yips for starting and maintaining a recording studio

Are you looking to start a recording studio as a business or a hobby? If it's a hobby that you hope will grow into a part- or full-time business that's fine, but there's a very big difference.

If you are looking to start a home recording studio for yourself and your friends then all you really need to do is to put a computer or other recording device in your rehearsal space and start from there. There is a lot to learn and a lot to buy but there's no reason not get started with what you have and grow it organically. Resist the temptation to buy stuff that looks cool or that you're not sure what to with but that you may think you need (i.e. new mixing console, effects processors, etc). The dumbest shoppers on earth are people who decide to buy recording stuff before they have felt the pain of needing it and not having it. They waste millions annually on the wrong stuff and end up having to replace it almost as soon as they try to use it. Every studio is different these days and there is no real way to know what you will need until you start working and realize you can't accomplish what you want to without more gear. And believe me, every dollar you spend on flashy gear now you will wish you had back when you start to realize just how much you need to spend on unglamorous stuff like cables and stands and adapters. Don't max out the credit cards yet.

If you are looking to start a professional recording studio, there is a huge amount to know and no way to summarize it in a single thread (and I can type fast and throw up some LONG posts). But the most important thing to know is that the conventional recording industry is foundering and dying off as a viable business, for a whole lot of reasons. There are successful studios out there but as an industry it's like starting a buggy whip factory. In short, don't quit your day job.

The biggest thing happening right now in the world of recording is the cheap computer-based revolution. Time was, starting a professional-quality recording studio required a huge up-front investment (like, the inflation-adjusted equivalent of half a million dollars) AND an advanced knowledge of electronics and electrical. Top-flight ones cost quite a bit more. The term "recording engineer" used to refer to something like an actual engineer who could and did build and repair and modify mixers, signal amplifiers, and processors with a soldering iron and wire strippers and a drawer full of capacitors and resistors and the like. Clean, quiet, professional-quality studio microphones cost a week's pay and were obviously and qualitatively different from noisy "affordable" microphones, and the same principles applied to all gear.

These days, you can buy exceptionally high-quality Chinese microphones for $100 and a computer-based studio-in-a-box for $1,000 that offers quality rivalling million-dollar consoles and racks of gear. This is great news for people who want to make their own high-quality recordings but very bad news for professional recording studios. Why should a local band pay $1,000 to record a few songs when they can spend the same on software and mics and make their own "CD quality" recordings?

The truth is that high-quality professional recording studios offer better acoustics, better signal integrity, and VASTLY better engineering expertise than a typical band can get at home, but by the time band realizes that their "professional quality" studio-in-a-box is anything but, it is too late and they've already spent the dough and they're not about throw out their investment, so they end up spending the next three years and $5,000 accumulating the gear and expertise to make a record that sounds almost as good as what they could have got if they'd simply spent a week and a grand at a real studio the first time.

If you want to pursue serious recording you should know that it typically takes a great deal more skill and expertise to record and produce a radio-ready hit record than it takes to write and perform a typical hit song. Yes, you read that right-- the artist who writes and performs the hit song may be more *talented* and/or *imaginative* than the engineers who actually produced the reccord, but chances are very high that the engineering skill represents a bigger commitment of time and education than the songwriting or performance. To convince a band to pay you to record them these days requires an empirical and demonstrable ability to get vastly better results than they could get at home, and an ability to do it way cheaper and faster.

All that said, there are still a lot of opportunities for small studios these days, but they are less and less in the arena of recording musical acts and more and more in areas of producing corporate media, jingles, voice recordings and the like. It is increasingly hard and rare to see "pure" recording studios that are the sole source of income for the studio owner unless the studio operator has some other kind of financial safety net or revenue. I know some absolutley first-rate studios in prime, expensive locations with experienced, reputable engineers who have recorded MTV hits and the like and they have a difficult time staying booked at $30/hr engineering included. That kind of billing rate does not leave very much money for groceries after expenses.

Cheers.

ORIGINAL: len hallock
...Is there people out there that run a little recording studio successfully...is there a market for it?

Yeah, sure. And don't be discouraged, just realistic. Honestly, if you love to do something and are committed to it, then chances are you will do it well. And if you do a thing really well, you can be successful at it. After all, there *are* still successful buggy whip companies (just a lot less than there used to be!).

There are plenty of people who make positive cash flow from small recording studios. Whether they actually make enough positive cash flow to pay a mortgage and health insurance and invest some for retirement is a different story, but it *is* possible to have a studio be a net asset.

It is really no different from any other retail business. If you live in say metro New York or Los Angeles or Nashville, it may be tough because there are tons of well-known studios that can be hired inexpensively. Similarly, if you live 180 miles southwest of the middle of nowhere it may be tough because there are not very many customers. Once you've recorded both bands in town you may have to wait another two years for them to write enough new songs to go back in the studio.

On the other hand, if you live in say a medium-sized college town then there may a steady stream of local bands and not many high-profile studios. In this case you may be able to find suitable real estate for cheap and there may be a a fair number of musicians looking for an inexpensive studio.

Look at the other studios in your area. If you ask around or talk to them you may find that they are surprisingly helpful. Recording studios are often one of those businesses where "competitors" frequently help each other out and loan each other gear and send business each other's way when it makes sense to do so and so on. What you really want to find out is:

what they charge
what their selling points are
how busy they are
what their approximate costs are

Even if you don't want to blow your cover by overtly asking for help, a quick look at their rates, gear list, and space/location will give you a good idea of their hourly profit (presuming they stay busy), and a teensy bit of sniffing around will tell whether they're overloaded with clients or starving for business.

From there you can pretty easily figure out whether there is an easy market for services that you could provide, or whether you will have to bust your tail and be really creative to persude people to visit your studio. For instance, if you see that well-equipped small studios are charging an hourly rate that is just enough for you to live on and that they are having a hard time keeping busy without giving lots of block discounts, then that's a pretty good indicator that you would have a tough row to hoe in that area. If you see that puny rehearsal spaces with an 8-track are charging big bucks then you know that there is some opportunity to provide real value.

Sadly (or happily, depending on whether you're a customer), in most areas where there is a demand for recording studios it is not unusual to find fairly well-equipped studios that are happy to work for ~$20/hr or less. So unless you have something that they don't, such as great acoustics or top-flight gear or name recognition, that likely represents the ceiling that you can charge and still stay busy. In most parts of the US that's not a lot of money if you have bills to pay.

Cheers.

Well Len, if you're serious about it, and don't mind if it takes years, you might be encouraged by this guy, Pete Lamb;

http://www.musicworkshop.co.uk/

He is of the 'old school' of engineers as described by Yep - very technically proficient, started out repairing tape machines and gradually evolved his skills until he turned a large part of his home into a recording studio. Very comfortable, nice ambience, good sound, and above all, he knows his stuff inside out and backwards. The sort of place you really look forward to being in, and you even stop looking at the clock and thinking about the £'s (or $'s)

He certainly had no shortage of clients when my old band and I recorded a CD there in the mid '90's, the location is in deepest Wiltshire, UK, way off the beaten track, yet he gradually gained a reputation and did some fine work with 'name' bands while we were around the place.

Looks like he's still at it today, so....who knows.

James

(I bet he's still doing the repair stuff to make a few extra quid though )

ORIGINAL: len hallock

o.k. that is a little dishearting...I am not trying to do a grand recording studio yet possible to work into it over the years. i am just looking for something really fun to do on te weekends and earn a little bit of money to invest back into the studio slowly a little at a time. Is there people out there that run a little recording studio successfully...is there a market for it?

I found that to really do up the studio "thing" you have to fully be into it. If you treat it as a hobby, that's all it will ever be. To do things the right way takes a big chunk of money, time, tears, etc. I'm not saying you have to sell everything you own, but be aware of what you might be getting into.