. How much skill you add is only another factor.

Really all that matters is this---you say you have no trouble getting clients. That means that you are at least charging a fair price. If you have a super long waiting list and you're turning people away then you are undercharging. Raise your fees until you have a healthy balance. Only supply and demand can determine a price for something, not your skill or the opinions of anybody on this board. Believe me when your skills get to professional level there will be a line around the door and then following my rule you'll know it's time to raise your prices.

You can also do some research and see what other similar studios are charging and get a jump start on your own pricing research. Hope this helps.
 
well thankyou. that was a very fair remark. And just to answer aone of your questions, there aren't that many other studios near bye. About 5 or so. There's a much better "facility" the town next to me. They have all the right gear, right rooms, right looks, but their end product is not much better than mine and I work out of a second apartment that I rent as a studio. Next, there's a home studio in the other town next to me, where the guy charges 10 dollars an hour and is only half as good as me. All three of us get business, and I actually have to turn people away because I only run the "studio" 3 days a week right now. (still sticking to my regular, stable, job for a few more years before I try to do this full time.) But I get better rapidly, and eventually, once I get the right equipment, the right rooms, and the right looks, just like the "professional" studio in the town next to me, i think they're gonna start losing their business. And that place charges 35 bucks an hour.

What I can say is this...there's also a 4th studio built inside of a music shop farther away from here. And a few bands loved going there because the guy only charged 25 bucks an hour. But I was able to snag TWO of his clients and have them go my way and be very satisfied. Also, there's another real studio with an experienced elderly guy who charges 35-50 bucks. And I snagged one of his clients becuase they literally said that I sounded better than him. Which was odd, cuz I saw pictures of his place and he had ALL the right stuff. So that's my story, with experience, I'm on the low end in my area. When it comes to a facility and some big ticket equipment, I only beat one other local guy. But when it comes to price, I am cheaper than most of the places. And the end result is a mix that people value for the price that I charge. I can't say that I'm "GOOD" relative to great producers. But as a small business, it's really starting to pick up in my area atleast.
 
OK, well I just listened to the snippets. I'll give some comments, but take it with a grain of salt, as I'm not listening on monitors, and I'm not a "pro" although I do some assistant engineering at a local studio, and record some people at home. The new stuff in general does sound better for sure. Particularly there was one song, the hardcore one in the middle i think, where the snare sounded good.

For the most part though the snare sound I'm hearing is quite thin. I want to hear more in the overheads I think, or a room mic. More low end, more depth, more decay, less of a certain frequency in the high mids, although I can't pinpoint what it is. Tuning and compression can help a lot there.

The kick is generally too clicky for my taste, although it really was necessary in some of the hardcore stuff. But anything without sixteenth kick notes needs more depth to the kick, more boom and less click, and probably less low mids, like 300hz (approx). Again, more room mic. Maybe you're really boosting 3k or something around there. Don't do that as much.

The cymbals give me the impression the room you're in isn't great. What do you have for treatment? If it's anything but proper acoustic treatment, change that as soon as possible.

The most common thing with all the songs was perhaps that the guitars are always rushing. Obviously that's the band, but sometimes you gotta take a stand and say, you know maybe you can play that more in time. On the early stuff the songs sound very bad because of the timing, and the out of tune guitars. If the band doesn't have a producer, then you're the guy who's gotta watch out for some of this stuff, cause ultimately it comes back to reflect on you.

Just some quick comments based on a really quick listen on crappy computer speakers. :)
 
Good for you Hubba. I think that being able to do this as a career is the real success. Everything after that is just gravy.

Good luck and from your last post it seems your pricing is about right. Perhaps just a smidgen low for the market. Raise er up a few bucks and I bet you won't see a drop off in business at all....just a few bucks more per hour of money!!
 
both those comments I think were accurate...

I'll admit that I never end up charging full price. I ALWAYS give huge discounts in the end, so maybe, with like 6 months more of experience I can just start enforcing a strict 15 bucks per hour rule. Right now, like I said, I have a reputation for rounding down and shaving off mixing fees when I don't feel as tho I've done my best.
 
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