How did you all afford your studios?

[Uladyne]

So, how did you afford you studio stuff?

Hah! I'm still "affording it". Heh. Damn it sucks paying for stuff that seems old. I have a very modest setup too. It's definitely a "home studio" by any standards. Beware of credit card madness. It will consume you!

 

[Zombietakeover]

Sell weed !

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Sell weed !

I'd like to see that on a TapeOp interview.

So, how did you manage setting up your own studio in the first place?

I sold mad lotsa weed.

 

[GarethSE]

Sell weed !

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Scratching together a lot o dough!

EDIT: A lot of it was student loans. A fair amount was myself though (actually probably more than half was me paying for shit)

 

[deanbailey]

STUDENT LOAN! Why didn't I think of that!?

 

[PhilR]

We set up our own rehearsal rooms using some loan/grant money and income from recording back at our old setup at my business partners house. Once the rooms were going we were able to build more rooms and move the studio over. Since then we've been building it up slowly.

The most important consideration is to have a solid business plan complete with profit/loss projections and taking overheads into account (obviously this is impossible to accuratly predict until you're actually running but it helps to have somewhere to start). We could never have made a go of the recording studio without the financial security offered by selling rehearsal time. We're looking to expand the rehearsal room side of things in fact.

 

[462studio]

I'm a UNIX System Engineer by day, guitarist/drummer/bassist/wanna be engineer at night. Collecting pieces slowly but surely over the last 10-12 years.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Don't the people you are recording have amps for you to use??

 

[462studio]

Don't the people you are recording have amps for you to use??

Usually, but usually not what they would ideally record with, and if my name goes on something, I want the gear to be in good condition, well maintained and I want to be as familiar with it as possible.

Most people won't give me a hard time for recording with my 94' Dual, or the 6505+ when they bring a Peavey Rage to my place either.

On top of that, it's a good excuse to give my wife for me to get new gear.

 

[The Unavoidable]

Fuck I wrote a long detailed post then firefox fucked it up! ARGH!

But I was just going to say thanks for all the response! It definitely feels good to hear that I'm not the only poor bastard!

I live in an apartment with my girlfriend, and we share pretty much everything. And while I would be fine eating noodles everyday if I had a huge ENGL stack in the bedroom, she wouldn't, and I definitely don't want to put her thru that. And I do agree it feels pretty fucking good eating some good food, and having a nice apartment! I just want to "follow my dream" at the same time, ya know! But I'm an impatient bastard, and I know that. I want it all NOW haha, and I guess alot of people here can relate.

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[EerieVon]

My guitar and bass rigs I have had or added to since my teenage years, as far as my studio stuff I have been buying slowly over the last couple of years. I am a self educated computer tech (HS and some college) with several certs including MCSE, CISSP. At first I did contract work with various companies, after awhile I was hired at a start-up to build their client base but after a few months of this I realized I could be doing the same thing for myself and keep more of the money so I started my own company

 

[izzyrock]

Built slowly here, But once as you get working often and getting pay good or decent, you pretty much go in a chain wether all your incomes of recording goes to new gear. at least thats what i do.
I dont have much bills to pay yet since i live with my family, but I have to pay my studios rent, etc.

So I'd say, start recording with what you have, and get paid! slowly you'll get better and better, and charging more and more for your works

Cheers

 

[sparkyness]

Similar story to some others here.....I didn't finish high school and I'd run off to intern in a studio and play in crappy cover bands to cover my bills (barely) at the ripe old age of 16. I eventually got sick of starving and somehow ended up in IT Consulting more than a few years ago. I now work on a self-employed basis, never work long hours, take 3 months off each year to focus on music and travelling. I am financially comfortable and it's a pretty happy existence. I honestly couldn't have envisioned it 18 years ago as a dirt poor uneducated kid from middle-of-nowhere Australia who left home to align tape heads, make coffee and vacuum floors for nothing!

I find myself turning 34 this week and looking back at what's happened over the last half of my life up to now and it's the non-musical career route has ended up allowing me to travel the world and live abroad in four different continents....all the while fitting in a bit of music too. It's also funded 1000's worth of gear and I've bought more than I probably should have and less than I'd liked to ...

 

[colonel kurtz]

Wait, can I do that? Just get a student loan even though I'm gradating in May?

yup

as long as you're in school at least half-time, you should be eligible for a loan...just make sure you get a subsidized loan, where you don't accrue any interest until you have to start making payments

hell, if nothing else, take out a big enough loan to pay off your credit cards...right now the interest rate on them is fixed at around 6.8 percent - possibly lower now. i'm about to do something similar myself...i had to buy a car last year and didn't have any credit history, so i got raped on the interest rate...the damn $5600 loan is gonna cost me almost $12000 over 5 years with its 20% interest, so i'm planning on paying it off with a student loan, where my payment will be half of what it is now.

 

[ahjteam]

+1. And add 'Dont get your gfriend/wife pregnant'

You mean don't get a girlfriend/wife. What a waste of money that is!


I bought pretty much 90% of the gear I have in 2005-2008, while I was doing Live AE work fulltime or as a freelancer :Smokedev: I've never smoked, but stopped drinking, so I saved about 2000€ that way each year.

 

[seditz740novaprospect]

time and a good job now, full time recording now till i find another contract for regular work....

 

[006]

Workin' the corners

~006

 

[ze kink]

- Don't eat so much
- Don't go out so much
- Work your fucking ass off
- Never carry money with you
- Buy used
- Only buy if you get a good deal
- Get your own drumset

Good advice, and what I do exactly (though I don't work my ass off). Honestly, you'd be surprised by how much you can save money just by changing your diet.

I'm 20 too, and I'm slowly upgrading my gear into better stuff. Hopefully I'll acquire some decent equipment in the next two years.

I started my civilian service this summer (it's the "army for hippies" here in Finland; military service is compulsory) and I currently earn €16 a day from it. Even though I earn that little, I've already bought:
-Presonus FP10
-Oktava Mk319
-Korg Kaoss Pad 3
-Korg Kaossilator
-Random stuff like a wooden Thon rack, stands for my monitors, pickups, 20 packs of Elixir strings, a Reaper license etc.

And I've now got €1000 saved up for a new new recording pc/laptop. I still live with my parents though, it isn't great but I don't want to try living on my own with the civilian service income. I'll move out after I finish my service next summer and start studying. I'm doing my service in a music school BTW, the equipment we have here is pretty damn amazing, especially the "big" studio. Just as an example, we have a Digidesign board in the concert hall, which alone is worth €80000... Needless to say, I'm gonna try to get here to study, but the level required to get in is pretty high

 

[::XeS::]

For me, the hardest thing is finding the right place for the studio. Because if you don't have a garage or a little depandance, you have to rent a place....and if you don't work immediatelly, it's a waste of money.
This is my problem now