Cost of setting up recording studio
Discussion
Well have been asked about the approximate costs of setting up a basic, but quality set up for recording of Jazz music, mainly.
Is a bit of a random question, but friend of my fathers is thinking of setting one up to hire out. Also so he can play. There is a huge Jazz scene around this area, including a Jazz school and a big festival. So thinks this will probably be main area.
So who has any ideas of where to look for info, what is roughly needed for set up?
He has given me this as a bit of a job to do while staying over here, France.
Is a bit of a random question, but friend of my fathers is thinking of setting one up to hire out. Also so he can play. There is a huge Jazz scene around this area, including a Jazz school and a big festival. So thinks this will probably be main area.
So who has any ideas of where to look for info, what is roughly needed for set up?
He has given me this as a bit of a job to do while staying over here, France.
Do you want to live tracking of multiple musicians?
Recording drums?
For something I would be happy recording jazz bands in I would want a budget of approx £25k for a basic setup.
Then you need to budget for rent, repairs, utilities and insurance.
This is assuming you can find a decent space that is close to suitable to begin with.
It is not a cheap game.
If you can be more specific I could break down some approximations for you.
Recording drums?
For something I would be happy recording jazz bands in I would want a budget of approx £25k for a basic setup.
Then you need to budget for rent, repairs, utilities and insurance.
This is assuming you can find a decent space that is close to suitable to begin with.
It is not a cheap game.
If you can be more specific I could break down some approximations for you.
Cost of buildings or running costs is not really what he is wanting.
He is wanting the initial costs of set up.
From recording equipment, to editing equipment and also recording "booths". I think it will be more one musician recording at one then sticking them together.
Yes would be drum kit from time to time, so I envisage everything times x?
Aiming I think to get everything through a DAW. (I think that is what they are called)
He is wanting the initial costs of set up.
From recording equipment, to editing equipment and also recording "booths". I think it will be more one musician recording at one then sticking them together.
Yes would be drum kit from time to time, so I envisage everything times x?
Aiming I think to get everything through a DAW. (I think that is what they are called)
Edited by elster on Sunday 8th March 20:25
markoos said:
RedLeicester said:
Tell him to take his wallet and just set fire to it - an easier way of getting rid of his money.
Is that RedLeicster - formerly of the Sound On Sound forums?
Oh, and if the same question appears on SOS, you'll get the same response, only with both barrels and the stock for good measure.
RedLeicester said:
markoos said:
RedLeicester said:
Tell him to take his wallet and just set fire to it - an easier way of getting rid of his money.
Is that RedLeicster - formerly of the Sound On Sound forums?Oh, and if the same question appears on SOS, you'll get the same response, only with both barrels and the stock for good measure.
But as you are keen to help, I can almost tell that from your post
What would you recommend for resources, or examples?
Happy to help - in all seriousness, www.soundonsound.com/forum - the magazine is dedicated to audio beginners as well as professionals, there's masses of info on there from DIY builds to getting it specced and sorted by a pro company. However, there's also the business section which will give you a few pointers as to the state of the studio market - in a nutshell, unless there is money to burn it will be extremely unlikely to make ANY return on investment.
Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
I've just spent 20 minutes trying to give you a good overview of what you might want to consider and avoid - but I realised the best thing you can do is subscribe to Sound On Sound magazine, register on the website, and spend as much time as you can searching the forums because what you're asking can't be answered quickly. All of the questions you're going to want answers to have already been asked! The answers are there - and I'm sure they've been answered by better people than me.
Before you think about equipment, you need to consider location - ie, the building, noise problems (noise coming into and leaking out of the building). You need to find out about adding mass to the structure/walls, ceiling, floor if necessary. You also need to make sure the live area (the room for the performers) will be big enough to accomodate some of the bigger groups/bands.
Then you need to look at 'room modes' and 'acoustic treatment' in the live area as well as the control room - this is science, to be honest; and it's vital to get sorted before you start to record.
Then there's the actual equipment - and the learning curve. It's impossible to tell someone how to start a recording business, what to buy etc, over a few posts on a forum. You need to start reading EVERYTHING!
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.tapeop.com/
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/index.php
PS, you can subscribe to Tape Op for free.
Before you think about equipment, you need to consider location - ie, the building, noise problems (noise coming into and leaking out of the building). You need to find out about adding mass to the structure/walls, ceiling, floor if necessary. You also need to make sure the live area (the room for the performers) will be big enough to accomodate some of the bigger groups/bands.
Then you need to look at 'room modes' and 'acoustic treatment' in the live area as well as the control room - this is science, to be honest; and it's vital to get sorted before you start to record.
Then there's the actual equipment - and the learning curve. It's impossible to tell someone how to start a recording business, what to buy etc, over a few posts on a forum. You need to start reading EVERYTHING!
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.tapeop.com/
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/index.php
PS, you can subscribe to Tape Op for free.
RedLeicester said:
Happy to help - in all seriousness, www.soundonsound.com/forum - the magazine is dedicated to audio beginners as well as professionals, there's masses of info on there from DIY builds to getting it specced and sorted by a pro company. However, there's also the business section which will give you a few pointers as to the state of the studio market - in a nutshell, unless there is money to burn it will be extremely unlikely to make ANY return on investment.
Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
OK I will have a look around there and see what others have suggested.Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
Yes it will be a semi-hobby/semi-pro setup as you say, so you are out of the blue estimating £30k. Can I ask what the rough break up of those you would think? Not talking about specifics just what you would think.
Thank you, I know I ask a lot.
markoos said:
I've just spent 20 minutes trying to give you a good overview of what you might want to consider and avoid - but I realised the best thing you can do is subscribe to Sound On Sound magazine, register on the website, and spend as much time as you can searching the forums because what you're asking can't be answered quickly. All of the questions you're going to want answers to have already been asked! The answers are there - and I'm sure they've been answered by better people than me.
Before you think about equipment, you need to consider location - ie, the building, noise problems (noise coming into and leaking out of the building). You need to find out about adding mass to the structure/walls, ceiling, floor if necessary. You also need to make sure the live area (the room for the performers) will be big enough to accomodate some of the bigger groups/bands.
Then you need to look at 'room modes' and 'acoustic treatment' in the live area as well as the control room - this is science, to be honest; and it's vital to get sorted before you start to record.
Then there's the actual equipment - and the learning curve. It's impossible to tell someone how to start a recording business, what to buy etc, over a few posts on a forum. You need to start reading EVERYTHING!
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.tapeop.com/
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/index.php
PS, you can subscribe to Tape Op for free.
Thank you very much for the help, and time, I will have a look at sound on sound. Used to read that when at college.Before you think about equipment, you need to consider location - ie, the building, noise problems (noise coming into and leaking out of the building). You need to find out about adding mass to the structure/walls, ceiling, floor if necessary. You also need to make sure the live area (the room for the performers) will be big enough to accomodate some of the bigger groups/bands.
Then you need to look at 'room modes' and 'acoustic treatment' in the live area as well as the control room - this is science, to be honest; and it's vital to get sorted before you start to record.
Then there's the actual equipment - and the learning curve. It's impossible to tell someone how to start a recording business, what to buy etc, over a few posts on a forum. You need to start reading EVERYTHING!
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.tapeop.com/
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/index.php
PS, you can subscribe to Tape Op for free.
The location would be a barn pretty in rural France, no real external influences (Noise pollution, vibration, etc). The floor and walls will need to be built up, or new internal rooms built in.
You'll need another source of income (depending on circumstances obviously).
There are so many small studios around now, with some very well trained sound engineers. With the advent of protools etc, the process is far easier to "get into", than in the old analogue days.
As an example, I could point you at a very good studio in South Wales, who for £200pcm, will give you three full days a month!!!
It seems more like a hobby for most these days.
There are so many small studios around now, with some very well trained sound engineers. With the advent of protools etc, the process is far easier to "get into", than in the old analogue days.
As an example, I could point you at a very good studio in South Wales, who for £200pcm, will give you three full days a month!!!
It seems more like a hobby for most these days.
RedLeicester said:
GetCarter said:
Most recording studios are going bust. Setting one up from scratch would be financial suicide.
I now pay less than 50% to hire the same studio that I did 10 years ago.
Sorry to be a downer, but there it is.
He speaketh the truth....I now pay less than 50% to hire the same studio that I did 10 years ago.
Sorry to be a downer, but there it is.
elster said:
RedLeicester said:
Happy to help - in all seriousness, www.soundonsound.com/forum - the magazine is dedicated to audio beginners as well as professionals, there's masses of info on there from DIY builds to getting it specced and sorted by a pro company. However, there's also the business section which will give you a few pointers as to the state of the studio market - in a nutshell, unless there is money to burn it will be extremely unlikely to make ANY return on investment.
Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
OK I will have a look around there and see what others have suggested.Assuming you're going for a semi-hobby/-semi-pro setup, then budget around £15k or so for equipment, and around the same again for build/modification/ancillaries/acoustics...
Yes it will be a semi-hobby/semi-pro setup as you say, so you are out of the blue estimating £30k. Can I ask what the rough break up of those you would think? Not talking about specifics just what you would think.
Thank you, I know I ask a lot.
To put it into a little perspective, I had my own studio built in the garden at home so I no longer had to rent space elsewhere. The build (two floors, full acoustic treatment, server room etc) cost about £60k, and thats ignoring the kit that went in to it.
For Jazz band recordings you're going to want a decent live space for dumping the band in, then probably either a couple of isolation booths for soloists. How much those cost to build is a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string questions - depends on what level they are built to (it'll do or Air Lyndhurst quality levels!) Out of the £60k I spent here, about £15k or so was on the acoustic treatment which ranged from additional insulation in the walls / ceilings / roof, to special floor/wall materials. Then of course you have the control room from which to monitor / record / mix.
For jazz band work, it depends muchly on whether you're talking ikkle quartets or full-on swing bands, again with the kit list swaying in either direction. A fairly simple ProTools HD rig will cost around £10k, and then you need to think of the mics - a drumkit could well need upwards of 6-10mics depending on configuration. Then you need to decide whether to mic the horns individually, or per section, and to what level of quality - a set of simple condenser mics could be £200 each, a Neumann mic would be £1600 per unit...
Then once you've gone through that, then you need to think of the control room - would you want a mixing console, or just use keyboard and mouse with the computer running ProTools? If the former, that's another £2k up to £250k depending on the spec and quality you want. Then monitors (the speakers) which yet again range from £200 to easily £80-100k. I'm not for a moment suggesting you'd head for the more expensive in either console or monitors, but it just goes to show how much the costs can vary, and how £15k for equipment could be deemed to be being very abstemious. Over the top of all this, it's wise to add 10% to the overall budget to allow for cabling.
Now there are various ways to cut costs, but without a clearer picture of what needs to be achieved, who's going to be doing it (setting it up, installing it, running it) it's very difficult to judge. As has been said, much of the hobby equipment is very capable these days, up to the level of studios of yesteryear, but I'd hesitate to recommend much of that sort of stuff without a better idea of the overall game plan.
Hope that helps a bit, please believe me, I'm not trying to be awkward!
esselte said:
RedLeicester said:
GetCarter said:
Most recording studios are going bust. Setting one up from scratch would be financial suicide.
I now pay less than 50% to hire the same studio that I did 10 years ago.
Sorry to be a downer, but there it is.
He speaketh the truth....I now pay less than 50% to hire the same studio that I did 10 years ago.
Sorry to be a downer, but there it is.
At the other end of the market, particularly in the film world, everything is still going strong, but budgets are tight, competition is fierce, and when you look at the big orchestral and post/dubbing studios they are MONSTROUSLY expensive, but then they're propped up by the industry itself.
Everything else, from your Jazz bands to Robbie Williams sit somewhere in the middle - record companies would rather not spend the huge amounts they used to as sales are declining at an unprecedented rate, so they'd rather buy £50ks worth of equipment and then hire a stately home or two for each album than bin hundreds of thousands having a band residency at a studio for six months at a time.
Here is another thought, and more pertinent.
We all own scissors. However, how many of us cut our own hair?
If we spent £20,000 on different scissors and hair cutting kit, would that make our self-haircut any better?
A reasonable hobby studio can be put together with maybe £1500 for a computer and interface and software, and ten £120 mics.
Unless you know what you are doing, jumping from £3000 to £30,000 of gear is not going to make a blind bit of difference. In fact, in the right hands, a good engineer with £3000 of gear will get a much better end result.
If it is a hobby and he has money to burn then fair enough, but will it have a business case? Probably not.
We all own scissors. However, how many of us cut our own hair?
If we spent £20,000 on different scissors and hair cutting kit, would that make our self-haircut any better?
A reasonable hobby studio can be put together with maybe £1500 for a computer and interface and software, and ten £120 mics.
Unless you know what you are doing, jumping from £3000 to £30,000 of gear is not going to make a blind bit of difference. In fact, in the right hands, a good engineer with £3000 of gear will get a much better end result.
If it is a hobby and he has money to burn then fair enough, but will it have a business case? Probably not.
Gassing Station | Music | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff