Hours of Operation

[ONDRAY]

What hours do you guys normally take clients in from-to?

Working from home is a real pain in the ass sometimes. I have clients randomly dropping by calling me at 11pm saying they have some new mixes for me and they're outside. Others insist on doing a session at midnight. I tell them I work from home, but I also need my personal time. Why is that so hard to understand. Then there's the odd one that I feel like they're gonna come bang down my door if I don't get them great sounding masters from terrible mixes.

[turtlerock]

we are open 24 /7 and the other guys i have take what books
but personally i like to start my sessions at the crack of 11am weekdays
i work late only on two specific nights a week and usually i am at home by 6- 7pm on the other days .

i tried working at home a long time ago , i did not have the people skills to tell the clients to "#$%^ off i am having dinner with my girl " , so i started getting resentful at clients for invading my space .

it might be time you moved out of home...

[MASSIVE Master]

I don't like starting sessions before 10AM, I don't like to be in session after 10PM.

But both happen occasionally...

[jdg]

i advertise 10a-6p M-F
but if the band/artist/etc NEEDS to be there, and they have to do it off hours, im not averse.

you'll always have nutters coming by at odd hours no mater if you're studio is in your house, or separate.

is there any way for you to have a separate entrance to the studio?

[mrlouie]

i start at 11am and work till im done so around 8pm, on good days 7pm but when its busy with production or a long album im here till 10/11pm sometimes midnight or later... i dont work weekends.

[Adam Dempsey]

Typically, weekdays 10am starts, weekends 11am starts, some evenings for artists with day jobs or for dealing directly with international clients... whatever is requested, but always by appointment, with flexibility to move unattended sessions to accommodate as need be. We bill all-inclusive rates rather than by the hour, so it's really whatever it takes, such is the nature of working with music and artists. Clients love the chilled out atmosphere & being able to come & go during the session if/as they need.

[wado1942]

I don't like starting sessions before 10AM, I don't like to be in session after 10PM.

I'm pretty well in the same boat, but I try to have any clients out of the studio by 9:00 so I can clean on my own and be done by 10:00.

I make exeptions for live shows and rush mastering jobs.

[Jerry Tubb]

Crack of Noon till Midnight.

M-F, weekends are for outdoors.

JT

[nicpope]

24/7. Any time, I don't care. But I also don't tell anyone where I live.

[Rick Sutton]

Best move I ever made in this business was moving my family out of the studio location and having a separate home life. My hours for mastering are 10AM 'til 6PM.

[inlinenl]

attended only in principal from 10:30 - 18:00 .... M/F
saturday session 11:00 - 15:00

but what ever it needs to get done .... I'm 24/7

I love working from my HOME ... every 1 € I make 85% is netto before tax ..

p.s. I think the new google chrome is a pretty fast browser ...

[lowland]

8am to 5.30 or 6pm here - I like that 'golden hour' before 9 when I can just get on with stuff without the phone. Sometimes attendeds drift into the evening, but they're only a small percentage of my work anyway. A couple of times a year I may be forced to work weekends.

[pmx]

at the moment i have to drive an hour to my studio, and with thedutch traffic that means i cant start before 11am. so attended sessions start at noon, till 8pm. sometimes till 10, 11pm. my new studio will be a 5 minute drive, then i'll try to start at 9am... no weekends here, unless its very very necessary...

[Darius van H]

My studio is a 35 minute cycle ride from home.

Four days through the week, 9:00 or 10:00 until 17:00 or 18:00 (one day mon-fri at home with my daughter), evenings & weekends not infrequently.

Several evenings a week doing admin, I never watch TV, my girlfriend says i'm the worst workaholic she ever saw.

I know a lot of engineers who's relationships have gone pear-shaped due to over-work tutt so gotta be careful about that.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

9 am to 6 pm M-F but it can vary.

Some clients are very respectful of your personal time some are not, such is life.

The longest session I have done is 13 hours and it started at 7 pm and went until the wee hours of the next morning. I had another session at 10 am. Not fun but business is business and I have to be here when the clients need to get their work done.

I have had clients call me at 7 am and at midnight. Not really nice but they had legit reasons for calling me at those times. Since I live in my home and my home is my studio it just goes with the territory.

I had some late night visitors early in my career who came by for a look at 10 pm. Today I would not open the door but back then I was young and foolish and opened the studio door to find 4 young men wanting to see the studio. Turns out they were in town for a concert and were thinking of using me for their mastering on their next album and thought it would be OK to just "drop in" They turned out to be really nice and did lots of work with me. It could have turned out differently but this time the fates were with me.

If you are at all successful you have to be in tune with your clients and be available when they want to work. I try very hard not to start before 9 am but have done it more than once and I try not to work after midnight but have done that more than once as well.

The clients that really piss me off are the ones that you go out of your way to help them work when they want to work and they either don't show up or show up 4 hours late and wonder why you are a bit perturbed. One client just had to work on a Sunday. I was scheduled to go to a movie with my Niece. I canceled the show time and the client never showed up. On Monday he calls up all sweetness and light saying he "forgot" the appointment and could we do it next Sunday?

Working with the public is fun, challenging and can sometime cause you great angst but if the business depends on the money coming in the door...you have to be available when the client wants to work or they will go somewhere else.

[macc]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

Several evenings a week doing admin, I never watch TV, my girlfriend says i'm the worst workaholic she ever saw.

I know a lot of engineers who's relationships have gone pear-shaped due to over-work tuttso gotta be careful about that.

Hmmm, you got that right. I wasn’t going to post in this thread but that struck a chord…

The last 2 years of my life:

Up at 7am
Train to London
9 – 5.30 as assistant international project coordinator for UN agency
Train home
7-8 mastering admin, dinner, catch up with the lady
8 – 2.30/3am mastering, admin

That way probably 9 out of every 10 working days, the odd early night occasionally. Weekends I spend more time with the lady, but work in every available moment in between.

Unfortunately my day job – which, incidentally, I am coming to loathe more and more – is not the sort of thing that can be reduced to part time. So I’m saving the buffer to float myself full time, or should I say, go to one full time job instead of 2. Though I’ll probably go for a local part time job at McDonalds/shovelling shit/whatever to keep things tidy.

Just got to be the way it is at the moment. I’m 30, no kids, our own home. Now is the time…

[Joe_caithness]

Oh man all over the ****in shop at the minute!

Pretty much 2-12 every day is spent at the studio listening, working, tweaking, admin-ing.

And when I get home its more emails, but hey I dont mind, waiting to see when my girlfriend cracks though!

Its safe to say as a DJ I am NOT a morning person. Although I often leave early to protect my ears to the bemusement of most promoters ha!

It's the phone calls which are the most sporadic, can be from 8am to 12am!