I am finally making the push to get out there and start recording other bands on a regular basis
Dude! Good for you man!
Reasons for not posting rates:
-Every project is different, songs are different lengths, different number of instruments in different bands, etc.
-Charging by the song means you get screwed when a band can't play their instruments and takes way longer than expected to get the tracking done
These are valid points and reasons you should charge by the hour for tracking IMO.
-Charging per hour means you get bands who book 6 hours of studio time expecting to get a 5 song EP completely tracked, so after their time is up and it's not done, they have to try and book more time (which you can't fit into your schedule at this point because it's too late) or you have to push a shitty sounding product out the door with your name on it
See this is why
maybe you should consider a hybrid. Tracking by the hour, mixing a flat rate, editing extra, mastering extra etc... As long as the song isn't a cluster fuck mixing with minimal editing should be doable and still sound
okay 
.
-Public rates means you can't charge differently depending on the quality of the performances and you are expecting to get and the professionalism of the musicians
I assume you meant "and" there. There is no reason you can't ajust your rates if you need to for bands that are going to be a hastle, just be up front about it "if this takes longer than "X" then it's this much more (if you went on a per song rate).
All that being said, when you are brand new and trying to get your name out there, it is REALLY hard to expect bands to contact you when your name hasn't spread around yet and they can't just go to your website and get an idea of pricing.
For me it's been about the sound/price ratio. If the sound is good enough for the price I am charging I get bands. Although as of
real late it's just been the sound so I'm likely to up my rates fairly soon.
I know if I was looking between 5-6 different studios to do a demo, the only ones I would bother contacting with serious intentions to record would be guys who I know have a great reputation from other bands in the scene. If I went to a brand new dudes webpage and he had 3-4 pretty good sounding clips but no pricing to give me any idea of what I'm expecting to pay, I would rather negotiate with the dude who has the reputation. People are lazy and want information hand fed to them, that's just how it is.
If that's the way you feel your scene is then just post them. Honestly though very few studio's in my area do, and I just get contacted. I think your 100% right on the "specialist" engineer though. If your known to get killer metal track out then focus on that, but certainly don't turn down other stuff.
So in the mean time, until I build a solid client list and a good reputation in the area, I feel like I need to post some sort of pricing purely as an incentive to get bands to bother contacting me at all vs. the more established guys, as I feel like having posted prices (even though it works to my disadvantage economically) gives me an advantage over guys who don't post prices as far as attracting clients to begin with.
Business is always somewhat of a gamble, go with your gut if this is what you feel is going to get d00dz in the door then do it.
What I ended up deciding on was a price of $100/ 8-10 hour day rate for tracking, $15/hr for any time booked in smaller segments (like 3-4 hours on a weeknight to track some vocals) and $40/song on top of that for mixing/"mastering"(ie. throw some plugins on there and try to bring it up to commercial levels as transparently as possible, I am no mastering engineer, I just need to get the mixes louder while keeping them sounding as close to the original mix as possible).
Sounds like a plan to me. Just keep track of your hours during the mixing/mastering phase to make sure your getting paid what you need to. Or you could have a "1-40 track is $40" "41-100 (or whatever) is $65.
On top of this, I included a quick note on the page that the pricing is a guideline designed to give you an idea of what budget to expect for recording with me and to contact me with specifics about your project if you would like to work out a project price/schedule for your particular situation.
Just make sure if you enter into negotiations on price that it ends up in writing!!!!
I think my rates are super cheap but I need to charge around there to get bands in at first. The shitty thing about the posted rates is that once I build the clientele and can raise the rates, everyone in the area already knows the rates I was charging before and I don't want to be looked down upon as that greedy asshole jacking his prices. This obviously isn't a problem when you negotiate prices per project.
Fuck that mentality dude! Businesses raise their rates all the time! Have you noticed how food has jumped up in cost over the past year? My haircuts have gone up $2 in the past year and that's almost an 8% increase. Besides if your like me any any of the locals around here when you do raise your rates, you usually have nicer facilities/equipment that justifies it. Eventually everyone has to raise their rates, cost of living/inflation!
Part of me still wants to just charge "per song" as that makes it super easy for bands and means I'll get more work, but bands paying $100/song are obviously broke, and rarely are broke, young, lazy musicians also super tight talented musicians, which makes the tracking process a bit of a nightmare as far as timeframe goes. Like I said before though, charging a day/hourly rate also means you end up with bands with totally unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished in one day, at least when aiming for the quality that I want to put out in order to build a good reputation.
Yeah I hear you, and your right about the broke being lazy and young as well. Shit sucks.
Good luck with this endeavor man!
but a friend suggested The Batcave and I just had no choice 
