Prof studio advise

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amt7565

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Dear Fellow Rockers!

I am in the process of completing my CD. I have played the guitars, piano, keyboards and bass. The final mix I plan to take it to a pro studio. They want me to bring my equipment along (computer, m-audio/omnistudio soundcard, and MIDI synth module etc.). I have recorded on SONAR. They are charging me $60/hr and say each track shold be about 30-45 mts long. Since my bass tracks don't sound that great, I might play Bass again in the studio. Is there any adivse you guys can give me regarding mixing/mastering at a studio? Is $60 the going rate?

Thanks in advance :D
 
60 an hour would be dirt cheap for a good place. You can find lower, but price shouldnt be your primary concern. I dont understand the 30-35 mionutes a track thing...they say they are gonna MIX each track in 30 to 45 minutes?????

assuming a 4 minute song, thats only 10 passes!
 
Yes! Each track is about 45 mts. But I have already recorded everything on my computer and I will route them though my soundcar to their equipment. So all they do is mixing and mastering. Also my MIDI is not digitized yet, so the MIDI audio out will be routed directly to their system. My guitar and piano tracks are alrady digitized, so they will be routed out. I might just end up playing Bass through their compressors and mixer.

Thanks.
 
mastering...

Do you have a link to the studio? It's hard to say if $60 is a good rate without knowing what they have. Make sure you listen to other things they've done.
 
amt7565 wrote:
Yes! Each track is about 45 mts. But I have already recorded everything on my computer and I will route them though my soundcar to their equipment. So all they do is mixing and mastering. Also my MIDI is not digitized yet, so the MIDI audio out will be routed directly to their system. My guitar and piano tracks are alrady digitized, so they will be routed out. I might just end up playing Bass through their compressors and mixer.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
You are badly underestimating the time it takes for mixing... (not even counting mastering).... trust me.......
 
dont dare pay for mastering if it takes place in the same room/equipment/engineer/ears as the mixing

that kind of "mastering job " is a freebie
 
When they estimate 30-45 minutes per track,are they meaning each cut on the cd or each track in the multitrack? When I do an estimate for mixdown on a seriuos production mix,I figure 1 hour per track,so an 8 track mix for example would take approximately 8 hours,12 tracks 12 hours etc. In reality,it often takes less than that,sometimes more,but I personally like to err on the side of caution when doing an estimate. Just make sure you're crystal clear on what they mean by 30-45 min. per track before they start the clock and subsequently spending your money.

Good luck!
 
You are gonna pay $60 an hour and they are going to use your Delta? They should be using their own DAC's of much higher quality at that rate. Especially considering you will only have a few outputs available for mixing through their console.
 
OK thanks folks for your concerns.
I have included their studio link below. I did visit the studio and I was very impressed with the quality of their recording. I will be using my DELTA66 for take out my guitar tracks only, since I have already recorded the guitars on my PC. The MIDI sounds will be directly routed tho their A/Ds since I have not digitized them yet.
And for Bass, I plan to play them there. Also I might use one of their synths for Drums. The Drums on my Roland JV1010 are quite boring.

And yes its about 45 mts/track. Since I plan to play bass I would assume about 1hr/track. I have already made an agreement with them not to exceed $450.00, even if the time exceeds 8hrs, and that's all I have afford now. I would have spent about 8 months on my project(8 tracks) in November and I hope it comes out well.

The studio link: http://my.execpc.com/z_studios

THanks again :)
 
You are still seriously underestimating the time it takes to accomplish what you're looking to accomplish....

Did you say you were going to play bass live to recorded tracks as part of mixing???? Not a good idea at all...

You really haven't thought his process through, have you?

You can easily spend 12-18 hours mixing a single song!!!! How do you seriously expect to record live bass tracks and mix an entire CD in only 8 hours?!?!?! It jut isn't going to happen, friend.... sorry....
 
I would seriously doubt the intentions and "don't give a shit" attitude of any studio which claims they can do the job described in the time / budget given.
 
Clearly, this is your first time out. There is no such thing as mixing a song in 45 minutes.
I would put the chances of you being happy with the results at .05%. Itll be a learning experience. Next time youll have a better idea of whats involved.
 
holy crap...the studio Im working at now is " studio Z "...but those guys are z studios ?

I hope noone ever confuses us!!!
 
pipeline - that is funny...when I was reading the thread, and he posted that first dead link...I said

"hey...that sounds like pipelines studio - uh oh, shits about to his the fan with SOMETHING"

hehe.

but umm, yeah man...just run...run far far away...

Still very confused on why they want all of your gear in there but whatever.

What I would say is do a mix to the best of your ability, see where you get with it.

At that point you could just invest in mastering possibly?

Or just a slight remix, then mastering...

either way, on a budget, the more you can do yourself the better.
 
hmm, they seem to have a lot of nice gear, mics, amps, instruments - but i don't see many preamps..
 
wes480 said:
hmm, they seem to have a lot of nice gear, mics, amps, instruments - but i don't see many preamps..
Click to expand...

...and the reason you would need preamps for mixing would be...?
 
Most pro studios from my experience will tell you the same thing an auto mech will tell you... It could be 8 hours or it could be 80. They wont have any idea.... I've never heard of a studio giving such a stock answer as to the time they are going to spend on a track. At 60 bucks an hour, I bet you could find a studio doing it for 35 with a more profesional attitude. Dont have them master it there either. Its just not the way things are done. A pro mastering place will do a much better job and most are actually very resonable...Just my 2 centavos.
Myx
 
So you guys recommend that I do the mastering in a different studio? Doesn't make sense to me though....

Also the studio person told me it will take about 45 mts to mix one song. Why would he not tell me a higher period? I went to the studio and some of his recording sounded very good. He said he's been recording for more than 20 years.

Once again, I have my guitars already recorded on my PC. The MIDI sounds will be directly routed to the studio system. I might end up playing Bass....at the studio....

Am I missing something?
Everyone has offered negative comments. But no one has offered any suggestions yet as to how I can go about doing this.....or how long will it actually take to record the CD...
Any positive suggestions??
 
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