How'd you finance your studio?

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tone_aot

tone_aot

Owner of ToneJonez.com
Hi folks. Just curious how everyone accumulated the gear for their studios. I want to have my own "real" studio so bad. I've seen alot of pics of home studios that look fantastic in here. Alot of you must have excellent jobs! I'm still in the "searching" period of my life. I'm really good with computers so i'm trying to figure what computer field to major in that will get me paid so i can have my studio one day. How'd you finance your gear? It's taken me about 2 years to get what i have from working at various jobs. I'm currently a customer service rep. :D
 
tone_aot said:
Hi folks. Just curious how everyone accumulated the gear for their studios. I want to have my own "real" studio so bad. I've seen alot of pics of home studios that look fantastic in here. Alot of you must have excellent jobs! I'm still in the "searching" period of my life. I'm really good with computers so i'm trying to figure what computer field to major in that will get me paid so i can have my studio one day. How'd you finance your gear? It's taken me about 2 years to get what i have from working at various jobs. I'm currently a customer service rep. :D
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hey, i've wondered about this same thing. i think this board has a higher percentage of folks with day jobs than maybe ones like tapeop or gearslutz (i might be wrong), but there are definitely some established pros visiting here. i finance all my stuff from my day job and my career is picking up. i was a psychotherapist for 6 years (no $ there) and now i'm an administrator and climbing the ladder a little bit. it also is about priorities-- i don't own an ipod or a high-def tv, but i have a ua m610 and a chameleon labs 7602. neither of those is top of the line, but i love them and will probably use them for the next 40 years. :)
cool ? man.
 
tone_aot said:
Hi folks. Just curious how everyone accumulated the gear for their studios. I want to have my own "real" studio so bad. I've seen alot of pics of home studios that look fantastic in here. Alot of you must have excellent jobs! I'm still in the "searching" period of my life. I'm really good with computers so i'm trying to figure what computer field to major in that will get me paid so i can have my studio one day. How'd you finance your gear? It's taken me about 2 years to get what i have from working at various jobs. I'm currently a customer service rep. :D
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One of the down sides of working in a well paying computer job is normally you end up with more working hours and less time to use the studio... not true in all cases but i know alot of people who get paid well also work excess overtime/on call's and stuff like that..
 
I finance mine by driving a shitty car, living in an apartment, driving pass that nice restaurant for the value menu at Mcdonald's. I forget about being fashionable or trendy. I work security at night and go to school in the day. I get paid for both which allows me to buy some nice stuff not the best but best bang for my buck.
 
Most of what I've accumulated slowly over many years was financed only by cash made playing in bands. My day job money was to live on and such and band money payed for toys.
 
perceive said:
One of the down sides of working in a well paying computer job is normally you end up with more working hours and less time to use the studio... not true in all cases but i know alot of people who get paid well also work excess overtime/on call's and stuff like that..
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:( That doesn't sound that great! :D I don't know what to do man. I thought about being a web designer but don't know if the money is there. I know programmers make a load but the conditions are as you stated above. I also thought about going into the health field and taking up radiologic technology. Thought about it then i wasn't too hooked on being exposed to radiation for 40 hrs a week! :D I'm a bright guy i just need a good solid paying career. I wanna be able to work on my music production career on the side until hopefully i get a chance to become a super producer one day.
 
Day job paid for my gear.

Why not just do free-lance out of established studios - best of both worlds. You only pay when you are getting paid. :D
 
tone_aot said:
Hi folks. Just curious how everyone accumulated the gear for their studios. I want to have my own "real" studio so bad. I've seen alot of pics of home studios that look fantastic in here. Alot of you must have excellent jobs! I'm still in the "searching" period of my life. I'm really good with computers so i'm trying to figure what computer field to major in that will get me paid so i can have my studio one day. How'd you finance your gear? It's taken me about 2 years to get what i have from working at various jobs. I'm currently a customer service rep. :D
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I tihnk networking is the way to go. My buddy has a networking job, Makes almost twice what I do with my bachelors degree (roking for a custom computer builder), and spends half the day sitting on his rear playing on the web.

I have been putting mine together for like 3 or four years, but my folks helped me pay for the parts to build my computer for my graduation, so lucky there. Other than that I been getting a piece or two at a time, paying from my job and any live sound freelance stuff I do. Luckily I can get alot of proaudio gear cheap where I work. It also helps driving a beat up truck, eating Raman noodles, playing pawn shop guitars, and only drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, Weidamans, and Strohs.
 
two words

Two words....STUDENT LOANS! Ha, that's how I'm doin it....
Only spent about 2,000 so far, key word so far..but with an interest rate of under 5% it beats credit cards or bank loans.
Maybe I'm wrong, but being wrong is sounding prettttty sweet:rolleyes:
 
It's from buying and not selling for about 30 years now.

You can really build up a pile of stuff over 30 years, lemme tell ya. ;)

But all of the computer stuff obviously came about in the last 6-7 years.

We're all about technology over here. The stuff is everywhere. My kids are video freaks and my 12-y-o wants a $3500 broadcast-quality camera.

I asked what his second choice was for a birthday present and he said Vegas6. It was sold out already so I had to get Vegas 7.

They are taking right after Dad. :D

Hey, if you have kids enrolled in school you can get educational versions of most sw. Some are upgradeable and some are not, just so you know. But we got Vegas for about 1/2 price.

You can get a full on version of Maya for something like $6500 off retail.
 
I steal other people's stuff while they are busy posting in the Cave :D
 
LOL. Thanks for the responses folks, even the weird ones!! I might seriously consider networking. I heard they get paid good money. I'm just worried that in a few years, computers are gonna screw up and i won't have a job. Life is so stressful. That's why i love music! :D It's like another world or somethin.
 
Well, I used student loans for most of the stuff I have, that and my dad owns like the computer, PA, electronic drums.. stuff like that, but the rest of my gear I paid for and now I'm kind of broke heh. I did just start a job giving drum lessons and the money is actually not half bad there. Especially for a broke college kid like myself. My friend is making around 80 dollars per week working 1 day so hopefully I can accumulate some cash to buy some better mics and maybe upgrade my drum kit. I think I might be able to write drum equipment off on my taxes now that my main income is lessons ;)
Also I'm not certain but I think you can write-off studio equipment, that is if you are making income off of it and documenting it with your taxes and whatnot. Anyone know anything about that?
 
Lots of work, and learning from my own mistakes. I first started my studio around 1985. My first "big deal" purchase was a Tascam Porta-One, and that was when I caught the audio bug. Since then I have spent every spare minute and spare dollar looking to improve upon that. I even went to a recording school, though by the time I did that, I had learned more on my own than I had realized. I've gone from 4-track cassette to 8-track reel-to-reel to computer-based recording, all the while increasing my knowledge of acoustics and having a good front-end for capturing quality audio. It has been a long ride that is by no means over (I'm still learning, even at this crazy site!), but I've enjoyed every success and failure equally.

If it's really important to you, you'll make the time and money for it. Period.
 
I kept a "change jar" by my bed, every night I put whatever change I have in my pockets in it. Surprisingly coins add up to dollars pretty quickly. Cashed in the coins and bought most of my gear one piece at a time. I lucked up on the building, when we bought our house there was a second house on the property which I claimed and did some remodeling to convert it into a studio. This way takes a few years but I didn't go into debt for anything and now whatever change i save goes for improvements and gear upgrades. A lot of my stuff was bought used or traded for which saved me a few dollars along the way.
 
I would also like to add for the guys hold off on the girlfriends and girls hold off on the boyfriends...

Man have I wasted some money on women. Iam not gay though

as I always say "Bitches Come And Go!"
 
Day job. What I do is my second love besides music, but where and how I do it is stressful :( Make decent money, though, and use the little extra we put in savings for necessary living stuff like home repairs and upgrades, and studio/studio stuff. Savings account is not very happy at the moment though :(
 
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