financing your project studio

[DaveJes1979]

What is a good way to finance your project studio (barring, of course, funds from a record contract)? What have you done that is creative or has worked?

I'm looking to see if perhaps a small business loan could help me here. Even then, that may be overkill when I only want a $5000 studio.

[Beezoboy]

Got some chinese LDC's and SDC's a couple Sm57's and bought a USB audio device. Then I started recording people and it paid some money here and there.

Also, student loans can be the shit. Sign up for an audio or music technology class at a local college or university and then get a nice loan to go to school. Student loans have EXTREMELY low interest and great payment options. You'll get 10 - 30 years to pay off that loan.

Exactly what I am doing on my last year of college. I am getting a loan of 5k but it only costs me 1k to go to school. 4k of this is going toward gear!! Well actually maybe a little less since I am going to completely pay off my credit card.

Beez

[Dave Martin]

Unless you have a method of generating enough income from the gear to pay off the loan in a timely manner, a loan may be a bad idea (besides being hard to get).

Do you have clients? Or is your plan basically to put together a projet studio for your own use, and then try to rent it out enough to pay of the loan and buy new equipment? Keep in mind that thousands of others have the same idea that you have, if that's the case; competition is really rough on that level...

But for just $5K, a credit card would work. Or borrowing from your family.

[Jay Kahrs]

I've gotta echo what Dave Martin said. If your goal is to make a record, $5K will get that done in style without a problem. If your goal is to buy some recording gear and learn how to engineer then you don't really need to spend $5K on gear just to do that.

To apply for a SBA loan you need to have you shit together and actually have a business with tax ID numbers and the rest of the stuff that goes with it. If your looking at that as an easy low interest loan and you aren't a biz you can abandon that plan now.

[Zarf]

I just put all the money I made from gigging into an account, sold a couple of guitars, and bought just about everything used (mostly ebay, but not all). No debt.

If you wait and watch, there are some amazing bargains out there.

[jazzius II]

Just spend as much of that borrowed cash on analogue gear as pos'......so you won't feel like a mug in ten years........

[DaveJes1979]

The market for project studio services is saturated around here. I really don't want to mess with that. This is just for my own music. Since I am a one man band, recording prog rock material, I can't just chug out an album in 3 days (ala Nirvana's "Bleach) like some punk band. I'm still songwriting even as I record and restructure everything. This is much more of a Dark Side of the Moon type of project - something that is too time-intensive for me to spend $$$$ at a real studio.

My "day job" can sustain payments on a loan or credit card.

Jay - I'm not sure I understand the first paragraph of your post. Can you clarify?

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

Sell drugs...

Pimp ur girlfriend..

Borrow from your parents or as i call them the 'BOM or BOD' Bank Of Mum or Bank Of Dad. Very favourable interest rate and payback time period.

umm i dont know.. it all requires a bit of imagination even if it isnt exactly legal.. but dammt gear is gear and we sure as hell allways need more of it!

Wiggy

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by DaveJes1979
The market for project studio services is saturated around here. I really don't want to mess with that. This is just for my own music. Since I am a one man band, recording prog rock material, I can't just chug out an album in 3 days (ala Nirvana's "Bleach) like some punk band. I'm still songwriting even as I record and restructure everything. This is much more of a Dark Side of the Moon type of project - something that is too time-intensive for me to spend $$$$ at a real studio.

It strikes me that you have a 'hobby', not a 'business' (not that there's anything wrong with that). Based on what you say, the only financial reward that you anticipate from your studio is that some record label will love your prog rock record whenever it's finished and will give you a large sum of money for your work. or not.

n your position, I'd finance it like you would a vacation rather than as investment - you save your money for a trip to Las Vegas (or put it on a credit card); you don't take out a loan to go.

[Beezoboy]

Dave I understand your logic. . . but. . .

$5,000 debt on credit card = minimum payments of roughly $70 - $100 per month. You'll probably have an interest rate of 15 - 20%. Assuming you get 6 months no interest, you'll need to pay that sucker off in 6 months or you'll be getting hit with serious interest. If you hit any financial hardship, you'll be paying the minimum monthly payment and hardly touching the original 5k.

Student loans give you 10 years to pay and payments are something like $30 a month or something rediculously low. Normally at 1-2% interest. If you pay $30, you'll be paying at least $29 and change toward the initial 5k.

Only use a credit card if you absolutely know that you'll have 5k to pay it off in the next 6 months.

Beez

[Screws]

Work at a GC or Sam Ash. The employees get a great deal on gear.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Beezoboy
Dave I understand your logic. . . but. . .

Here's thge other part of my argument, which didn't seem appropriate in the last post (I thought I made a pretty good case for not trying to get financing for what is essentially a hoby studio).

It appears that for $5K, most of his purchases would be computer based, and that's the LAST thing that anyone should arrange long term financing for - long before the debt is repaid, the software/hardware will be obsolete and most likely unuseable (Anyone want to by a Musiquest 32M card or a Turtle Beach 56K mastering system?). But he'll still be paying for it. It makes more sense to get bank financing for a bass boat - at least it will still work in 5 years, and you can sell it for some sum of money. But since he wants to record, he should arrange his priorities (and his finances) appropriately. You might get financing for furniture for your house, or repairs to the roof, but you don't get financing for items of an ephemeral nature - a live cut christmas tree, a really, really nice meal, or a vacation. At worst, you put those on a credit card. And digital recording hardware and software is by its nature ephemeral.

Honestly, based on the way that he described working, he could get into it for quite a bit less than $5K, especially since he'a already got a computer....

[bloodstone]

I've got about 30k in mine. I started off taking a four year $5000 unsecured term loan, and bought a Tascam MX-2424, a few mid-grade mics and some Joe Meek outboard pres. Then I borrowed against my 401k at work and bought a Soundcraft Ghost, Langevein DVC, a CD-R and Distressor. Started working for hire and poured all the money back into more gear. When I paid off the first 401k loan, I took two more and added more mics, Drawmer 1969, patch bays. In between all this insanity I used 6 month same as cash and 12 month same as cash options at Musician's Friend and Mars Music to add more mics, accessories and an Avalon 747sp. Sometimes I paid off my balances before they burned me onh the deferred interest, sometimes I didn't. Good luck. I still need a PC or a Mac and a world class vocal mic.

[atticus]

I this situation I would say do not go into debt. I have made that mistake and it wasn't worth it. The key here is to buy behind the curve, that is, buy used equipment that has already taken the biggest hit in terms of devaluation. I would absolutely recommend, in this sitaution, buying used digital gear. I have said it before that a lot of the no longer produced 20 bit converters sound better then most of the low end 24 bit stuff. I have seen some of our older converters go for pretty reasonable prices and they sound amazing. When working digitally most of the workstations will allow different tracks to have different bit depths so long as the sample rates remain the same. I work primarily in Logic 6 and it allows this scenario with ease. You didn't mention before what platform you were interested in using, but I would very much recommend Logic as it allows you to use an older computer and still retain a good amount of playback power due to it's Freeze function. If you'd like to contact me offline I'd be happy to help you find some cool stuff

[flexoffset]

I'd say i have put about $20,000 or $30,000 in my little studio based on hardware (and mostly software) purchases since 1985.
I don't buy anything until I have the money in my hands. I make and install signs on the side and that pays for my music since the Muscle Shoals music market is so deflated right now.
My music equipment, along with video and photography, and sign plotting equipment, is included in my business, though .. part of my advertising/media company.

I have my eyes on a lot more gear but I've got to work my ass off to get money to buy it.

I'd say you just ought to save up and buy the equipment when you get the full funds.
There's a benefit to that.
Put the money you are saving into an interest-bearing account until you have what you need. The interest accrued would probably pay the taxes or shipping on the gear.

...or I supposed you could open a home equity line of credit and borrow against that. You just have to wait for your bank to put the 'right deal' out there.

[hammer]

dude,
DON"T borrow cash on something that is going to be a liability. If you were going to use the music gear to make money fine...but for a hobby? If you're doing it as a hobby it is to enjoy yourself and have fun. recording is GREAT for that but you don't need all the whizzbang gear to do it (to enjoy yourself). Save up and get yourself an mbox (or equivalent) avg PC a 57 and a condesor ($US2K) and you'll be set. If you're any good you should be able to do some good stuff with this gear.


If the latest playstation cost $5000 would you take a loan out to get one?

[drmad69]

Well, I'm in idaho, and except for the richies that live close to me
in Sun Valley, there ain't shit for studio's within 500 miles.

So, I baught and baught. I had the pipedream because I was
computer geek that I could mix in the box. That started in 1998...


Bad choice, I'd say im 45k in the hole without a paying gig to
show.

But, I'm learning alot. I am just thankfull I was a computer geek
for 20 years before I made that mistake.

If the market hadn't gone to shit, I would have probably paid
for it with my day job. So, it works if the economy isn't shit.

I knew I'd never pay it off with paying gigs, remember everybody
jokes about living in Idaho..

Of course, there are several stars hiding around here, but they
have million dollar studios hiding in barns.

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by DaveJes1979
Jay - I'm not sure I understand the first paragraph of your post. Can you clarify?

I'll attempt.

I've recorded lots of records for people for $5K or less. Including all materials, mastering, PMCD blah blah. Everything but artwork and duplication. I'm going to assume that there are studios/engineers around you that could do the same thing. If your goal is to record and release a record you'd be better off spending that $5K on studio time at a $300-500 a day studio. If you already have some stuff you can work out your ideas and song structures at home and go in and track it all. Or do the drums, mixing & other important bits at the real studio and do the rest at home which would keep the costs down or let you spend more time mixing.

OTOH, if your goal is to learn how to engineer you could buy maybe $2000 of consumer or pro-sumer gear and record everything you can and try to pick up tips from people along the way. Spending $5K on gear won't get you very far with pro-level stuff. It's just too damn easy to spend $3K and have one mic and one compressor.

[Neverland]

Or you could try building some gear. There are resources on the net for some seriously good quality gear you can build for a fraction of the price if you have some basic electronic Knowledge.

[hrn]

One way is to work hard on your free time with some talent you have and spend the earned money on a studio..For me it was web programming.

I will never borrow cash to buy anything. Hate those "loan sharks"... dfegad

You don't need too much equipment to start a small business to earn some money.....to spend on new sweeeet gear.

Hans,
www.hagen.nu

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by Neverland
Or you could try building some gear. There are resources on the net for some seriously good quality gear you can build for a fraction of the price if you have some basic electronic Knowledge.

Good idea except he wants to record an album. Building gear would just be another thing to do and would be counterproductive to that ultimate goal.

[DaveJes1979]

Right, Jay.

What's a soldering gun, anyway?

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by DaveJes1979
What's a soldering gun, anyway?

Soldering IRON!!!

[DaveJes1979]

Precisely my point, Jay.

Is it anything like a glue gun?