ever consider throwing in the towel?

[maskedman72]

lately i have been considering quitting the studio business and closing my studios doors.

my studio (blackfeatherstudios) has been successfull and i have a good client base that always comes back and likes what they hear.

lately i have been feeling like i just dont want to do this anymore. i am feeling like it is time to move on to do other things in life.

i will still continue to be an engineer at the other studio that i have been working out of (tempermill studios) but not my home studio.

its just a thought. anyone else ever feel this way?

[Reza]

I don't run a studio for profit, but I can tell you this.

99% of people get sick of their day jobs sometimes, and most of them are sick of their day jobs most of the time.

Whatever you do, don't jump into anything. See how you feel about things in another few months. Often people narrow in on one aspect of their lives - thinking, if I could only change this, then I'd be happy - when really it's much deeper and more complicated than that.

I'd be sure to weigh up the pro's and con's very objectively and talk things through with your closest friends and family.

Good luck with it all.

[JohnNy C]

I would say think long and hard before you make any moves of that magnitude. Like Reza said, it might be something else in your life that you want changed, and the closing the home studio thing might seem like an immediate fix, but may not cut it in the long run. Personally, I run a small home studio for my own productions as well as work in radio, and the thought has crossed my mind of going in other directions, but I just love it too much to throw in the towel. If you love what you do now, what makes you think what you are planning to do will top that?

Quick question, does your home studio turn profit or is it for hobby? And is the tempermill studio's gig your main job?

[midnightsun]

Business, is business, is business.... I personally don't like my business invading my home. When that happens I start resenting it. I would advise against offing your gear until you have reached a comfortable resolve. Perhaps you could consider keeping your home studio for projects that are passions of the heart and absolutely fun-- not even think of it as a business.

Best of luck,

[Snatchman]

Wow...! It's funny you posted this.... ..I was just thinking this as I have just now logged in! I'm thinking about selling off most off the outboard gear and starting over at a later time. Figuring I can recapture that passion I had when I first started recording. Think I'll just go back to writing songs and maybe the gearslut bug will hit again! At least the next time, the gear should be cheaper and better and a whole lot less trial and error buying it, thanks to you guys here at GS..!.. .........

[FS0420]

Join the remote club. I like it more than being in a studio. It might be quite refreshing to you if you have been stuck inside caves at a desk (where there arent usually 100's of half dressed women, thought that is another idea on its own).
Or live might be a disaster and send you over the edge!

[Jay Kahrs]

Have you hit burnout with engineering in general or just at your home studio? I'm guessing the latter...otherwise you probably wouldn't want to continue working at Tempermill would you?

I know a lot of guys who have a studio in or just next to their house...personally...I need the seperation between 'church & state' so I don't loose my mind.

At the end of the day I want 'home' to be 'home' so I can leave work and any drama, BS & the ever present studio mess to be totally out of my world for the next few hours.

[joelpatterson]

Totally opposite end of the dialectic, here. I LOVE having my studio a short walk up the stairs. I feel like at any time I can "log on" and work on things, at any time and instantaneously. And revisit things that I'm still uncertain about. I have to think that when you work at a studio on some kind of clock, and you're thinking about the commute home, you just can't concentrate the same way... give it your all, and more... because it all happens in a structured situation? But I do do alot alot of live concert recording, which I bring back here to mix at my leisure... so maybe it's the best of both worlds.

[macr0w]

My good buddy Jay Howard told me yesterday that he is packing it in after 40 years in the bussines and 32 of those years on his own.

I'm just getting started so I haven't become jaded or tired yet.

I guess at some point you have to make a change. Do what makes you happy. Good luck in what ever you decide.

[RainbowStorm]

Originally Posted by maskedman72

lately i have been considering quitting the studio business and closing my studios doors.

my studio (blackfeatherstudios) has been successfull and i have a good client base that always comes back and likes what they hear.

lately i have been feeling like i just dont want to do this anymore. i am feeling like it is time to move on to do other things in life.

i will still continue to be an engineer at the other studio that i have been working out of (tempermill studios) but not my home studio.

its just a thought. anyone else ever feel this way?

What kind of music are you mostly recording and mixing? On your signature I see a bloody face doing some kind of punk, I just thought that maybe you have grown out of that punk era and now you need something new... In that case you might need a new studio, new friends, new life style etc... I don't know, maybe you are doing some country music allready, if not, try that before you throw in the towel...! Or maybe some smooth jazz...?! I personally would not be able to combine business and recording punk music, that would really be like trying to do business on nitro.

I don't know you so I cannot say for sure. Only you know why you are sick of this. Maybe you just feel that you want to do something completely different now, just to get some new perspectives. That could be a healthy thing for you. No matter what you do, take these feelings seriously, you might be heading towards a brighter future!

[Fletcher]

"Every time I think I got out... they pull me back in." M. Corleone

[T_R_S]

If your sick of work take a holiday.

[Dahmen]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

Totally opposite end of the dialectic, here. I LOVE having my studio a short walk up the stairs. I feel like at any time I can "log on" and work on things, at any time and instantaneously. And revisit things that I'm still uncertain about. I have to think that when you work at a studio on some kind of clock, and you're thinking about the commute home, you just can't concentrate the same way... give it your all, and more... because it all happens in a structured situation? But I do do alot alot of live concert recording, which I bring back here to mix at my leisure... so maybe it's the best of both worlds.

Its the same here. I just love to work whenever i want to and not HAVE to (except the clients are in the house actually). This is why i made that all for. Another important factor is that this way everything is cheaper for me because the money i pay for my house is way less than paying for the house AND for a different place where my studio resides. I feel the most possible represented by this situation! :)

[raal]

my experiences for FWIW: we used to have a two room facility in hollywood in the 80s. did very well for awhile. all the big acts and clients. two neve Vs when they first came out, studer A800s, yadda yadda. i got into the studio business figuring it had someting to do with music (i'd made a successful record a couple of years earlier, billboard award and all).

well, i pretty much found out we were running a nursery/hotel with audio gear. the catering, the pin ball machines, the fried chicken and exactly what angle the rug was in the main room seemed to be equally or more important than the gear or knowledge of how to use it. for example i was constantly requested by holland dozier holland for engineering duties in the 80s - i knew even less about audio than i do now! there were plenty of qualified engineers but they requested me, bless their hearts. maybe it was because i would weather their blowing speakers every other day (big and small monitors) with a smile. when it wasn't loud enough they'd have me put all the monitors on at the same time. of course i'd go into those sessions with cotton in my ears but they didn't seem to mind as long as i turned everything LOUDER. with a glam band that shall remain nameless, we had room A and B going at one point, doors open, with two separate sessions going on at the same time. i'd go sing on their thing, they'd come sing on mine. big monitors going, bleed all over the place (not to mention screaming groupies) but who cared? both records did great by the way. then there was the blind guy (nameless) who's wife's only mission in life was to roll joints for him. when the control room doors opened it looked like the place was on fire from the smoke pouring out. i was able to skip those sessions thank the good Lord. and when we made the studio an underground club, got busted by the vice sqaud several times. ah yes... those were the days... art in its purest form.

at any rate, the building was sold to these arab guys that just jacked the rent up til we pretty much went out of business. didn't realize then that the game is to buy the real estate - mortgage payments could actually be cheaper than the rent itself... dumb and inexperienced then. not that that i'm too smart now.

anyway one day when i wanted to use the place for a project of mine and had to book another studio it dawned on me i was in the wrong end of the biz.

so we got out of that. i made a home studio. definitely more of a hobby. but that hobby has made more money than the studio ever did (which wasn't alot when all was said and done). i either go in there to do my own stuff or when i produce other people, i'm basically the client. no overhead. just turn on the lights when i need it. no rent, bank loans, receptionist, techs, house engineers, etc.

it's actually fun (except when PT crashes) and i actually look forward to going in there. the magic is far from gone for me now... and i think not renting it out has had a lot to do with it.

so the moral of the story is, putting a studio in your home can be a double edged sword, but not renting it out is one way to go.

[rectifier]

Originally Posted by T_R_S

If your sick of work take a holiday.

What if you just did take a holiday?

(you get back from holiday all freshly recharged for work and one day later... work sucks again)

[vernier]

That was an interesting story raal !!!

[SK1]

When you originally had the idea of having a studio or doing recording or music ........
how did you think about it ????

Go back to your original idea, and stay true to that.

It's all too easy to drift away from what you knew would make you happy to begin with.

[lefthando]

I know I've often thought that if I wasn't doing this I'd love to own a little café and make really wicked espresso.

mmmm... gear porn

[ALL*MYTEE]

Lots of great input here, maybe I can chuck one more log onto the fire.

I started a graphic design business that did very well in the 90s and started sucking the life out of me as it got more successful. In theory it was "creative" and so fun, but the business part of it was serious grind.

There was a very thin book called The E-Myth Revisited that I picked up years later that put it all in wonderful perspective. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088...lance&n=283155

I didn't read the whole thing, but the first 50-100 pages sure set me straight. It basically says if you started a pie-making business to make pies, forget it and find a job as a baker, because the better you are the less likely it is that you will have the time and energy to make pies. And the less likely it is you'll enjoy yourself. (As a successful company requires a lot of paperwork, management, sales calls, etc.) It helps define the difference between a passion and a business. There are other ways to structure businesses and ways to combine business and pleasure, but it helps to be really, really clear.

As for me, I chucked the business (with a little help from some clients who canned me), went off to write a book and nowadays I rent studio gear so I can make my own music. Business side business and creative side creative.

Best of luck--these investigations often yield great results.

[slipperman]

The day I make a record I can't find something massively wrong with, 6 minutes after the desk is ripped down....

Is the day I will quit.





























Not gonna happen.









Much more likely scenario.







Drop dead at work.




Every male on my fathers side of the family has managed this little stunt for something like 6 generations. Always a massive coronary. Always seemingly healthy as a horse till they keel over outta nowhere.


It's a blessing actually. Just pay the life insurance premium. Which is the FIRST thing I pay every month.




Anyhoo. I plan on croaking sprawled directly on the center section with the farfields at "Welding Volume".


Best regards,

SM.

[Led]

Yeeeeeahh....I always figure I'm goone be found with my fingers all seized up clamped around the master fader and they'll have to pry me out and bury me in a sitting position with my arms out in front of me. Thing that worries me is I do a lot of dance remixing, so a loop could be running for days before anyone thought something was wrong and came to check. Better get some better air conditioning.

[Jules]

Thats funny!

[Jack P]

I thought of jacking it in a few days ago, but then found myself feet up on the Neve with a Bud in hand and some tunes blaring out thinking 'not a bad lunch break', and then went back to making tunes..

Following Leds story i knew a dance remixer who came in the studio and was very tired and he fired up his loop and i left, returning the next morning i found him asleep with the same loop blaring out. He had fallen asleep 5 minutes after i had left !

[maskedman72]

thanks for all of the thoughts, comments, stories and advise.

as of right now it is all just in my head and i have not taken any steps to shut her down. i just want to hear from other prople minds that have been there.

it does suck having people in my house, but i do not bring just anybody here to record. it is only people i know from previous recording/dealings and those people are respectful to my home.
my home studio has no overhead, all the gear is paid for so all the money i make is pure profit.
i dont really do it for the money anyhow. i charge $15 per hour less than the average guy in this area. i just want to give bands that cant afford studio time a chance to have a decent sounding demo.

i also have another passion that is pulling my mind from the studio stuff and that is custom motorcycles and metal fabracation.

i could easily slip into that world and never come out of it.

in all reality, i have so mush stuff on my hard drives that even if i was to never take on a new project i would be busy for at least a year finishing up what i now have so that has me kind of trapped.

also if i did sell everything off i would miss it a bit. id might even regret it.

[OVERNIGHT]

Allright, I guess I'm going to be that voice.... Nothing wrong with the midlife changeup. It's a luxery of our modern society. If your heart is taking you somewhere else, follow it. And since all your stuff is paid for, just hang on to it for when you do want to come back.

One of the best things I ever did was walk away for a few years (from being an active touring musician). It helped my art tremendously, I lost that nagging preciousness and useless perfectionism that sucked all the fun and blood out of the things I was working on. When I came back I had that feeling of having nothing to lose and the fealessness of someone who wasn't desperately trying to 'make it', who had their whole identity wrapped up in this thing.... and you know what? I was never in hotter demand. People responded to my music as never before. Those stupid crazy details no one ever hears got put into serious perspective.


I like the suggestion of doing a different type of music. I'm a rock guy thru and thru. For giggles I started playing bass in an old time murder ballad, "Loretta Lynn in a powdered wig" style western group and I LOVED it. I owned not a Bass, a Bass amp nor a single country record at the time. I would just laugh and laugh and laugh while playing in my string tie and polyester suit. I had a SOOO much fun and so did everyone that saw us. I quit when we started getting tons of calls to do the casinos and cruise ships. Those guys are still making a bunch of dough doing those gigs, I heard they made almost 400K last year doing mediteranian cruises and casinos in the south of France. A bunch of ex punk rockers, playing "Fist City" to wealthy Euro's for big $$$. Not a bad gig. I digress. I started recording a drum guy a few months ago for fun and it's been very interesting. He just plays and layers all these different kinds of drums and makes some very interesting music I would have never given the time of day to before.

I guess my point is if your bored and the blood is running out, take contrary actions. Do something different to shake it up. Record a needy jazz group for spec some weekend. Perhaps there's a classical ensemble that would really appreciate a spec day and you could trade with them to play on some of that music you have on your hard drive.... Or walk away for a while. There's nothing wrong with that.

[lefthando]

Great post, Overnight ^

[raal]

[Led]

Originally Posted by Jack P

i knew a dance remixer who came in the studio and was very tired and he fired up his loop and i left, returning the next morning i found him asleep with the same loop blaring out. He had fallen asleep 5 minutes after i had left !

I bet he printed whole 12 hours and the label loved it " Phew yer rockin' beats u got there, i love the really long trance out section, so brave to let it go for so long.
I've got this other track I want you to have a look at"

[warhead]

I was reading an (old) interview wit