Studio Efficiency Part Two: Cost

Back for more, eh? How’d the planning go? Ready for the next step in the process? Either way, lets dive in!

Pricing structures vary from studio to studio, so it may help to find out which you’re working with prior to the planning stage. Some places have a per song charge, some a day rate, and some are hourly. Keep in mind that day rate and per song structures usually have a limit (or cap) on hours. Find out what that limit is, and compare it to your plan. Can you get everything done under the cap? If not, what’s the charge for going over?

Another typical rate policy is a reduced hourly rate for a specific number of estimated hours for the project (i.e. 75 hours estimated for 5 songs, or 15 hours per song) and then anything over the initial estimation can hike back up to the normal hourly rate – similar to going over the cap on a per song or day rate.

These are things that can end up costing you a lot of money over the course of the project. The best way to avoid pitfalls in the estimated hours pricing structure is to estimate high. Add a two to five hour buffer to your per song estimation to be safe. When you’re doing hour estimations, and paying hourly, most studios will only charge you for what you actually use so there’s no danger in estimating high. If it’s a flat rate(as in the per song charge or day rates), then you pay that amount and likely will not get any sort of refund for going under the hour cap.

I want to quickly address what some of you are probably thinking. If you haven’t tackled the planning phase yet, then 15+ hours per song may sound like a lot. When, however, you start to break down the recording process piece by piece, it will start to make sense. Keep in mind when I estimate 15 hours for a band, just about half of that is editing and mixing. Average edit/mix time on a commercial track is 8-14 hours per song. If you listen to tunes on the radio and like the sonic quality, then you have to realize that’s the time it takes to get them to that point. That being said, at a mid-level studio, you’re probably looking at about 6-8 hours per song. This is usually because mid-level facilities are the destination of the more budget conscience artists who can’t afford the $1,000 per day it can take to have it done at a high-level studio like Ocean Way or NRG. Most importantly, the mixing process is where the song will fly or crash and burn; it would be a serious miscalculation to cut it short.

All the above advice will save you much time, headaches, and money in the studio. And when you’re trying to concentrate on being creative while recording, it’s nice to have all these kinks worked out ahead of time.

Next weeks’ “Studio Efficiency Part Three” will focus on performances and the importance of pre-production.