Mixing/recording rates.

Seizure.

Seizure.

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Jul 13, 2005
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I just got a call from a band who wanted there stuff remixed by me, this is realy flattering for me as an aspiring audioengineer and useally i just do it for a nominal fee if not for free.
But lately i've been getting quit alot of these calls and i'm actually getting kinda busy with it and everybody is telling me to increase my fee/rate.

So i was kinda wondering, what would be a good fee (i don;t want to charge by the hour) for a guy like me (19 with a small homestudio) and these kind of jobs?

For example: last band that called has 5 songs they want me to mix and they want me to re record vocals with them.
all in all about 3 days of work if i'm taking my time for everything.
what would that be worth?
200/300 euro's?

thanks for the input,
because i realy don't have a clue what to charge.
 
I'd charge at least 200 a song. 1k to mix 5 songs is reasonable if you can give the band what they need. You can't even upgrade your studio much for 1k, so get as much $$ as you can-- especially if THEY are chasing YOU.

good luck
 
For mixing, if you're not all that confident in yourself yet, I would charge from $100 to $150 per song. Believe me, once you start charging, the amount of work you get will be cut down to a manageable level. So many musicians just have this ability to totally freeze up and forget how much they need an AE as soon as $$$ becomes involved.

For tracking the best thing is to charge a standard daily rate, for a set amount of hours, then a fairly hefty hourly rate after that time is exceeded. That stops the bands taking you for a ride and making you do 16 hour sessions.
 
i seem to be in a similar situation as you, im 19 and just have my home studio as well. I charge $150 USD for 10 hours and mix and master stuff recorded by me for free. Its a really competitive rate in my area. The whole hourly rate really just confused people, so I just moved to a flat rate. Eventually I will start charging for mixing and mastering my material but as of now that price is working.
 
I charge flat fees for everything, but have limitations on what the fee entails. I'm still a novice by all means, but people call ME to do work for them, so I charge. I do strictly on site demo recordings for bands at 100 bucks a song, and recommend 3 songs at most in a day. If it's more than demo quality they want, price goes up accordingly. For me to mix and master only at my home, I charge about half what I do to do onsite demos...So far, I make about 20 bucks an hour after you work it out. Not too bad to do something fun I guess.
 
I like the idea of a flat fee, if it was only because mixing by yourself can't realy be monitored, right?
I think its cooler for the band to know what there up too price wise.
Thanks for the input till now guys!
 
Exactly, bands need like a goal to shoot for, and most of the time save up to.

I have yet to work with any band that just has the money right when they

want to start their project, so having that flat rate just makes it easier for

them to know what they are getting into. I have a question, how much do you

guys charge per track (or project) for just mixing a project (tracks were

recorded elsewhere), right now I only charge $40 dollars per tracks and I can

get a 5-7 song demo completed in about 4 days?

Jordan
 
deathtotaliban said:
Exactly, bands need like a goal to shoot for, and most of the time save up to.

I have yet to work with any band that just has the money right when they

want to start their project, so having that flat rate just makes it easier for

them to know what they are getting into. I have a question, how much do you

guys charge per track (or project) for just mixing a project (tracks were

recorded elsewhere), right now I only charge $40 dollars per tracks and I can

get a 5-7 song demo completed in about 4 days?

Jordan
Click to expand...

i charge $45 and i dont want to raise my rates because most bands dont want to pay shit for mixing and mastering as it is (in my area anyhow) no matter how high the quality may be.

then again, i think higher rates may weed out some of the shit that i get sometimes.. in which i case i decline them anyhow..
 
i usually charge like 200 for one completed track and the rate goes down from there for more. like 150 each for 3-5, maybe like 120 each for more than that. it depends on the band's budget too and if they suck or not :heh:
 
Mixing - $200 per song w/one recall for changes. Each addt'l recall is $75

Recording - Avg $50/hr depending on the studio we record at. (Studio rental included).

The reason why I charge for recalls is sometimes you get really indecisive bands that will eat up days of time recalling mixes for .5db changes. I have projects going all of the time plus I work a 9 to 5....my time is valuable to me and doing freebies tends to say that your time isn't worth anything, and it devalues the sentiment of the project as a whole.
 
ArtGarceau said:
Mixing - $200 per song w/one recall for changes. Each addt'l recall is $75

Recording - Avg $50/hr depending on the studio we record at. (Studio rental included).

The reason why I charge for recalls is sometimes you get really indecisive bands that will eat up days of time recalling mixes for .5db changes. I have projects going all of the time plus I work a 9 to 5....my time is valuable to me and doing freebies tends to say that your time isn't worth anything, and it devalues the sentiment of the project as a whole.
Click to expand...

That's a really great strategy! I think I'm going to move to something like that... that is, $75 per recall... Some guys just don't know when to leave a track alone.

-0z-
 
Normally when I bounce my mixes to disk I'll do a few different versions i.e. kick/snare up, kick/snare down, vocals up, vocals down, and then I also bounce stems (drums, guitars, bass, vocals). That way the band can use their free recall for creative changes (reverb lengths and such) as opposed to technicalities. Every time I bounce a mix I'll do those variations. That way when it goes to mastering I won't have to recall a mix to make changes for the mastering engineer. Worst case scenario they can use the stems and balance the song the way they see fit.

By a round of applause....how many of you have sent a perfect mix to a mastering engineer and got back a song with the kick and snare levels completely whacked out?

Hence....cover your ass and make it so the client won't need you to recall a mix and if they do then at least you'll get paid for your time.
 
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