How many hours in your studio working day?

[if6was9]

This is a topic that's been in my mind for a good while now and I've been wondering what other people's opinions are on it lately.

How long is your normal working day in the studio?

My regular day would be start at 10.30 then work till around 9/10 ish at night. I try finish up at 10 or close to it as I live in a city and don't want to be bothering the neighbours and get a noise complaint. I don't mind hanging on for an extra 20 mintes to bounce stuff out or do a few small changes. I don't usually take breaks either, I eat while we're working so there's no lunch or dinner break for an hour.

I've done a few sessions in my old place and out on location that went till much later, sometimes after 1 and on one occasion well after 3 and found them to be unproductive as everyone's worn out and ear fatigue combined with mental tiredness makes it hard to judge good from bad takes and to listen out for the subtle little details that are so important. 3 hours work at this stage can be done in half an hour in the morning.

I feel a 10-12 hour working day is fair enough, I don't charge a ton for my work but a few times before I've had bands question the length of the day.

Got a band that want to do their next recording out on location. When they started looking at places in the city I suggested we just do it in my place then. They figured we could pretty much record from morning till the small hours of the night if we did it somewhere isolated and assumed I'd be charging the same daily rate though I'd be doing 17 or so hour days.

I've considered before offering a daily rate up to a certain hour and then an extra hourly rate for any extra time on top of it but up till now it's not really been a problem in my new place.

So whats your studio day length?

 

[OneDaySky]

I work 10 - 16 hours. I love them 8 hour sleep sessions too much to go more than 16 hours (and besides, we need time to visit the best forum EVER!!!)

 

[C_F_H_13]

12 hours MAX.

Occasionally I go over that, but TBH even 12 hours is kind of a waste. You get about 8-10 hours of useful studio time in a day, after that you're just spinning your wheels or worse, you're actually making bad decisions.

People don't understand how fatiguing making music really is.

 

[jipchen]

Honestly I feel like tracking more than 6 hours is already a waste of time. Both me and the musician will get sloppy and make mistakes. 8 hours tracking is pretty much the maximum, with breaks and some other things maybe 10 at most. With paper work, correspondence with clients etc the day may be up to 10 hours, though. Can't tell yet because I'm only starting to do this full time but I know I won't track longer than 8 hours with most clients because it's unproductive as hell.
All that aside, it's unhealthy as fuck to work 12+ hours every day. You'll most probably die or be seriously ill with 60 if you do that your whole live so make sure to get enough free time. If you have to work 6 days a week for more than 12 hours than (imho) raise your rates significantly (x2 for example). Even if you get half the clients then, you will still make the same money and have A LOT more free time you can use for further education/information/training, hobbies and your life lol: ) and you will most probably be more productive and less tired, too. Seriously, working your ass off will kill you. The body can take it for a short period but it's not good at all and should be avoided under all circumstances (you have no use for a burnout either I asume).

 

[Emdprodukt]

I'm with Max.

 

[egan.]

12 hours MAX.

Occasionally I go over that, but TBH even 12 hours is kind of a waste. You get about 8-10 hours of useful studio time in a day, after that you're just spinning your wheels or worse, you're actually making bad decisions.

People don't understand how fatiguing making music really is.

Yeah. My dad is a workaholic and he is convinced that anything past six hours of real work will run into diminishing returns. I agree. I also turn into (more of) a jerk when I get tired. Once you get past the second meal you are operating on borrowed time IMO.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

I usually do 9am till 6.30pm , that's around 9.30 hours. IF REALLY necessary I may do more, but doing so, working non stop, only stopping to have lunch (and that's pretty much eating a baguette while working), I reach at around 6pm pretty much tired as in, any further work will only do more harm. I want to get home and be able to cook dinner and watch a show or something, don't really want to get home go to sleep only to start the same in the next day, although I have done that and it's quite bad for your health in general

 

[Machinated]

chris speaks the truth. if a band is in then its the dolly parton hours for me (9-5), sometimes 10-6 if they have further to travel.

if its drum editing, i can usually do the bulk of it after they are gone. if you are doing over 12 hour days for consecutively, not only will your last few hours give you little returns, but you will be driving yourself mad for the future days.

most big projects im working on, im usually dreaming all the songs by the end of it which is enough to drive anyone mad (listening to the same songs all day, then dreaming them all night).

 

[Soundlurker]

If we're talking about tracking then no more than 5 hours usually, 6 can be ok but anything over will make both you and your clients hate their lives and their music and that's not very helpful later on . If you want to record 7+ hours you must add at least a couple of hours rest to the equation and it gets a bit ridiculous.

As for mixing - we've all had those insane 12+ hours days but I wouldn't call that work...more like pointless running in circles.

I charge by the hour for tracking and whenever I feel a rest is needed (be it for me or the client) I propose it to the band, They almost always agree...probably because I don't charge them for rests It's always worth it.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

I can't do anything for more than 6 hours at a time. People that record like 15 hours a day are fucking tapped.

 

[TheDriller]

6 hours is pretty much the cap for productivity in any knowledge work, and that's assuming breaks are being taken. After that you're well into the realm of diminishing returns, in that you'll end up doing 3 hours extra on tasks that should only take 20 minutes.

Also, its worth remembering that destroying ones-self with ludicrous work hours is the kind of thing slaves and labourers do, not professionals.

 

[Max Morton]

A timely discussion! It's really wise to be able to CONCENTRATE while working and then having an effective rest and healthy sleep.

Jipchen wrote an amazing thing about work - if you need more money and you're extra busy already - then raise your fees!

Well, being honest I'm still not that good at being able to organize my business to make it less time-consuming. I usually work 12-16 hours a day. I usually save my mind/ears for mixing no more then for two hours a day. Doing editing, tracking and other kinds of musical activities little by little.
Thus, I am able to keep myself concentrated. For example, tracking a band for 3 hours. Then editing another band's drums for two hours. Then editing another band's vocals for an hour. Then selecting some guitar takes for one more band.
Then having a rest. Then doing a mix of one more band (or mixing in the morning).

But I'm willing to switch to a 6-7 hour working day, etc. No life currently.

The most fucking exhausting times for me are when several nice bands are aiming to get their stuff tracked and are pressed in time. More then 6 hours of tracking per day (when you're an attentive helper for any performer, not just pressing Rec) is absolutely fatiguing.

 

[Trevoire520]

From me opening up and getting setup in the morning to me leaving the studio at the end of the night is normally around 10-12 hours. Normally tracking with the band is about 8 hours.

Once you hit about 9 or 10 hours of recording I tend to feel pretty fucked. Even though you're just sitting on your ass for alot of the day having to concentrate for that amount of time is actually really exhausting. People don't realise what hard work it can be to be honest. (though of course it can also be alot of fun!)

 

[crillemannen]

9hours when booked

 

[Uros]

Never less than 8 hours (from setting up to cleaning it up though), but usually 8-10 hours. Just recording - anywhere between 6-10 hours. I agree that it can get pretty ugly near the end of a session, especially if I am exhausted and those-that-are-being-recorded are stubborn, yet incompetent on their instruments ("just one more take man, I'm gonna nail it this time").

 

[Soundlurker]

especially if I am exhausted and those-that-are-being-recorded are stubborn, yet incompetent on their instruments ("just one more take man, I'm gonna nail it this time").

QFT! Especially if the guy is too proud to let you edit the crap out of his pathetic performance and instead churns out hundreds of new bad takes until it gets though his thick head that it's not working out.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It's usually 9 hours for me with about an hour of fucking off during that time. Nobody records for more than a couple hours though. In other words, 9 hours of guitar tracking is fucking stupid. haha

But setup and recording each person for 1 song or something isn't as bad.

Anyhow, whatever everyone is going to be different but I have a funny as story about being fatigued and doing something stupid haha:

So I work overnight hours on the weekend (kind of sucks but whatever, pretty used to it after 7 years). Well one time a couple years ago I decided to book a dude to come do bass and this stupid epic track (8 mins of fuck you in the face horrible acoustic/metal emo crap) at noon.

Well the problem was I woke up the day before at 3pm, stayed up all the way till he showed up at 2pm the next day and proceeded to track him for 2 hours...

But the back story to that is I worked the night before as well and didn't fall asleep till 10am. So yeah 10am-3pm when I had been awake for more than 18 hours the night prior and here we are staying awake on 5 hours of sleep for 26 hours on that much sleep (and trying to do something productive on hours 23-26).

I was falling asleep at the helm. Talk about being an unprofessional douche (me). Somehow the bass ended up coming out fine though. Thank God he was somewhat of a perfectionist. haha

Anyhow, lesson learned you can't effectively run a session on that kind of nonsense. Get some sleep, your a useless asshole if you don't.

 

[guitarguru777]

I tend to treat my studio time like a full time day job. I usually work from Noon to 8pm with a break around 4pm for an hour or so. Weekends i tr and do the same.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

for me I would like it to be 8hours max but just today I've had one of my worst 12h tracking sessions.
I donÄt feel like a human being anymore. 12h tracking in one room, not even ear protection could safe my day.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

WOW you guys overdo it IMO... I don't track, but the few times I've done it, the limit was around 6h total per day. Normally when mixing I don't use more than 4 hours a day. I find mixing for longer destroys my ability to judge properly a mix.