Just thought I'd share this (Studio related news).

[tempe]

A bit of good news for a change!

As some of you might remember, I've been running my own studio for the past 10 or so months. Things were going really well, I had a steady stream of clients for most of that period, and I was really enjoying my work. Unfortunately starting around mid May I started really struggling. I had a number of cancellations and no new bookings to replace them with and nothing really coming up on the horizon. I was starting to get really depressed with the situation and started looking for a solution.

It was then I decided to meet with my main local competition, who happened to be an acquaintance of mine. It was through this meeting that we decided to work on a project together, which turned out really well. The owner of the competing studio then decided to meet with me. Turns out what he felt was effecting the quality of his work was his mixing, and likewise what I found was letting my work down was my tracking. We decided to merge businesses, with he taking on engineering / producing responsibilities and myself mixing.

This worked amazingly for me because I despise tracking. So I moved out of my studio premise and set up shop in a spare bedroom at home, and have been doing probably the best work of my life for the past couple of weeks and I couldn't be happier. The stress of having no overheads coupled with the joy of having some bookings coming up is great!

We announced the merge yesterday, with new promotion material coming from the first project we worked on together. If you're interested click on the banner in my signature and play the track titled "hollow."

I just wanted to share this because I have been really, really stressed out about my studio for a long time now and been in a terrible financial situation, I sunk $30 000 into that place and most of that is down the drain. However things are finally starting to look up with a stream of new bookings after announcing the merge.

Also just thought I'd thank this wonderful forum and anyone who has ever answered one of my many stupid questions. I wouldn't be able to do this for a living if it weren't for this place. It's honestly done more for me than any formal education in the field ever has, which is an amazing thing! I know I'm never going to take this wonderful place for granted.

Matt

 

[amarshism]

must pop in when we get to perth in oct, congrats on the move, sounds fruitful for both you guys

 

[tempe]

Sounds great man. Speaking of touring, it sucks that the Sound of a Silhouette festival was so terribly run. That would have been an awesome day, we were supposed to be playing before you guys! I'll have to buy you a beer in October!.

 

[gabriel g.]

hope everything is working out great!!!

that song sounds realy good

 

[fatalforce]

very cool. this is a good idea

 

[tempe]

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. It's really looking at being like the best thing for both of us, Perth is a really small city and there are only so many bands and when we were competing it was like for a couple of months one person would be booked and the other wouldn't and vice versa. Also since I'm not trying to cram entire mixes of projects in the few spare days I had before I started tracking again, my mixes have gotten heaps better. Which I couldn't be happier about.

Finished this mix yesterday, it hasn't gone to mastering yet so please ignore my crappy "make it loud" job. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7270929/Trenches Mix 1.mp3

 

[Empathy]

Sounds great dude, well done.

As small as Perth is, you'll now be able to work with clients outside of our midget of a city at this rate. Source some shit from under Ermz's nose

 

[DeclanWhite]

awesome news man! yeah sucks about the SOAS thing. we were meant to be playing that too.. luckily we didnt book flights or anything like some of the other bands

 

[tempe]

Yeah! Especially bands that were supposed to have their flights covered as part of their agreement, which they paid for and never got reimbursed. I guess Soundwave revolution going under as well puts it in a little perspective.

 

[amarshism]

They didn't go under... I start working with a Perth band on Monday actually. Stoked more interstate bands are starting to travel.

 

[tempe]

Oh I didn't mean it like Soundwave as a company stopped existing, I meant that how low ticket sales and the second headliner pulling out caused the festival to not go ahead. Completely different circumstance but it definitely took the heat off the guys promoting Sound of a Silhouette.

What Perth band is coming over?

 

[Ermz]

Cool to hear that the new arrangement is working for you. Bypassing tracking entirely sounds euphoric.... in theory... but in practice whenever I've outsourced it I've been displeased with the results. The reason you hate tracking is probably because you're good at it, and push the performer and yourself all the way. The people that enjoy tracking usually don't because... let's face it, there is absolutely nothing enjoyable about modern-method tracking.

Truth be told, the overheads and potentially going bankrupt were always mortal fears of mine when thinking about owning a standalone studio, especially after seeing how some other owner-operators around here went. My goal was always to build a decent project studio on the same lot as a house.... but in this housing market even that's like shooting for the stars. Mixing really seems to be where it's at these days. The bands will just continue cutting costs on tracking, so any huge overheads that come from a fully equipped drum-tracking studio will be less and less worth it over time. The smaller places will likely flourish, so you've probably done yourself a good service in the long term by choosing to specialize. Congrats!

 

[aytchster]

That's great news Matt! Happy for you buddy!

Keep us posted on bands your recording so we can check out your work!

Hadi

 

[::XeS::]

Actually I'm thinking to focus on mixing too.... I hate tracking because it's always a compromise between the egos and the "right thing" and the 90% of musicians are stupid moron that shouldn't play anything...and I hate going to bed listening all the shitty riffs in my head for hours.
Sometimes I'm very excited to start a new tracking session...but after some hours I feel very bad...I wanna be elsewhere...and it's not professional.
Unfortunately it's not that easy to work with the local bands and push yourself as a mixer.....usually they do everything in the same place

 

[OneDaySky]

Great news man, and all the best with your future endeavors.

 

[tempe]

Cool to hear that the new arrangement is working for you. Bypassing tracking entirely sounds euphoric.... in theory... but in practice whenever I've outsourced it I've been displeased with the results. The reason you hate tracking is probably because you're good at it, and push the performer and yourself all the way. The people that enjoy tracking usually don't because... let's face it, there is absolutely nothing enjoyable about modern-method tracking.

Truth be told, the overheads and potentially going bankrupt were always mortal fears of mine when thinking about owning a standalone studio, especially after seeing how some other owner-operators around here went. My goal was always to build a decent project studio on the same lot as a house.... but in this housing market even that's like shooting for the stars. Mixing really seems to be where it's at these days. The bands will just continue cutting costs on tracking, so any huge overheads that come from a fully equipped drum-tracking studio will be less and less worth it over time. The smaller places will likely flourish, so you've probably done yourself a good service in the long term by choosing to specialize. Congrats!

See, I am good at tracking, but unfortunately I'm way to nice. And sometimes I feel you just have to be a complete bastard to push people. Basically my issue was firstly convincing people that things had to be done this way and no I cannot and will not fix every single note, the player has to meet you at least halfway. It got to the stage with some bands that their bass player would be the kind of guy who has a mbox at home and goes "why do we have to redo that if its out of tune, can't you just auto-tune the bass?" People like that and bands just NEVER having the budget to get things done properly, but they also aren't prepared to pay for you for the 50 hours of editing you didn't think you would have to quote because you assumed they would at least be able to play their instrument. It was this issue combined with the immense overheads I had, I feel if you want to own a studio you NEED to live there. I was paying $450 a week for my studio space including utilities which was an ok deal, the issue is I was also paying $350 a fortnight for my apartment. It was just thoroughly unsustainable when I could only charge $35 an hour for tracking and editing and in comparison to what I'm charging now a paltry rate for mixing.

On the contrary to you Ermz, I'm fortunate enough that my studio partner really has his shit together when its comes to tracking. The quality of mixes improved dramatically from the get go, because the source material was so much better.

I think you and others have definitely hit the nail on the head with the owning a studio thing. It's just absolutely terrifying, the amount of money you have to invest to even compete with other places in terms of equipment is insane. The biggest issue I had was convincing people to work with me when I didn't own 100k of outboard and a large format console, but at the same time the band isn't prepared to pay the $50 - $70 an hour for a room of that standard. I feel there is a bit of a niche for studios such as the one I'm involved in. Its mostly pro-sumer gear, nothing horribly expensive or fancy, but its gear that's chosen because it gets the job done. I've changed my attitude hugely on this, I used to stress because I wasn't tracking my drums through API hitting really high-end converters and the fact I wasn't mixing through outboard, and that my monitoring wasn't good enough etc. I've made the decision to not start gasing for things unless I know that my current solution is actually letting me down sonically and isn't me making excuses for things not turnings out as well as they could on the equipment.

On the owning a Studio situation, I think what you are doing Ermz is awesome and I wouldn't change a thing. You have almost no overheads apart from a regular persons living expenses as far as I know and that really is the way to do it. I know the only reason the tracking studio I'm involved in exists is because it's been converted from half a rehearsal studio, that my partner works at 4 nights a week to lower the amount of rent he pays for the space. I really think that for independent projects, unless the band is somehow extraordinarily financially prepared, the days of the big studio are 100% over. The bands I'm working with which to be fair have mostly been local, but they are either putting their releases up for free on bandcamp basically begging for exposure and when they do press physical copies I've never seen anyone sell more than 500. Even Independent Labels around the country these days with the exception of their highest tier, signed bands are paying for the recording costs themselves and if they are LUCKY the Label provides pressing. Even at the rates we're charging at the moment which works out to be between $4000 and $5000 for a 5-6 track EP, which is tracked and edited at $35 an hour and mixed at $300 a track bands are spending between 60 and 120 hours to track and still gawking at the prices.

Without sounding like a fanboy, I really admire what people like Joey, Brain Hood, Chango and CJ are doing. Using good but for the most part Gear that isn't plastered all over the high-end section at gearslutz, and getting quality results at a reasonable budget. There's definitely a reason those guys are doing so immensely well, and I feel that reason is providing exactly what their clients want, in a respectable timeframe.

Annnd that was a slight rant.

Ermz I actually wanted to chat you about a few things, nothing business related. Just wondering where you are actually mixing, are you in a house, unit, villa, aparment? Have you taken any steps to soundproof your mixing room apart from acoustic treatment? I ask because I know you work really late sometimes and unfortunately in my current situation in an apartment I'm stuck to working 9-5, which is a blessing and a curse.

Also thanks again for all the kind words guys!

Edit: Just realised something awful happened to my banner when I resized it :\

 

[Charles J]

SPECIALIZING is where it's AT in this crazy day and age of audio engineering...

it's almost like the wild fucking west out there... more and more bands are popping up with members that have decent enough skills, rigs and experience to at LEAST get the tracking part of their records/eps/whatever done with.....!

Martyrs is a VERY good example of this. They saved TONS of money by producing/tracking everything themselves and sending it out to me for the mix + master....!

basically, CONGRATS. sounds like a sweet setup for sure, bro...

 

[tempe]

I completely agree, I sometimes wish I was a 70's baby so I could have grown up during the golden age of recording studios and budgets. I honestly think though this time at the moment is really, really exciting because the entire industry is going through a huge restructure. It's the guys that get it right now, and develop a successful business model that are going to be able to keep working for the next 10-20 years.

Also love your work CJ keep it up!

 

[Charles J]

I completely agree, I sometimes wish I was a 70's baby so I could have grown up during the golden age of recording studios and budgets. I honestly think though this time at the moment is really, really exciting because the entire industry is going through a huge restructure. It's the guys that get it right now, and develop a successful business model that are going to be able to keep working for the next 10-20 years.

Also love your work CJ keep it up!

thanks man =D! congrats to you, again!

 

[Ermz]

One of the biggest drawbacks to recording in a tight residential property, for me anyway, is the inability to track vocals or reamp through a 4x12. The lack of being able to record a kit really doesn't bother me in the slightest, but the rest is quite annoying.