What is a decent price to charge at my studio?

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thehymns

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When I first started recording bands in my basement, I didn't have too much equipment, but now I've purchased a lot of new gear and need to raise the price (I was charging $20 a day *blush*). Here's what I've got:

Computer: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.4 GHZ

Plug-Ins: Reason 3.0

Monitors: Event TR6

Outboard:
Digidesign 002R
Sytek MPX-4Aii Preamp
dbx 163X Compressor (x 2)
Tech 21 SansAmp RBI Bass Preamp
Furman PL-Plus II Power Conditioner

Microphones:
Shure KSM32
Sennheiser MD421
Rode NT5 Matched Pair
Oktava MK-012-01 (Russian)
Shure SM57
Sennheiser e604 (x 3)

Guitars:
Rickenbacker 330
Fender American Telecaster
Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass

Amps: Fender Twin Reverb

Drums: Yamaha Stage Custom Advantage 6-Piece
Sabian Paragon Cymbals (16" and 18" crash, 22" ride, 14" hi-hats)

Synth: Korg MicroKorg

It be great to have a full sized keyboard, but I don't have the money for that right now. I'm thinking $10-$15 an hour, $20 seems to be a stretch because I don't have a great room. What do you think?
 
You've got some OK stuff to work with there, but simply buying more gear is not necessarily a valid reason to raise your rates...

for instance- say I want to hire eric clapton to play guitar on my track, but he recently sold all his gear to raise money for his rehab centers so all he has left is a mexican strat and a blues junior amp. does that mean I should pay him less than my high school buddie who has a vintage strat, a huge pedalboard and a blackface fender amp?

If your final product (recordings) can compete with the local $75/hour studio- charge $75. If you just want to do it for fun and merely hope to recoup expenses and ocassionaly upgrade some gear- charge enough to make that happen. If you're trying to make an honest go of it as a studio - check out your competition and price accordingly based on what you can offer your local market.

Remember: computers need updating, gear eventually needs repairs, utiltiies need to be paid... You have to figure this stuff in to your rates because it IS an expense your paying out of pocket for running your studio, even if it's not a pressing or immediate expense. Think of it as needing to get paid mileage( (as well as your regular wage) for driving your car for company stuff.

Ultimately, at the end of the day you need to be content with what your studio generates for income- to make it worth doing.
 
Your rates will be comenserate with the room/recording/engineering reputation/demand. :) George Martin could probably charge $1000 ph or more with a portastudio/SM-57 and a basement. :D
 
I found generally what worked for me and bands was to give them a price and pay that up front. The give them a start date and an end date and make sure they reach it. Say like I did an album for 500 bucks for a heavey metal band and they had a week to lay 11 tracks and it was done because they couldn't get the price anywhere else.
 
if you charge too high, nobody will come. if you do it for free, everyone will come (unless you just really suck). there isn't a specific price that we can tell you, especially only knowing your equipment. you'll have to find out that figure yourself based on how many bands need to record, how much they're willing to spend, and how much competition is in the area. i've recently lowered my rates...not because i've gotten any worse (i've actually gotten MUCH better). but i've lowered my rates because every band now thinks that they can download some software and record it themselves. so, if i charge too much, then they'll choose that path instead of coming to me. it sucks. but, it's what i have to do if i want to keep attracting customers.
 
i dont have the greatest equipment but i some know how to make stuff sound pretty good. maybe not professional.

right now im charging 15/song PLUS 2/hour

some bands think the sound engineer could screw around to take forver trying to make more money so i made it just pay by the song... but if a band screws around and wastes my time.... so then i charge a lil bit by the hour too now.

Creepcore Records Myspace w/ Bands Demos
 
Cody Suit said:
i dont have the greatest equipment but i some know how to make stuff sound pretty good. maybe not professional.

right now im charging 15/song PLUS 2/hour

some bands think the sound engineer could screw around to take forver trying to make more money so i made it just pay by the song... but if a band screws around and wastes my time.... so then i charge a lil bit by the hour too now.

Creepcore Records Myspace w/ Bands Demos
Click to expand...


I'd gladly pay you $15 for every song you record and DON'T post here. My ears are bleeding.
 
LemonTree said:
I'd gladly pay you $15 for every song you record and DON'T post here. My ears are bleeding.
Click to expand...

aw, sweeten up lemon tree!
 
Hmmm.

I've done the pro studio thing several times, and when giving pre-sale tours generally my potential customers were blown away. They'd see Neve, SSL, Amek and Otari things.

But I have to tell you that the "nice gear" above only affords you the opportunity to make a nice recording. The recording, mixing and mastering engineers (same guy or not) are the true key to this puzzle.

If the engineer doesn't understand acoustics, doesn't understand micing techniques, doesn't understand signal phase, parametric EQ and so on, you'll end up with a "top quality" pile of crap.

In the beginning (of owning pro studios) I would spend tremendous time arguing with potential customers that they wanted to use my house engineers (of which I was one of several), and some of these bands, groups, musicians would refuse, trying to lower their cost. They'd often bring in their own engineer who most of the time was a useless monkey, or a "friend" of the band.

And the result was always the same - ostrich shit. Then the argument of "well, the mastering engineer can fix this" and more often than not my reponse would be "I seriously don't think so".

The solution for me was to eliminate the "bring your own engineer" pricing schedule. Bands/musicians/producers paid per hour for our facility, gear, and our engineering expertise, and that was the end of the discussion.

Producers (assuming they were real) were allowed in the console room during recording and mixing phases, band members were only allowed in the console room during the mixing phase. Touching the console resulted in a hand-slap.
 
Musicians don't give a damn about how much gear you have or how much you have invested in it. They only want a finished product. If you are good as an engineer then charge accordingly, however if you are lacking don't expect to get paid well for shoddy work. The old addage applies, "you get what you pay for," so the better you can produce, the more you can charge.
 
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