Getting work!

[Faderjockey]

How do you advertise? What works?

Studio has been slow here for a few months. Ad's never seem to work. I have been handing out business cards like crazy. Gotten T-shirts done with guys gigging in them to promote.

I'd like to get more work just mixing even. When recording backed off I started to do allot more mixing for clients that were tracking at home. I even put an ad on my site about that very topic. Guys come to me to do drums in a big room finish at home then I'll mix it.

The bands that know a little more or have more money come to me to do it all. They like the rooms and sounds and finshed result.

I just need more ideas on how to get work. Hard to buy gear and pay bills with unsteady work.

Thanks for any input you have.

[jbuntz]

Word of mouth. Record friends at a reduced rate, do your best job, they'll tell their friends.

[Faderjockey]

I wish it was that easy. We have been around since 91' We have done lots of records and reduced rate deals with friends and all that.

I have plenty of bands telling other bands to come here. Some do but allot of times the don't even call to ask questions. This last year has sucked. If a band in this town is doing well lets say they go to a certain studio all other bands have to go there too. They all jump on the band wagon.

I used to have lots of returning work. Allot of those bands are gone now and the newer bands don't want to spend any money. I've been trying to do more voice over work just to pay the bills.

[troubado]

--

[Faderjockey]

Thanks guys,

Yeah I'm working on a project now with a buddy who is playing allot in town. I'm not playing in a band at this time I stopped 4 years ago because at that time the studio was doing great.

I'm working with another buddy on his solo record. He used to be on Interscope. This stuff sounds great so I'm hoping people dig it and want to come in and record. Lot of very good feedback so far.

Plus I'm hooking him up and in return he is engineering some other smaller projects for me. Works well.

[Jules]

Take the time to

Update your website
Hang out with bands
Make a promo Mpeg movie of your place to put on the web
Emailshot folks with the new website

HANG ON!

I GOTTA DO ALL THAT MYSELF!!!!!

[RichT]

Originally posted by Faderjockey
I wish it was that easy. We have been around since 91' We have done lots of records and reduced rate deals with friends and all that.

I have plenty of bands telling other bands to come here. Some do but allot of times the don't even call to ask questions. This last year has sucked. If a band in this town is doing well lets say they go to a certain studio all other bands have to go there too. They all jump on the band wagon.

I used to have lots of returning work. Allot of those bands are gone now and the newer bands don't want to spend any money. I've been trying to do more voice over work just to pay the bills.

If you have to pay the bills...

How are you setup for running rehearsal sessions?

We have to run rehearsals 7 days a week to keep our place open. It's a no brainer, popular and gets us in front of the local bands - they become comfy rehearsing here, they want to record here too.

Cheers,
Rich

[Faderjockey]

RichT, I was thinking about that long ago. We have 3,000sq ft we use in this wharehouse. The upstairs is 18,000sq ft. There was sometime when it was empty and we were going to rent it and do band rehersal there so we'd have the whole building to ourselves. Scary $$$$$

Them my Asst took his kick and snare up there and note: the upstairs isn't really over me just some of it. When he hit it I could hear it. I was like man there is no way I could have 10 bands going. Thats what I was planning on.

I do every once in a while use my live room. Most people only want to rent it if they can leave gear setup. So I don't do much of that. I'm cool if they would just do it by the hour.

[RichT]

Originally posted by Faderjockey
RichT, I was thinking about that long ago. We have 3,000sq ft we use in this wharehouse. The upstairs is 18,000sq ft. There was sometime when it was empty and we were going to rent it and do band rehersal there so we'd have the whole building to ourselves. Scary $$$$$

Them my Asst took his kick and snare up there and note: the upstairs isn't really over me just some of it. When he hit it I could hear it. I was like man there is no way I could have 10 bands going. Thats what I was planning on.

I do every once in a while use my live room. Most people only want to rent it if they can leave gear setup. So I don't do much of that. I'm cool if they would just do it by the hour.

Guess it's a little different over in the Big Ol USA, bands have option of garage/barn/etc to rehearse in.

We've no room in the UK, we're living on top of each other and band's have virtually nowhere to go to rehearse - 'cept here muhahahahah

[davemc]

Originally posted by RichT
If you have to pay the bills...

How are you setup for running rehearsal sessions?

We have to run rehearsals 7 days a week to keep our place open. It's a no brainer, popular and gets us in front of the local bands - they become comfy rehearsing here, they want to record here too.

Cheers,
Rich

Thats how a lot of places around here work. They get the demos and small cd bands as they practise there. Its not the gear its the comfort factor. Same as guys who do live work take bands to there home recording setup.
A lot of these places are just basic home gear and charge the same $$'s as they have a steady clientelle at the door.
It hurts when you find out a place with a VS2480 is basically the same $$'s as you are.. .. Although the only question you get from young bands is how much?

But do you really want to record a band that does not know better about there sound?

[RichT]

Originally posted by davemc
Thats how a lot of places around here work. They get the demos and small cd bands as they practise there. Its not the gear its the comfort factor. Same as guys who do live work take bands to there home recording setup.
A lot of these places are just basic home gear and charge the same $$'s as they have a steady clientelle at the door.
It hurts when you find out a place with a VS2480 is basically the same $$'s as you are.. .. Although the only question you get from young bands is how much?

Although sometimes do you really want to record a band that does not know better about there sound?

Yes and no.

Having the bands into rehearse gives us the advantage of talking to them well in advance of any recording.

When bands book in I make the effort to sit in with them for a few rehearsal sessions before and make suggestions.

If I think a band is genuinely not ready to record, to the point that the finished result would make the studio look bad, then I'll tell them so.

Did so with a band last year. They wanted to record an album, I said they weren't ready, how about 3 tracks? They went off to another studio, recorded 12 tracks. It stank and now the band are coming back here to do 3 tracks in January.

It's ****ed up business logic but it helps me sleep at night.

[shaneoconnor]

i host a weekly series at two different clubs in town. i have an incentive for the artists that i book to draw well:

the artist that draws the most people out of a 4 show series will receive 2 free days of mixing.

additionally, everyone involved will recieve 10% off of their first booking.

i also take a cut of the door.

-so i meet with at least 3-4 bands a week.
-sometimes i host a preparty before the first show in a series.
-i ask the bands to promote the IDEA of the series, and the relationship with me to their friends and fans.
- i suggest each band looks for at least one print press outlet to help promote the series.

i get at least 3-4 gigs out of this for each series. sometimes it takes a while, but its worth it. the small 10% discount is usually not that big of a deal, in that i am paying for the best promotion... word of mouth.

[Vum]

One thing you can do that I've had some success with in the past is this:

book an act to record on Friday-Sun (for instance). However, have them load their gear on Monday and have them rehearse. This will allow you to be familiar with the material and the people and they can be familiar with you and the facility. Charge them a rehearsal fee, let them leave their gear, and have them come back the rest of the week leading up to recording.

[matskull]

I don't own a real nice studio, just a little setup at home but I got some nice amp and stuff.
I'd also like to record more band, it's been almost a year since I started to record the last band I recorded and we finished it in the summer cause they had to find a new singer for the recording.

I work in postproduction so I don't have to make money out of music recording to pay the bill but it'd be nice to be able to buy more gear and get some more experiance.
I always have 2-3 bands interested to record but i they're never serious...