Quote:
Originally posted by Ol' Betsey
Firstly, and for the record, I think Producer studios are great. And yes, I think they are the way forward. Why? Because hopefully, in an ideal world, better sounding records can get made for less money.
I mean, if a band can't afford $1000-$2000 a day studio time on top of the producers $5,000 (or higher) per track maybe they CAN afford just $5,000 per track when recorded in said producers studio?
But it was finally kicked off by your remark about producers taking more of cut by charging for productions AND studio time.
It sounded so friggin' greedy. (And it ALMOST sounded like you said it with a smile.)
Why don't they accept that they might have to do more work for less money in order for the industry, and their jobs, to survive?
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Having your own 'studio' [I use this term loosely because in some applications its just a room in an office building with gear piled up] demands a lot more resources, financial and mental, than if you were soley concentrating on just producing. Why not be compensated financially for it? The electricity is being used,someone is calling another country on your phone, the gear is being put through it's paces and will eventually need some kind repair/upgrading, you KNOW your computer will need some kind of upgrade/drives/plugin/RAM, you may need some kind of assitant or runner to deal with some things. All that should come out of the production budget as well?
There has to be some kind of balance here. If you are working in your place, your 'place' should be compensated in some way. It doesn't have to be a crazy fee, but there should be something for the use of the place and people needed to make it all work. Most likely you are already making less money, and on top of that you have to eat the day to day costs as well? How long will you be able to make the 'quality' records you talk about in a
timely manner? 'Cause that's what it comes down to here -- high quality in a decent amount of time.
Record company people are onto this already -- the idea of finding producers who have their own rooms so they can get the records done even cheaper. They really aren't concerned with the quality issue. They want to pay your production fee and have you 'throw in' the studio. I almost didn't get a production gig last year because of it -- the record company guy tried to talk the band out of using me because I didn't have my own 'studio'. The record needed to be made a certain way, and even if i had my own space i would have insisted on using a 'real studio' simply because it was obviously the right thing to do
for the project. I ended up doing some overdubs and mixing it at home anyway...
just my 2 cents...
John