Worth it to hire an engineer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wattmind?
  • Start date Start date

Worth it to hire an engineer?

  • For that price, I'll save myself the grief and hire someone.

    Votes: 5 26.3%

  • I'd rather do it myself.

    Votes: 14 73.7%
  • Total voters
    19
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Wattmind?

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For $50 a song mixing and $25 mastering would it be worth it to hire someone for post-production given that nothing is complete without your final ok?
 
What are you asking? Is that a good price to get your recordings mixed and mastered? If that's it, I'd say that's extremely cheap, so cheap that the quality would be crap. Or are you asking if that's a reasonable price for you to charge someone else? Or is it something else entirely?
EDIT: Just saw the poll. I wouldn't bother
 
Do you mean $50 an hour? Or $50 total?

If you mean $50 total to mix a song, I wouldn't waste my money on that.

There should be a third choice in your poll: pay enough money to hire a real engineer.
 
SonicAlbert said:
Do you mean $50 an hour? Or $50 total?

If you mean $50 total to mix a song, I wouldn't waste my money on that.

There should be a third choice in your poll: pay enough money to hire a real engineer.
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Yep. That would have got my vote
 
Wattmind? said:
For $50 a song mixing and $25 mastering would it be worth it to hire someone for post-production given that nothing is complete without your final ok?
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Depends on the engineer.

Would it be worth it to hire Steve Albini? Yes.

Would it be worth it to hire Beavis and Butthead? No.

It also depends upon what you want to do with your songs afterwards.

Should you do it if you're just going to turn your stuff into 128k MP3s? No.

Should you do it if your stuff is going to be sent to an indie label for consideration? Yes.

Should you do it if you are just making a few homebrew CDs for demo use? Probably not.

Should you do it if you are making a run of 500 or more CDs for independant sale and distribution? Most definitely.

G.
 
Ok, here's what I'm looking at doing. I engineer for a studio here in town and we get a ton of mid to major label projects because of the price. I know that more and more people are recording on their own, so I'm just trying to set a price that people can afford and still get good quality. Money isn't the most important issue for me here, I'm just trying to see what kind of interest there is. I thought $50 a song was fair, just because that would mean for a typical album a band would spend $500 on mixing. You think it should be more?
 
Wattmind? said:
Ok, here's what I'm looking at doing. I engineer for a studio here in town and we get a ton of mid to major label projects because of the price. I know that more and more people are recording on their own, so I'm just trying to set a price that people can afford and still get good quality. Money isn't the most important issue for me here, I'm just trying to see what kind of interest there is. I thought $50 a song was fair, just because that would mean for a typical album a band would spend $500 on mixing. You think it should be more?
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Depends how good you are
 
mx_mx said:
Depends how good you are
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Of course that would always be the deciding factor. Let's assume the band or artist walks away with something they're totally satisfied with. I'm just wondering if hiring outside help would even be considered in the budget of someone who is recording at home. It's commonplace when working with larger budgets. What does everyone think?
 
Wattmind? said:
Ok, here's what I'm looking at doing. I engineer for a studio here in town and we get a ton of mid to major label projects because of the price. I know that more and more people are recording on their own, so I'm just trying to set a price that people can afford and still get good quality. Money isn't the most important issue for me here, I'm just trying to see what kind of interest there is. I thought $50 a song was fair, just because that would mean for a typical album a band would spend $500 on mixing. You think it should be more?
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The real question is how much revenue per hour of work do you have to take in to cover your operating costs (rent, loans, equipment and maintenance, utilities, payroll, supplies, etc.) and a nice margin to boot? Take that figure and multiply by the number of hours you estimate it'll take you to do mix an average song, and that's the minimum price you should charge to mix a song. The better qualified and more likeable of an engineer you are, the more you can increase the price and boost the margin above that cost.

G.
 
I would be afraid that you might lose some of your major label business.... maybe you could just advertise something like "cheap rates for mixing/mastering" and just price it out by the project.
 
Honestly, charging $50 a song doesn't make you look very good, or very professional, or anybody a serious band would want to hire. That's like a sucker rate to get internet newbies to send you their home brew tracks to "mix" or "master".

You might want to keep this venture totally separate from your other work done at the studio, or else your mid to major label projects are going start to think they are hiring Beavis and Butthead with a little bit of Eric Cartman thrown in. That will not be a good thing, and they will also wonder why they are paying more than $50 a song for your work.

I kind of doubt that $50 a track will be worth the hassle, but maybe you should give it a go and see how you like it.
 
Yeah man, as far as advertising, tell people you'll give "free quotes". $50 per isn't bad.
 
i'm currently working for dirt cheap, and for a number of reasons:

1. i'm just getting my studio off the ground, so i'm charging a super-low flat rate to attract business and build a list of(hopefully) satisfied clients

2. again, since i'm just getting things off the ground, i'm getting things done at a fairly slow pace, so i don't find it fair to be charging by the hour, when it's going to take me twice as long as it probably needs to in order to complete a mix. with the 100's of vst plugs i've installed in the last couple of months, it's going to take me a while to figure out which ones are worth a shit, and for which applications.

3. the hourly rate i charge for tracking equals what i what make, after taxes, working at my "real" job

4. my tracking room is really a giant outdoor shed on a concrete foundation that's been sealed and treated, but there's no visual between it and the control room

all i can say is to charge what you think is fair given your experience, facilities, and the demand for your services
 
Ironklad Audio said:
i'm currently working for dirt cheap, and for a number of reasons:

1. i'm just getting my studio off the ground, so i'm charging a super-low flat rate to attract business and build a list of(hopefully) satisfied clients

2. again, since i'm just getting things off the ground, i'm getting things done at a fairly slow pace, so i don't find it fair to be charging by the hour, when it's going to take me twice as long as it probably needs to in order to complete a mix. with the 100's of vst plugs i've installed in the last couple of months, it's going to take me a while to figure out which ones are worth a shit, and for which applications.

3. the hourly rate i charge for tracking equals what i what make, after taxes, working at my "real" job

4. my tracking room is really a giant outdoor shed on a concrete foundation that's been sealed and treated, but there's no visual between it and the control room

all i can say is to charge what you think is fair given your experience, facilities, and the demand for your services
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It sounds like you have things thought out pretty well.

The problem with starting off so low is that you'll then have some resistance when you want to raise your rates later. The low rates also establish you as a "budget" studio, and it may be difficult later to change that image. But I do see the logic in your approach.

I'd suggest putting in an inexpensive video camera in the tracking room and a monitor in the control room. Maybe also have a camera in the control room and a small monitor in the tracking room. I think the visual communication would be very helpful and make the client more comfortable as well.
 
Might I recommend instead of chaging a flea market rate because of the extra time it takes you as a rookie, that instead you charge a nominal rate but you just don't bill them for the extra time?

You'll get the same amount of money without having the stigma of being a rookie with rookie rates attached to you. And internally, you'll have the incentive to boost your training and efficiency so you can get to the point where you don't have to work those pro bono hours.

G.
 
yeah....it would be nice to pay for 10 hours and get 20....it should really be the norm. and no, i'm not kidding. everything in the studio takes 2x as long as you thought it would, anyway.
 
yeah, you'd have to see where those rates are at.

Cause if you're talking about a well established engineer, you'd be looking at 50 dollars an hour minimum. Good ones can obviously go twice that, but that's a decision for you to make. Alot of engineers may also charge hourly for tracking and then a fixed rate for mixing. Which could happen if you go with a different mix engineer.


In terms of mastering, just shop around, man. 25$ for mastering sounds like it can undo all the goodness you did in the tracking, editing and mixing. So I would expect to pay well for a good mastering job. You'd have to gadge what level the project is at and if it's worth the money and effort to do so.

Cause if it's a major label production, then that means you got money to make it sound good. So obviously, you wouldn't take 150grand worth of final mixes to a 25$ mastering engineer. However, if you are around that buget, where you pay maybe a few hundred dollars for the songs for local release, then it's probably excessive to take it direct to Gateway or Digital Domain and pay the 5+grand.

So having said that, if he's 50 dollars an hour for mixing/tracking and then 25 (either hourly or total) for mastering the whole thing, ehh. It just sounds funny to me.

Ask for the guy's work, his credits. Then talk to some of his previous clients, see how they liked working with the guy. I know it's a hassle, but unless you got cash to waste, it's just like finding a nany for your kids.
 
FALKEN said:
yeah....it would be nice to pay for 10 hours and get 20....it should really be the norm. and no, i'm not kidding. everything in the studio takes 2x as long as you thought it would, anyway.
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Ain't that the way it is with everything? :)
 
I'd do it myself, because... well, that's why I bought my studio gear :D

Anyway, as far as charging low rates, that's exactly what I plan on doing. I'm starting out small, doing projects for free at the moment actually, until I get to a point where I can confidently ask to be paid (and believe I deserve it :cool: ). Hopefully at some point my work will speak for itself, and then it's supply and demand!
 
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