Hey guys, as an aspiring freelance AE with a home setup and with a business that is starting to grow slowly (getting attention from local bands and have possible clients comming this summer), i've started looking at studios i can rent that are fully equipped and offer a decent room to do drum recording and possibly reamps in. I want to start doing things to higher standard while still keeping a competitive price that won't drive costumers away (most bands i deal with are either "poor" or "cheap").
So far i've been doing the mobile thing, i would basically take my gear with me to the bands practice place and track the drums there. This is very time consuming, a lot of hassle and also doesn't always give the best results since their rooms are often less than ideal. When i started, i did this entirely free just for the learning experience, to get my hands dirty and also to let people know i might be starting a business. Since recently i started charging and doing things officially, i got my rates figured out which seem like a fair starting point without being slavery work (some people got annoyed at my prices but i basically told them i would not work for 4.50$ an hour just because they want their whole album mixed for 300$).
So enough about my situation and on to the real questions. There is this studio that opened up near me recently and offers the whole facility including 2 live rooms, drums, amps, bunch of mics (I'd probably still bring my preferred ones), cables and stands, etc.. for 35$/Hr. The thing is, they will not rent the studio by itself, they insist on including their in house engineer to be there at all time and thus they won't lower the price for it. The price i think is pretty fair but since the engineer is there, and he will be operating the board (AMEK BCII which i am unfamiliar with, hence why they want to operate it), then my part in the tracking process is sort of pointless. My question is, is this a good idea or should i look for something else? Although i could be present as a producer, most of the bands i deal with are rather "cheap", for lack of a better word, and they might not want to pay for the extra cost and i won't spend my time there for free either. It's hard enough to convince them to accept my fees alone. Also, if i'm not present who's to say the engineer won't do something wonky like mic the kit in XY, have phase issues or have too much hat bleed. Not that i doubt his skills, i'm sure he's well capable of tracking solid takes, but i rather like having full control over a production and also the learning experience from each project is valuable to me. The only up side is it would be one less thing to stress about, but tracking drums is actually something i really enjoy, and i'd lose part of the income which is already slightly lower than i would like it to be since there's so many 50$ per song Joe's around that force me to be more competitive.
Second question is, how good is those AMEK boards? particularly the BCII that they have. It's been serviced just 2 weeks ago, the guy told me it's from '89 and its 24 channel with 4 group. They also use SSL Alpha link converters and have Focal Twin Be monitors which makes me feel confident about using the place, the only downside is their acoustic treatment is sort of lacking. They do have some but it's mostly foam and nothing really that absorbs lows and low mids, i wouldn't feel to comfortable mixing there because of that alone even though they did offer to let me mix there (again at the same cost and with the engineer present).
What would you guys suggest in this situation? Try them out or look elsewhere? Would it be bad to present this option to one of my clients, would it look bad to offer them to track with some other guy? They are after all interested in hiring me and not one of the competition. The one thing i'm afraid is that they would just bypass me all together and do everything with them. They would already be there and paying for the engineer anyways and they have the console for wow factor which many people think that the console will make their album sound more "pro" and they get to brag about how they did their album in a "real studio" with a "pro console". Should i just absorb the hours and do the micing myself, in the studio, and have the engineer be just a tape operator? That would mean not get payed for a day or two..
So far i've been doing the mobile thing, i would basically take my gear with me to the bands practice place and track the drums there. This is very time consuming, a lot of hassle and also doesn't always give the best results since their rooms are often less than ideal. When i started, i did this entirely free just for the learning experience, to get my hands dirty and also to let people know i might be starting a business. Since recently i started charging and doing things officially, i got my rates figured out which seem like a fair starting point without being slavery work (some people got annoyed at my prices but i basically told them i would not work for 4.50$ an hour just because they want their whole album mixed for 300$).
So enough about my situation and on to the real questions. There is this studio that opened up near me recently and offers the whole facility including 2 live rooms, drums, amps, bunch of mics (I'd probably still bring my preferred ones), cables and stands, etc.. for 35$/Hr. The thing is, they will not rent the studio by itself, they insist on including their in house engineer to be there at all time and thus they won't lower the price for it. The price i think is pretty fair but since the engineer is there, and he will be operating the board (AMEK BCII which i am unfamiliar with, hence why they want to operate it), then my part in the tracking process is sort of pointless. My question is, is this a good idea or should i look for something else? Although i could be present as a producer, most of the bands i deal with are rather "cheap", for lack of a better word, and they might not want to pay for the extra cost and i won't spend my time there for free either. It's hard enough to convince them to accept my fees alone. Also, if i'm not present who's to say the engineer won't do something wonky like mic the kit in XY, have phase issues or have too much hat bleed. Not that i doubt his skills, i'm sure he's well capable of tracking solid takes, but i rather like having full control over a production and also the learning experience from each project is valuable to me. The only up side is it would be one less thing to stress about, but tracking drums is actually something i really enjoy, and i'd lose part of the income which is already slightly lower than i would like it to be since there's so many 50$ per song Joe's around that force me to be more competitive.
Second question is, how good is those AMEK boards? particularly the BCII that they have. It's been serviced just 2 weeks ago, the guy told me it's from '89 and its 24 channel with 4 group. They also use SSL Alpha link converters and have Focal Twin Be monitors which makes me feel confident about using the place, the only downside is their acoustic treatment is sort of lacking. They do have some but it's mostly foam and nothing really that absorbs lows and low mids, i wouldn't feel to comfortable mixing there because of that alone even though they did offer to let me mix there (again at the same cost and with the engineer present).
What would you guys suggest in this situation? Try them out or look elsewhere? Would it be bad to present this option to one of my clients, would it look bad to offer them to track with some other guy? They are after all interested in hiring me and not one of the competition. The one thing i'm afraid is that they would just bypass me all together and do everything with them. They would already be there and paying for the engineer anyways and they have the console for wow factor which many people think that the console will make their album sound more "pro" and they get to brag about how they did their album in a "real studio" with a "pro console". Should i just absorb the hours and do the micing myself, in the studio, and have the engineer be just a tape operator? That would mean not get payed for a day or two..
