How did you fund your Studio?

[Paul_G]

Originally Posted by narcoman

big record deal, big publishing deal. Sold a few records.

small record deal, small publishing deal. Sold 7 million records.

Very grateful to have reinvested some of it in studio gear as opposed to sushi, drugs and champagne.

[Jam]

Originally Posted by Paul_G

small record deal, small publishing deal. Sold 7 million records.

Very grateful to have reinvested some of it in studio gear as opposed to sushi, drugs and champagne.

In fairness, sushi, drugs and champagne are good as well !!

But not a tax deduction.

James

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Paul_G

small record deal, small publishing deal. Sold 7 million records.

Very grateful to have reinvested some of it in studio gear as opposed to sushi, drugs and champagne.

eh.... wish it'd been that way here!! I think we sold something like 900,000 in the end.... and that's after a mini revival!! Did well in the UK but the rest of the world..... hmmmmm

[Gretschman]

Great question .

For me , I started to buy my gear one piece at a time and putting it in a corner .

After 5 years of mics , out board gear , converters , ect., I was able to get enough
put aside .

Then bought a house that need remodeling and told the little women that we need to remodel the house and build a separate garage / studio due to the fact that I bought a house with no storage space and a garage that was too small !! She agreed .

As for the money , well , I sold some long term investments and saved a lot over time .

[DeadPoet]

I teach music which allowed me to have a family and buy a house and cover basic costs.
Gigging (bass freelance) allowed me to get some gear and save a little to build my studio.

Studio needs 3 days of work per month to cost me nothing.



Herwig

[MaTr1x2051]

This is all great info, thanks to all who have relpied so far!

The trend I'm noticing is 1) start small and expand as you are able, and 2) no outside investment seems to be a part of things.

Has anyone gotten a loan or investors for their studio? I know in this business, its difficult if not impossible to pay off loan amounts withint a reasonable amount of time... but say you wanted to purchase an SSL, Neve, API etc console... how would you go about finding the $100,000 minimum to purchase that? Saving a little bit over a long period of time will never add up to that amount of money unless you're prepared to wait at least 20 years or longer...

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

This is all great info, thanks to all who have relpied so far!

The trend I'm noticing is 1) start small and expand as you are able, and 2) no outside investment seems to be a part of things.

Has anyone gotten a loan or investors for their studio? I know in this business, its difficult if not impossible to pay off loan amounts withint a reasonable amount of time... but say you wanted to purchase an SSL, Neve, API etc console... how would you go about finding the $100,000 minimum to purchase that? Saving a little bit over a long period of time will never add up to that amount of money unless you're prepared to wait at least 20 years or longer...

there are many studios that never bought all the gear outright. Leasing is/was common for big pieces of equipment. Probably not such a good idea in todays market but .....

[The Beatsmith]

i'm personally not trying to fund 'gear' at the moment. i feel i have enough to get on with for a good mixing/production facility - top quality DAW/monitors/DAC/mics/instruments.

it's funding the 'space' that i am struggling with. making the leap to get the hell out of your house/apartment, and having a big enough space to really be able to work in. and actual monthly responsibility - rent! (and bills). or, having a house that has a big enough room to be able to set my stuff up. however at this stage in my life, buying or renting a large house doesn't seem feasible

at the moment i am 'trapped' with a cut down setup at the label office which is restrictive in nearly every way i can think of. part of me is grateful to have anything at all, of course, but if i'm 'doing it', i want to do it properly.

i believe that the only solution is to get a full time day job and save for a few years. i make largely electronic music (hiphop/soul/funk) and don't really record live 'bands', this is a studio for mixing, vocal tracking, etc. i am a musician/guitarist and if i DID have a decently large space, i would love to record my own guitars, drums etc, separately, i.e overdubs, although i can't imagine having a space large enough to track all at once, with a separate live room. that's daydream stuff. and i don't really want to be there recording crappy indie bands for £10 an hour.

i have had some jobs mixing for others and creating music, teaching and doing session guitar work, however it is sporadic. i don't really have enough contacts for the latter, and in the main genre i'm in, nobody seems to value decent mixing. i.e. the people i know don't want to pay for mixing.

if anyone has any advice on making the 'leap' (i understand i haven't really given you much information to work with), that'd be just lovely.

i'm trying to have my fingers in many pies with teaching and working a couple of part time music related jobs which would have been a perfect solution, but they all seem to have fallen by the wayside, all at the same time, and so it's left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. so i guess i better suck it up and get anything to pay the bills for now. that's where i'm at in my 'career'

sorry - maybe this post should be in the moan zone

[The Beatsmith]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

This is all great info, thanks to all who have relpied so far!

The trend I'm noticing is 1) start small and expand as you are able, and 2) no outside investment seems to be a part of things.

Has anyone gotten a loan or investors for their studio? I know in this business, its difficult if not impossible to pay off loan amounts withint a reasonable amount of time... but say you wanted to purchase an SSL, Neve, API etc console... how would you go about finding the $100,000 minimum to purchase that? Saving a little bit over a long period of time will never add up to that amount of money unless you're prepared to wait at least 20 years or longer...

a couple of years ago i had an 'investor' - my ex girlfriend just happened to be a millionaire.

as my birthday present, she had arranged a studio space for me for a year. this fell through because the offices in the building freaked out at the last minute as they thought it would be too noisy, even when i said i would work only in out of office hours.

so this fell through and we broke up a little later (unrelated to the studio falling through ). it was quite amicable and she said she still wanted to fund the studio (for a year). after some hunting we found another place, but in the end i turned the offer down as it didn't feel 'right' because of our personal relationship. still think about it as i drive past the place most days - when i'm having a bad day i certainly regret not taking her up on the offer or not it would have been totally 'free' (she was not looking for any return), but i "did the right thing"

[Lifted]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

As we all know, the initial investment for a professional studio can range on the low end from $250,000 to the high end of $1,000,000+. Both of those figures are high for any individual to personally supply the capital...

So how did you all go about getting the funding for your venture?

How's business doing out there in Phoenix man?

[MaTr1x2051]

Beatsmith - I totally agree that the space(s) are more important than gear... I'd definitely put money toward a space before 'extra' gear if the budget wasn't ideal, and it never is I'm just trying to be hypothetical here about getting money in the first place.

Lifted - Heh, business is alright, but I definitely don't own anywhere near the gear I'm talking about. BUT, without giving too much away, I see a pretty strong potential for a certain kind of studio out here. There are lots of home and project studios, only a handful of professional ones. But coming up with the capital to make my idea happen... well... that's part of the reason I started this post: to see how others had done it.

[The Spark]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

it's funding the 'space' that i am struggling with.

Oh man, I can relate. It seems to be 1000x harder than finding the gear.

Best of luck.

[Dean Roddey]

I don't want to talk about it too much, but it involved a very short red dress, some nice pumps, and a lot of eye liner. When that didn't work out, I ended up having to pay them, I then sold my home theater.

[Yosh!]

Worked full time while slowly buying gear and saving. When the right space came along I had the $$ to be able jump on it.

Even though I didn't have the 3x income to rent most smart landlords want to see to rent you a space, I had enough to pay fist/last/deposit without flinching and that confidence caused them to never even check my income.

Being able to write off the gear costs from my other income didn't hurt either but the working 2 fulltime jobs got old real fast.

[The Beatsmith]

well, i had a google, and your studio looks great yoshi. well done! thumbsup

once you set all this up, did people (paying clients) just magically appear? build it and they will come? you're managing to stay open easily?

[Sugarnutz]

Originally Posted by maxpidge

spent twelve years in a ford plant, took a buyout!!! $100,000

Dang! I spent 10 in a GE plant and only got $15K when they closed (made that in OT the last 3 months working 16/7 though). Guess that's the difference between IUE and UAW (and we made automotive lighting, always thought we should'a been UAW).

[Yosh!]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

well, i had a google, and your studio looks great yoshi. well done! thumbsup

once you set all this up, did people (paying clients) just magically appear? build it and they will come? you're managing to stay open easily?

Thanks man!

I wouldn't call staying open this year 'easy' by any stretch. But then again even the venerable 40 year old studio in town was very quiet this summer.

I had clients built up from the previous 2 years while working both jobs. Some have been with me since I had a Control 24 set atop an old door balancing on 2 mismatched sets of drawers and have seen all the improvements along the way. I 'made the jump' as it were when I reached the point of my day job not leaving me enough time to do the studio work I had booked.

People do take you more seriously when you're no longer 'working the day job' tho. Seriously. You shift in people's eyes from 'another guy who does recording' to 'actual engineer' and that makes a difference in landing new clients.

Word of mouth client building is by far the best, but it's a slow process. Personally I've been focusing most of my efforts on building relationships with freelance engineers in the area to get them to regularly bring their projects here.


Oh, and it's Yosh!, not Yoshi

[ruff mix]

I've had to start small and be patient. I work an 8-5, and in my free time, I do everything I can to improve the studio, whether that's actually doing work for the business, or working on the business.

As a mix engineer, my main priorities are the room (acoustics), the monitors, and the education, so I put the majority of time and energy into those things. I don't have any outboard gear yet, but I think I'm progressing quite nicely. I started with an initial investment to get myself off the ground and be able to do some basic work, paid my wife and myself back with money from editing/mixing for clients, got lucky and came into some Genelec 8050A's for free, and have just had to learn the art of patience! That, for me, is the hardest part.

[Math5461]

If I really wanted to fund my studio better I should have never gone to school for recording. What a waste of money! My parents tell me someday it will pay off but I really think it's BS. I could have taken the 40-50 grand I spent going to school bought good gear and started really learning. Instead I sat around, got a few good tips, a decent foundation, used the schools studio for about 1 albums worth of time then forgot it all looking for a job. My advise to budding passionate recordists:

1)Find the best job you can, live as cheap as possible, and start buying gear. The best monitors you can save up for first, and then acoustic treatment, then listen to albums and dissect them for a long time.

2)Just start hanging around the biggest studio you can find that will let you hang out and learn.

3)If you are going to go to school do Electrical Engineering. If you cant hack that get into a vocational electrician program for low voltage.


SUB TOPIC:

Originally Posted by Yosh!

Worked full time while slowly buying gear and saving. When the right space came along I had the $$ to be able jump on it.

What kind of work did you do? Could others give this info from now on that would be helpful.

Just saying "I worked" doesn't mean anything. you gotta quantify it. If you bought that studio working at McDonalds, I'm impressed. If you quit being a lawyer to start the studio I am equally impressed.

Either way you got a ton of pricey gear, how did you afford it is the topic of the forum.

[Louis Bernstone]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

As we all know, the initial investment for a professional studio can range on the low end from $250,000 to the high end of $1,000,000+. Both of those figures are high for any individual to personally supply the capital...

So how did you all go about getting the funding for your venture?

Did the music for a job for a few years post music degree, then realised I wouldnt make enough to build a studio like that. Got a well paid (financial services: not that hard if I can do it!), and saved and bought stuff over the last 7-8 years. Bought a house, with an external 2 story building that will become HotRox Studios. Owe nothing to no one.

Its taking the long term view.

[darkman2]

used some of my retirement money.. i worked for Cable@wireless an
english telcoms company.. i figured make some money
while im retired .. so far not too bad...

[Animus]

Originally Posted by Paul_G

small record deal, small publishing deal. Sold 7 million records.

Very grateful to have reinvested some of it in studio gear as opposed to sushi, drugs and champagne.

e It's funny but I remember around 10 years ago I went through the drive thru at a fast food chain (Hardees or maybe Taco Bell) and they were given out these promotional items with the purchase. Guitar picks. One of them was branded with Morcheeba. How did that happen?

[Kolt45]

I saved up all my loose change put it in a jar, cashed it in, saved it up, held a job all through high school saved 50% of each pay check.

Sold a little bit of drugs in my early teens,

Let shitty bands and rappers record in my small setup i had.

basically i'm still saving and upgrading, i got alot of my equipment from my best friends older brother, he had a studio and he just gave it up.

[AstralPStudios]

Originally Posted by xj32

+ 1

This pretty much mirrors what I did as well.

The good news is that now after 10 or so years of this I own my gear, my studio is on land that is owned by my family out in the country so now my only overhead is utilities, upkeep and improvements as I can afford them.

My biggest advice is decide on an outline and business plan and be realistic!

Who are you gonna record?
- Singer songwriters
- Indie Bands
- Rap and R&B
- Jingles
- Scoring


what do you want to do?
- Tracking
- mixing
- post production
- scoring
- mastering

what can your area / town support? or simply will it support what you want to do?

Where will you put your studio?
- Bedroom
- Garage
- warehouse
- storefront
- whole house


Each of these questions when answered honestly will help you hone in on what you will need when it comes to gear and capital.

The biggest reason I say HONESTLY, is that it may be easy to say...I want to record everything, and I want to arrange, compose, produce, track, edit, mix and master, and I want to do 5.1 for film, ect. But the reality of that mindset in today's world and economy is a quick recipe for failure.

Gearwise, I would also recommend that once you decide on what you realistically want to do. You figure out what you realistically need to accomplish said goal.

Make a list of that gear in order of importance to get started at the bottom of the ladder/foot in the door.

Then stick religiously to the list one piece at a time as you and your clients grow and dictate.

This way your cash flow, clients, skill level and gear will all grow proportionately.

Of course this is not as sexy and romantic as getting a big lone for $250k or more, jumping into the driver's seat and roaring out of the gate.

Remember, this IS NOT a business where if you build it, they will come...they won't. Why? Well there will always be 20 other guys in town who have the same gear, less gear, more gear, do it cheaper and maybe even better.

Be patient, be aware and be smart.

XJ

I agree completely. I know exactly what I want to offer, have my business plan typed up and will be giving it to my blind services caseworker to see if I can get government funding to build it.

If you don't know what you plan on doing sit and think on it. Of course you can record anybody you wish though, can't deny business unless they don't have the money, but still you have to work with people's budgets to an extent so rates can vary anyway depending on the situation. After all, client satisfaction should be the #1 priority of any business because without customers, you have NO business.

[Watty]

Worked in a music shop for 7 years and played in pub/wedding bands during that time. The music shop let us buy gear at cost, so every penny earned from that job (and more) was spent on gear along the way. I didn't know at the time I would be the owner of a studio 8 years later and there was no actual plan, just an unquenchable gear addiction which turned out to be money well spent when the lucky offer of moving into an established studio space presented itself.

Like most of the others on this thread, I started small, although the modest inventory of gear was still able to provide better results than the local competition. As cashflow increased, more "luxury" items were added (bigger console, expensive mics, better amps.) As well as that stuff, clever and cheap additions like monitor splitters, multiple screens for displaying the DAW window in different rooms, video camera in iso booth etc cost a few hundred ££s all in (eBay's brilliant for this) but increased the cool factor incalculably.