What is the music business like in your geographical area?

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Just wondering what the whole music business scene is like in your area at the present time.

I am in Northern Ohio.

There are simply too many bands and not enough good venues to go around so many artist/bands have to sell tickets in order to be hired to play - sort of a pay to play. In other cases bands are working for beer money or $50 per night per band. None of this activity is paying for anyone to be doing this full time.

Cleveland prides itself on being the "home of rock and roll" but currently there is only the Rock Hall of Fame and no national bands and no world class studios reside here*. Up until this year the induction ceremony for the Rock Hall of Fame was not even held in Cleveland. Go figure.... *The two notable exceptions to this are TELARC records which does most of their recording in remote locations and Commerical Recording studios who deal mainly with commercial advertising. Both of these are world class but don't provide recording services for the average musician.

We have two GC stores and a Sam Ash. There are NO high end equipment dealers here and most of the independent music stores have closed down.

The "average" recording studio is a basement or bedroom studio charging $25-35 dollars an hour for their "services" if they are accepting outside clients. There are over 600 recording studios within 200 miles of my mastering operation and the number of musicians registered with one of the larger music retailers, when they were in business, was about 150,000 with in a 200 mile radius. Judging from what I see in the Scene or Free Times the number of recording studios advertising has dropped from a full page or more to about 1 column. From what I know of the business from talking to clients and friends there seems to be a new studio opening about every 6 months and two closing down. We did a mailing to all 600 studios listed on the web and in Mix Magazine and got back about 75 mailings saying "addressee not known" or "moved left no forwarding address" This is about the same ratio that we got when we did this three years ago to a different batch of studios. All mailings at that time that were returned were taken off the mailing list so it was not the same people closing up shop.

Most of the studios here that are in business get about $2500 dollars for a recording a CD but that has and is going down all the time. We are the only full time professional mastering studio in this area.

If I had to rate the music business in this area on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being FORGET IT and 10 being GREAT I would have to say that right now the Northern Ohio area is about a 3.

Let me know what it is like in your area of the country or world. Thanks!

[Lagerfeldt]

Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish Music - Denmark - VisitDenmark: The official guide to Denmark with Danish tourism and travel information such as hotels, map, flag, copenhagen info etc.

·I'd rate it 8/10 on a technical basis (education level is high and people try to do things the right way regarding how to deliver a good mix)
·I'd rate it 7/10 on a creative basis (some tendency to mimick foreign acts. which is a bit boring)
·I'd rate it 9/10 business wise (one of the strongest economies in the world and highest living standards)

Business is good here and there are lots of bands, and especially lots of small studios and labels - and lots and lots of producers working from home.

A great thing about being in Copenhagen: you attract customers from all of Scandinavia, i.e. especially Sweden and to some extent Norway and the various islands.

Average mastering prices are $US 130 per track.
Average studio prices are $US 600 per day, based on single day booking.
Average wage (2007): $US 58,000 (highest in Europe)
Cost of a McDonald's Big Mac Burger: $US 8,50 (they're crap anyway)

[James Meeker]

I would rate northern Ohio as a 7. Right now it's the best I've ever seen it. There are a number of bands that have gotten signed from this area in the last five years and doing well:

This Beautiful Republic (Maumee) on EMI
Rediscover (Toledo) but they just got dropped from what I hear
Hit The Lights (Lima) on Triple Crown Records
Before Their Eyes (Bowling Green) on Rise Records
Kate Voegele (all over MySpace now, signed to them)

Plus there are a bunch of great/successful bands still unsigned:

Dash The Assassin
Plague The City
20GoTo10
Sanctus Real
Whitechapel
Trillit
Mikori Thunder

Plus you state that there are no national artists in the Cleveland area. What about:

Mushroomhead
Chimaira
Filter
Gerald LeVert (recently deceased)
Bone Thugs N Harmony
Tracy Champman
Eric Carmen

Furthermore, you state there are no "world class" recording studios. What about Ante Up Audio? They have an amazing facility and have worked with top national and local clients.
There is a lot going on here!

There are exciting things happening in every small town and city in the nation. And if there aren't I guess you can complain about it or MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.

That's just my philosophy.

[scraggs]

there's lots of people making great records here in boston.

[manofsong]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

Just wondering what the whole music business scene is like in your area at the present time.

I am in Northern Ohio.

There are simply too many bands and not enough good venues to go around so many artist/bands have to sell tickets in order to be hired to play - sort of a pay to play. In other cases bands are working for beer money or $50 per night per band. None of this activity is paying for anyone to be doing this full time.

Cleveland prides itself on being the "home of rock and roll" but currently there is only the Rock Hall of Fame and no national bands and no world class studios reside here*. Up until this year the induction ceremony for the Rock Hall of Fame was not even held in Cleveland. Go figure.... *The two notable exceptions to this are TELARC records which does most of their recording in remote locations and Commerical Recording studios who deal mainly with commercial advertising. Both of these are world class but don't provide recording services for the average musician.

We have two GC stores and a Sam Ash. There are NO high end equipment dealers here and most of the independent music stores have closed down.

The "average" recording studio is a basement or bedroom studio charging $25-35 dollars an hour for their "services" if they are accepting outside clients. There are over 600 recording studios within 200 miles of my mastering operation and the number of musicians registered with one of the larger music retailers, when they were in business, was about 150,000 with in a 200 mile radius. Judging from what I see in the Scene or Free Times the number of recording studios advertising has dropped from a full page or more to about 1 column. From what I know of the business from talking to clients and friends there seems to be a new studio opening about every 6 months and two closing down. We did a mailing to all 600 studios listed on the web and in Mix Magazine and got back about 75 mailings saying "addressee not known" or "moved left no forwarding address" This is about the same ratio that we got when we did this three years ago to a different batch of studios. All mailings at that time that were returned were taken off the mailing list so it was not the same people closing up shop.

Most of the studios here that are in business get about $2500 dollars for a recording a CD but that has and is going down all the time. We are the only full time professional mastering studio in this area.

If I had to rate the music business in this area on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being FORGET IT and 10 being GREAT I would have to say that right now the Northern Ohio area is about a 3.

Let me know what it is like in your area of the country or world. Thanks!

I appreciate such a detailed analysis with facts. That's likely partly why you're the only successful pro local mastering room! The James Meeker response shows "success" is very subjective, he is quoting 4 signed bands in 5 years as a success for the area.

As for Toronto (where I am), it's tough to say since I'm out of the scene for a few years now -- but I left the scene due to increasing #s of "studios" popping up, competing for too few clients. And clients themselves often didn't know enough about engineering/production talent, but rather cared about the lowest $. Bye-bye studio biz. This of course has already been discussed to death on Gearslutz.

[twwalsh]

Originally Posted by scraggs

there's lots of people making great records here in boston.

really? i wanna know!

[Thor]

What Lagerfeld said pretty much applies here too.

Things are booming. As the majors slowly collapse, there is a very creative and hard working group of indies popping up all around to make some great music.

Again, as he stated, the biggest challenge here (from my point of view) is bands finding their own voice and style. There are way too many 'we wanna be like <fill in the big US /UK act>' bands, but that's changing as well as artists and production talent matures.

My experience too is that borders become less and less of a hindrance as musicians and producers networking together suddenly bring in a client from the other side of Europe, or the world. Then they tell their friends/contacts and even more work comes in.

While the rates may seem attractive, the cost of living matches the average income. Last I checked, Norway was one of the three most expensive countries to live in worldwide.

With the onrush of new musicians, producers, ideas, the need for mastering, and for a connection to a certain standard of quality that was more commonplace in days gone by, only increases.

Sorry to hear things aren't quite the same in Ohio. Do you go out and go to shows much Thomas, check out the new talent?

Cheers,
Thor

[diogo_c]

very interesting topic we have here.

i'm in brazil, which like usa is a continent-wide country, so i'm gonna restrict my thoughts to my city - which is the 3rd city of brazil in terms of economy.


bands, musicians, musical activity:

pretty high number of bands and artists, with some sucessful acts like sepultura (they beginned here but moved to são paulo), toninho horta, milton nascimento, uakti and the clube da esquina movement. pat metheny came here many times to learn new things with toninho horta, which is a superb acoustic guitar player. some nation-wide bands too, like skank and jota quest. the independent scene used to be better in the 80s and 90s, we had many metal bands due to the sepultura-factor and many rock and brazillian music acts. nowadays this scene is pretty down, we haven't seen any good band since udora. there are a LOT of "cover" bands, they are a major part of the bizz here. 8 out 10 bands don't create music, they would rather make a set with other people's hits. we have many e-music djs and a nice scene, but very few emusic producers. one nice thing is that in the last 5 years the jazz scene is growing, with some good trios out there. there some nice venues, and 3 or 4 nice places where you can get good music. we lack some better places for rock though.

stores:

not even a single high-end store, and around 10-15 entry-level shops that sells behringer, alesis and so on. for musical instruments it's a little better, and you can get a good fender jazz bass easily or a some a-series zildjian cymbals - but the best interface you'll find in town is a digi 003 rack. there used to be two audiophile stores, but one of then closed and the other lowered their standards so they could survive in the ipod-desktop speaker-cheapo home theater world.

studios:

no mastering or mixing-dedicated facilities. around 5 nice recording places. the best speaker in town is a genelec 8050 with the sub. they will charge around 2,000 u$ for a cd, and it will be a good recording despite all the technical limitations, specially when regarding pre-amps. but since 2005 we have 2 studios with pt-hd3 systems with very nice rooms, so recording is not a problem.

overal score: 4

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by twwalsh

really? i wanna know!

I don't know what styles you like, but there's definitely a lot of talent in Boston. Check out Chris McDermott's last record, Radio Ghosts, if you like 70's Philly soul (like the O'Jays) and blues, or if you liked John Mayer's Continuum album. Songs, musicianship, performances... wow! Clyde Stubblefield on drums, of James Brown Fame. You remember the JB tune, "Funky Drummer?" That was Clyde.

We also have a hell of a metal scene. Sure, there's plenty of crap metal like anywhere else, but there are also some great and successful (not always the same thing) metal bands from the area: Killswitch, Hatebreed, Unearth, Seemless, and plenty of others.

In addition, I've been doing a ton of folk, roots rock, americana, and bluegrass type stuff lately. Turns out there's a thriving scene for that too, and I'm shocked (in a good way) at the quality of some of the records in that style that have come through here.

On top of that, our company does a lot of concert video for broadcast and DVD, and the trucks capture all over the country, though we post it all here (mix, master, edit, author). The trucks are out in Michigan right now with John Mayer, Dave Mathews, Primus and Snoop Dogg.

On the down side, having come here from L.A., the rates are appallingly low, the infrastructure is anemic, and the fact that nobody seems willing to cooperate is shooting everybody in the foot. Oh well. Can't have everything. Where would you put it?

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by James Meeker

I would rate northern Ohio as a 7. Right now it's the best I've ever seen it. There are a number of bands that have gotten signed from this area in the last five years and doing well:

This Beautiful Republic (Maumee) on EMI
Rediscover (Toledo) but they just got dropped from what I hear
Hit The Lights (Lima) on Triple Crown Records
Before Their Eyes (Bowling Green) on Rise Records
Kate Voegele (all over MySpace now, signed to them)

Plus there are a bunch of great/successful bands still unsigned:

Dash The Assassin
Plague The City
20GoTo10
Sanctus Real
Whitechapel
Trillit
Mikori Thunder

Plus you state that there are no national artists in the Cleveland area. What about:

Mushroomhead
Chimaira
Filter
Gerald LeVert (recently deceased)
Bone Thugs N Harmony
Tracy Champman
Eric Carmen

Furthermore, you state there are no "world class" recording studios. What about Ante Up Audio? They have an amazing facility and have worked with top national and local clients. What about us over here at Lava Room? I know both studios are regularly doing local albums on 10-30 thousand dollar budgets and doing national projects as well. We just had an unsigned band do a 35 thousand dollar record with us.

There is a lot going on here!

There are exciting things happening in every small town and city in the nation. And if there aren't I guess you can complain about it or MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.

That's just my philosophy.

Bowling Green is in North West Ohio, Maumee is in North West Ohio, Lima is on the border of Ohio and Indiana. Toledo is in North West Ohio. None of these are anywhere close to Cleveland.

When I said world class I was thinking more of places like these:

Allaire Studios- Summer/Fall 06
www.electricladystudios.com/news
Legacy Recording Studios
Ocean Way Nashville Recording Studios
Blackbird Studio - A premiere recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anyone can call themselves world class but there are only a handful of studios that can really be considered World Class and Cleveland doesn't have one of them.

If you want to see what Lava Room is all about here is their website Lava Room Recording - Cleveland Recording Studios As to Ante Up here is their website Cleveland Recording Studio - Ante Up Audio Both are very fine studios but not "world class" by any stretch of the imagination.

IMHO both places mentioned list a lot of engineers with a lot of credits but if you dig deeper you find that these are engineers that have "worked" with artists, but not necessarily at Ante Up or Lava room. If I listed all the "world famous" artist I have worked with in my 39 year pro audio career it would take up more than three single spaced pages and start with Brian Adams and end with Joe Zawinul but I have never done mastering for any of these people so I don't list them on my website. I have done concert sound for them, roadie work and helped on recordings but they were never MY mastering clients.

You left off the O'Jays who are a Cleveland Legend and some of these groups mentioned don't call Cleveland home anymore.

My rating still stands for the overall music industry.

IMHO Cleveland sucks when it comes to promoting and helping new bands.

In the Cleveland area NO recording studio cooperates with any other studio and every studio wants to do everything themselves from recording to mixing to mastering. Lately studios have even started to do things like cover art, duplication, shrink wrapping, promotion, and artist management and I am sure they will think of other things very shortly. I am all for diversifying but when you barely can do one thing well why try and do everything else. IMHO no one person can do it all well but they are so afraid that someone will go somewhere else and spend money that they try and do it all and the musicians are the ones that suffer. I have never seen such outright greed. When I worked in Nashville there was a nice flow of work from one studio to the next with one studio doing the tracking, the next doing the mixing and finally off to a mastering studio for finish up. Too bad that never caught on here.

I am glad you are doing well and I hope you continue to do so. Cleveland and Northern Ohio need good studios that are well run and charge resonable rates.

Hope you are having a great fourth of July.

[diogo_c]

I'll use the "Lagerfeldt-Model" for some large area perspective of Brazil:

·I'd rate it 6/10 on a technical basis (we have some very good people, but they are in a very small numbers. remember that getting knowledge uses demands spending some money, and our society has been only developing in a nice way since the mid 90s. so in time, we can get a higher score on this subject.)

·I'd rate it 10/10 on a creative basis (if we have some proportions in mind, it would be like the criteria above - but creativity doesn't require money! of course the money can be helpful, but it's not a "must" have. therefore, being creative in music is not a problem here. we have many creative musicians, composers, singers and producers. and they can deliver it!)

·I'd rate it 6/10 business wise (we are a 3rd world country. people still don't have that much money for something like music.)

Average mastering prices are $US 70 per track.
Average studio prices are $US 300 per 8 hours (a day of work let's say) .

[James Meeker]

Hrm.

[James Meeker]

Return of Hrm.

[GYang]

Recording business as business in pure sense is deep below 0 here.
It serves narrow purposes of making promo demos for live acts and satisfying tycoon's girls ambitions to be artists.
Noone sells CDs (except pirates for very low price of CD cost + 1-2 $ for them).
It is pure pleasure activity, so when someone invests $$$$ in it, there is no business interest at all associated.
Actually, I have lot of great time and pleasure doing what I like.
I'm not pro (impossible to be), but my studio is better that 99% of some pros who make (small) money on commercials and other similar productions I would never like to waste my time.

Good thing (for some of us) is that oil prices are so high, so money comes from completely different sources to entertainment industry.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by Thor

What Lagerfeld said pretty much applies here too.


Sorry to hear things aren't quite the same in Ohio. Do you go out and go to shows much Thomas, check out the new talent?

Cheers,
Thor

Not really. Our operation is in Oberlin and it is a 30 minute drive into Cleveland or a 60 minute drive to the East side of Cleveland where a lot of the venues are. With the current cost of gas here in the US it is too costly to go out for the evening. I do see a lot of new acts that are traveling though Oberlin during the school year but most of these don't call Ohio home. When I was able to go into Cleveland the sound systems at a lot of the venues are soooooooooo loud that I had to wear earplugs. IMHO it really spoils the enjoyment of a concert when the levels are so high but I guess the fans want it that way.

I am glad things are going well for you and hope that they continue.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by James Meeker

That's just not true. All of the clients listed on our page have recorded at Lava Room.

Anyways, this is just the old school mentality. It's not about STUDIOS anymore, it's about engineers... and everyone is starting to catch on to that fact. That's why a lot of less-than-competitive studios are falling to the wayside. A studio is just where the recording happens, the musicians and engineer are the ones that make it happen.

That maybe true for recording studios but it is all about the mastering engineer, his or her equipment and the listening environment for mastering music.

Too many recording studios try and do the mastering on the same equipment in the same room that they record in and it just does not work. If there are abnormalities in the listening environment they will still be there when the person tries to master. Also if the same engineer does the recording and mastering he may not be objective enough when it comes to making artistic decisions during the mastering phase. It is better to go to a professional mastering studio that has the specialized equipment, knowhow, and the experience to do a first class job on the mastering. You will also get someone else with trained ears to listen objectively to the music. By the time the project gets to the mastering phase a recording engineer, IMHO, has lost all of his or her objectivity since they have been so close to the project for months and maybe even years.

[twwalsh]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

I don't know what styles you like, but there's definitely a lot of talent in Boston. Check out Chris McDermott's last record, Radio Ghosts, if you like 70's Philly soul (like the O'Jays) and blues, or if you liked John Mayer's Continuum album. Songs, musicianship, performances... wow! Clyde Stubblefield on drums, of James Brown Fame. You remember the JB tune, "Funky Drummer?" That was Clyde.

We also have a hell of a metal scene. Sure, there's plenty of crap metal like anywhere else, but there are also some great and successful (not always the same thing) metal bands from the area: Killswitch, Hatebreed, Unearth, Seemless, and plenty of others.

In addition, I've been doing a ton of folk, roots rock, americana, and bluegrass type stuff lately. Turns out there's a thriving scene for that too, and I'm shocked (in a good way) at the quality of some of the records in that style that have come through here.

On top of that, our company does a lot of concert video for broadcast and DVD, and the trucks capture all over the country, though we post it all here (mix, master, edit, author). The trucks are out in Michigan right now with John Mayer, Dave Mathews, Primus and Snoop Dogg.

On the down side, having come here from L.A., the rates are appallingly low, the infrastructure is anemic, and the fact that nobody seems willing to cooperate is shooting everybody in the foot. Oh well. Can't have everything. Where would you put it?

i've lived in boston for most of my life, but i spent 4 years recording and performing in seattle and it's like night and day. you'd think that berklee would raise the bar a bit with the quality of players and taste, but i found the scene in seattle was much much better. there are 2 awesome labels (sub pop and barsuk). the guys out there were writing great songs and they could really play. on top of that, they had great taste and everyone was so supportive. there are a lot of music venues and bunches of well-equipped recording studios available for $300-400 a day.

i don't know how to describe the boston vibe...but outside my peer group i don't often hear anything i like...or anything that was recorded well...or anything that even sounds like the people involved put much thought into.

there are a few studios in boston but only 2 are very well equipped (q division and camp street)...you absolutely can't get a room in one of those for less than $500 a day, and you're more likely to pay $750 or so. if you're coming from LA, i'm sure that sounds low...but there are no record labels here and bands are funding their own recordings. $750 is probably a huge portion of their budget. for one day!

thankfully most of my clients are from other parts of the country, and i can do the work at my personal studio. the local bands i work with have been friends of mine for a decade and we just get the job done however we can - tracking in rehearsal spaces and stuff.

i guess it should be noted that i am working in what you would call the "indie" market. my personal taste is more classic rock...but my band and my peers' bands would be classified as "indie" rock. bands on labels with records selling < 50K copies and with album budgets well under $10K.

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by twwalsh

on top of that, they had great taste and everyone was so supportive. there are a lot of music venues and bunches of well-equipped recording studios available for $300-400 a day.

As to the supportiveness, I'm with you; that's indeed the downfall of the Boston scene. It seems many would rather torpedo the whole scene if it means they can get in some digs at the competition. There's a certain belligerent attitude in parts the northeast that is counter-productive. Even L.A. was more helpful... OK, not everybody, but enough.

However, I have to tell you that Atlanta was one of the most cooperative scenes I've ever been in. That's a big part of why it's the #4 music biz city behind L.A., NYC, and Nashville. We could do it here in Boston too, but nobody seems willing to put in the effort.

As for well-equipped studios for $300-400/day, I don't see that as the positive sign that you do. That sounds more to me like the scene can't support professional infrastructure and let full-time engineers make a decent living. Living in this area with a wife and kid, I have trouble making ends meet if I sell my engineering services alone for that, separate from the studio. And considering what it costs to build, maintain, and run a room of the level I've become spoiled enough to be accustomed to (having logged hours in L.A., Nashville, and Atlanta), I realize that we have to pony up if we want pro rooms like that to stay in existence.

I guess it is partly culture shock from what I got used to, but $750/day for a real room (not just "all sizzle but no steak") sounds like a smokin' good deal. Just run the numbers on a million bucks to start it, hell, even half a million, plus monthlies. It's not charity, and if we don't support the scene, it won't support us.

As for labels, don't forget about Rounder, though they don't do much in town anymore. And studios, if you get out of the city limits, Longview is definitely the real deal for tracking, Blue Jay is certainly a real room (though why on earth did they put a VR in there and keep the 813s?), and the best mix room in New England is only an hour outside of Boston, but I'm admittedly prejudiced on that one (Metronome). Still, it's the only mix room that resembles anything I've used in L.A., Nashville etc.

Oh, and remember to go get that Chris McDermott album to give you a glimmer of hope.

[Waltz Mastering]

I can identify with Tom Bethe. I moved from Akron Ohio 22 years ago and have been running a successful multi room facility in Boston for 18 years. Soon it might be time to move again. Always up. Never sideways.

[twwalsh]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

As for well-equipped studios for $300-400/day, I don't see that as the positive sign that you do. That sounds more to me like the scene can't support professional infrastructure and let full-time engineers make a decent living.

I agree with you - from the perspective of the studios, that rate is a joke! But realistically, it's what the market can bear...$750-1000 a day? Where is this money supposed to come from? There are no labels to prop the system up...Anyway, those rooms are certainly "worth" it, but from my perspective, there are very very few clients who can "afford" it.

Longview is pretty amazing. I've taken a tour - but one day there costs more than the entire budget of some records I work on.

I guess what it boils down to is if there's not a lot of records that make money being made, people won't be spending a lot of money to make records.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by twwalsh

I agree with you - from the perspective of the studios, that rate is a joke! But realistically, it's what the market can bear...$750-1000 a day? Where is this money supposed to come from? There are no labels to prop the system up...Anyway, those rooms are certainly "worth" it, but from my perspective, there are very very few clients who can "afford" it.

Longview is pretty amazing. I've taken a tour - but one day there costs more than the entire budget of some records I work on.

I guess what it boils down to is if there's not a lot of records that make money being made, people won't be spending a lot of money to make records.

People buy CDs that they want to hear over and over again. They don't buy CDs that are badly recorded, badly written, badly played, badly mixed or badly mastered. So I guess it is back in the musician's court. If you want something to be financially successful then do something that people want to hear. IMHO too many musicians today do stuff that pleases only them. They don't think about what pleases the people that they want to buy their CDs. Some of the music that I master is pure NOISE and nothing else. When you ask the band about it they say "this is what I wanted to do" or "we don't give a $hit how it sounds it is our music" or the famous "this is ours and we don't give rats a$$ if someone else likes it" with those types of attitudes is it any wonder their music doesn't sell???????? This has nothing to do with artistic freedom but it is realistic fact of life if you want your stuff to sell do something that pleases the people that you want to have as fans and CD purchasers.

When you go into a higher end studio to record you are there for a reason. You are paying top dollar to have the best equipment and have a professional at the controls of the console. You should be ready to record and everything should have been worked out in rehearsals before the "big day" The reason the higher end studio charge more is because they have the equipment and the know how to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. You have to be professional enough to take advantage of that efficiency

I was at a recording session at a friend's studio. He is not in the big leagues but he has got a good ear, a great acoustical recording space and has a lot of nice microphones and equipment. He was doing a Bluegrass session. The players were great but they had not gotten a lot of things worked out before the recording session and took forever to get going. My friend charges $45.00 per hour so they basically wasted over $90.00 getting their collective act together. When they did start to play it was all business and they got a lot of things done.

Later that week I went to another session with a different problem. The band was on the road a lot and were really tight. They knew what they wanted to do and laid down some great scratch tracks right away. But they they could not decide if they wanted to keep the scratch tracks or do the recording over again. This was their third bass player in three months and he had some "problems" that the band was well aware of but they did not really surface until the recording session. They had to deal with the problems but they did not want to so there was a lot of time lost trying to "fix" the problem. Three hours later they finally decided what to do and finished up the first track. Then they got upset when my friend said he would have to charge them for the time. They were taking up space in his studio and he could not book another band so of course they should have to pay for the time but they were upset.

Now if either of these had taken place at a high end studio they would not be talking chicken feed but some serious money.

High end studios or even some high end middle studios have tons of money invested in their space and their equipment and microphone lockers so they have to charge a fee that will cover their costs and make them some profit. If they do not they will soon be out of business. Gone are the gravy days of the 70's and 80's where big record companies had lot of money and could afford to do things like lock outs on really big studios for weeks on end.

I was in New York for the AES convention and went to a BIG NAME studio where James Taylor was recording. His record company had the studio locked out for 24 hours per day at a rate of $275 per hour and he had not been at the studio for ten days. So it had cost the record company $66,000 to have a studio and engineers on call for a no show. Today that would be unthinkable and would be more money than a lot of major records get recorded for today.

Finding a good reasonably priced recording studio today is both easier than it was a few years ago and harder because you have no real way of knowing how good the engineer is except by word of mouth and album credits and today even the album credits they have on their website could be suspect since people have a way of embellishing what they have really done.

I guess it all comes down to getting what you pay for, but that has always been the way it was.

[drakewire]

The Business is non existent in my area... We dont have musicians here :)

[twwalsh]

thomas,

i'm well aware of the advantages of a well-equipped studio. i've had the chance to work in a few...as for the terrible music being made, there's always been bad bands, but the difference is now they can record their bad music on their computers at home, and you have to listen to it. thankfully, they pay you to listen to it! :)

all i'm saying is that you can't get blood from a stone. if a band has to choose between making their record in a guerilla style for little $, or not at all...

i'm not taking one side or the other. i'm an engineer for hire AND i write and perform music. i can see both sides.