recording services.. risky?

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ad0lescnts

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ok. I've been recording now for a few years and I think i'm getting pretty good. My bro, friends, etc. tell me I should start a small recording studio to charge other bands for my services. There's only one problem. I'm 15. any suggestions?

T
 
Do you have money? I mean, you're 15 year old. If you want to be able to charge people for your services, you'll have to have some decent equipment.

When I was 14 I started to buy stuff. I had money because I lived with my parents and was working each weekend with Sound Companies. I invested all my little dollars in equipment. But I couldn't really charge people untill I got serious equipment. Now with charge I mean a reasonable fee.

I would suggest you buy the stuff you'll think you need, but take it slow. Try to work with people instead of seeing them as costumers. Age could be a little problem. I personally would not take a 15 year old serious because of the simple fact that he can't have any major experience with recording and productions processes. I don't mean recording the keys at home, but real life bands etc. It takes knowledge and most of all experience.

I myself have been able to setup a commercial studio that is up and running stable. The only way I could achief this was by

1. pure luck (right people, right time, right place)
2. being so determinded that is was annoying
3. keeping investing all the time.
4. a little bit of talent (ahum ahum);)

If you try to get a loan and invest a lot at once, I don't give you a real change. I think the equipment would be outdated before anybody took you serious. invest slowly but constantly would be my advice. That's the way I did it, and I started at your age. I worked for me.

At your age I would try to get as much of experience as one can. Your 15, your mother still makes your sandwiches (:D ) Profit from that. Once you'll have to able to make it on your own, you have no time to get a lot of experience anymore. you'll have to sit in an office like from 9 till 5 like all the other losers at this forum (:D :D :D :D ) instead of recording the whole day like me (:cool: ) See, I'm still annoying

Go and roady with a sound rental company. Good mixers are hard to find, but you will have to proof yourself to be the right man for the job. No one is going to hire a 15 year old they don't know that comes in and says I want to be your new FOH dude If you manage to get on the road with them, and ask to do the soundcheck you'll get noticed when your up to the job. This is also a great way to meet bands and people. Mayby if you see a band, you can ask them if they want to record a demo with you for free. That's lots of experience for yourself, and imagine the benefits if you do a fantastic job. You'll name will get around, I assure you.

Now come back after a few years and tell us how it went ( ;) )
 
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nah,
I have all the equipment i need. about $4000 worth, and a good amount of experience. I have samples..? Also, I'm afraid of people stealing shit..along as just not taking me seriously

T
 
nah,
I have all the equipment i need. about $4000 worth, and a good amount of experience. I've been doing it for a few years with some of my bands/friends' bands. I have samples..? Also, I'm afraid of people stealing shit..along as just not taking me seriously

T
 
Originally posted by ad0lescnts
nah,
I have all the equipment i need. about $4000 worth
What do you have? You said in the first post that you were thinking of investing.

and a good amount of experience. I've been doing it for a few years with some of my bands/friends' bands. I have samples..?
Well its a start

Also, I'm afraid of people stealing shit..along as just not taking me seriously

That risk will always be there. Make sure everything is labelled, especially cables etc. About the taking serious part, well I explained earlier, though much has to do wether you have a professional appearance or not.

T [/B]

You have the age to start and give it a try. Just don't try to be to arrogant, like I know it all, you're fifteen. Let people know you're having fun doing it. By the time you'll 20 or something you'll have lots of expereince.

A lot of my friends are capable of doing heavy pro engineering. The most important reason they are not doing it for a living is that they have steady jobs, a family and all the 'bugger' that comes with it. Trying to make a living out of recording is a risky business, and well they have a lot to loose if it goes wring, so the risk is to big for them. You don't have this disadvantage. Use it.
 
Sorry, you didn't say you were investing, you said you wanted to start a little studio. my fault.
 
yeah man, thanks a lot.
I've got an Akai DPS16, some good mics, compressors, condensers, etc.. All that shit doesnt LOOK professional, just because a dps16 is small and doesnt have a separate button for each function... but I think it sounds pretty good. I don't necessarily want to just do it for money, I like doing it, but money is helpful for still slowly putting into the studio along the way. I don't need it for anything else at this point in my life.. maybe a car soon...but screw that. Thanks a lot. What about marking equipment I might want to later sell/upgrade?? (dps16)

T
 
I would say go for it but know your limitations.

Know the difference between your stuff and the stuff that gets played on the radio and push yourself and your equipment to get to that level.

example: I spent the past few years in a christian metal band and when it broke up I wanted to stay in music because thats where all of my friends are. so I started a "micro-label" because I'm so underfunded and have no formal education. I put together a tiny home studio with cakewalk SONAR 2.0 XL and an aardvark q10 and recorded my first band a few weeks ago. I had a completely different mix of it every day trying to make it as loud as a commercial CD and then one day I ran it through my tape simulator on overdrive which easily got me another 10 Db and even though it was almost constantly peaking it still sounded clean and was louder than the "professional" CD I was referencing. The band (whose members are very good musicians and complete tone freaks) thought I was a genious. But because I am new and don't have more than $3000 into my studio I only charge $500 a week or $15 an hour. But I also want to do distribution and management for bands so I plan on doing a lot of recording for free.

Don't be afraid to offer your services for a price.
 
make some rules and make sure the band doesn't leave the studio....my experiance is that all the bands are really nice guys and are just happy to finally be laying tracks down...so they'll listen to you.

i started when i was 14...started recording other bands when i was 15...now i'm 16 and take a look at what i got: www.shackrockrecordings.com - and my equipment is in no way great.


peace
 
You don't have to set out to record for money--sometimes it just happens. I bought all my stuff because I seriously love recording and I just wanted to make albums of myself. Just recently a band that I'm friends with wanted to make a second album, and that became my first paid job (the album's pretty close to done now). Now two of my bandmates have started a separate band with a friend of theirs and I may record them for cash. Word just has to get out.
 
Since you are 15 you will need to make sure your parents are 100% behind you. You can't sign contracts or do any legal business agreements so they will have to sign everything for you.

I'm not really sure what your question is. I'm guessing you dont have too many bills or child support payments so I don't really see what the risk is.

Go for it. If you make some money doing it then great. Just plan on working with clients your own age. Most people over 18 wouldn't trust a 15yr old to wash their car much less give them a few grand for an album recording. Younger musicians would probably appreciate having an engineer their own age because most studios wouldn't take them seriously either.

You can start up a teenager oriented recording studio and you can all be very serious with each other ;)
 
Also, don't rule out the idea of recording for low fees for a while until you get established. I did the album for my friends' band for a flat $125, and I'm going to do this next one for $150. The next project is just an EP, but they want to play their parts individually, which will help me get the sound quality a lot better but take a lot longer. So the more money is justified.
 
hey ad0lescnts,
man if you wanna do it go for it, dont let any other person tell you you cant.
man i was in your situation like 2 years ago.
i started with a crap computer with a little fourtrack and 2 sm 57's.
and i was charging like 50 bux a song with that stuff. People ask how did u get 50 bux a song with the crap gear?? and it was because it sound ok. i was getting a similar finished product to guys with much more and better gear,and people could here that, eventually my name got around and i started to get calls from young guys still in school. After doing like crap loads of the dumb bands i had enough money to get some "better" gear. I bought a 48 channel allen and heath and 48 tracks of xt adat. people said i was stupid for buying these adats that were going out of date. BUT now their all like "rosh your so smart for buying that stuff" because im the only person that can do 48 tracks of location recording in my city. Look whos laughing now!!!
im 17 now and i run a fulltime studio here. All u got to do is prove your self. So for a while dont charge. I know it sucks having a crap band at your place for days and your like "for what???" But your prove your worth and then the work will come rolling in.
 
rosh said:
that can do 48 tracks of location recording in my city.
Click to expand...
What can of preamps do you use.

Can you give us a link to your studio, the wwwon your profile leads to some sort of band.
 
hey downside,
i dont have a website for my studio, that link is to my bands website.
i just use allen and heath gl4000 console the pre's arnt the best but it works for me.
when i mix down i usually run the vocals,bass and guitar through a avalon 737sp pre. i wish i had 48 of these babies.
 
Too bad, I would like to have seen a picture of a commercial studio with that kind of equipment run by a 17 year old.
 
hey man if you dont belive me just say it.
ill get some pics and email them to ya.
the reason i could get all that stuff is i left school early cause i knew what i wanted to do.
my grand parents and my dads friend (who owns one of the most succesfull p.a companies in brisbane ) helped with cash and cheap gear.
i got the adats for 600 aus dollars each with all the balanced looms with it. the console was a mere 6000 aus dollars i got out of a church install.
man i understand y you dont belive i have this gear coz i didnt when i first go it.
and all the old faggots in my city hate it coz a 17 year old kid is taking there buisness away.
 
If I was 15 again and I had your experience I would do gigs for fixed fees to buy new equipment or record for free to increase my experience level. You should also continually upgrade your equipment for a few years. Record for free now or fixed, low cost amounts while you make a name for yourself. Look at musicians as your learning feild and not a profit center at this point. This will get you additional experience before having to pay your own rent. In a few years interview with larger studios to increase your skills.

I would also make sure you take some business courses along the way or get some education on borrowing, investing and bill collection. (Most musicians are a hard case for getting your cash unless you collect most of it up front)

A studio is a business first and foremost all the skills and equipment don't mean a thing if you can't keep your profits.

And while I am pontificating here. Network, network, network. The more people you interact with the higher your chances of success. Learning to deal with people effectively is the greatest challenge of a succesful engineer.

Don't do drugs - ever. (When you do, your supporting murder and corruption in third world countries of people who have not even 1/10th a life you have here in the USA - My own personal opinion).
 
rosh said:
hey man if you dont belive me just say it.
ill get some pics and email them to ya.

man i understand y you dont belive i have this gear coz i didnt when i first go it.
and all the old faggots in my city hate it coz a 17 year old kid is taking there buisness away.
Click to expand...

I mend I kinda was really impressed by you at first. I mean, a 17 year old with this kind of equip......that most be one hell of a promiss....untill you gave this reply.......well your 17. too bad.
 
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