your tape machine/ studio income

[Shane Michael Rose]

a question for the studio owners on this forum.

what percentage of new clients ask about your tape machine?

how often do you feel as if the capability of tracking to tape has swayed a potential client to work with you?

what type of tape machine are you running, and what is your studio price range?




i am considering purchasing a tape machine within the next six months, as another reason for bands to track at The Milkhouse instead of going to some shitty little studio or bong and an mbox at home.

[JohnDavisNYC]

We do alot of analog work, and having a cool old tape machine and a big space with multiple rooms is DEFINATELY one of the big reasons that people choose our studio for tracking... besides the sonic advantages if you are recording rock, it lends an immediate sense of 'pro studio' when you walk into the control room and see a tape machine...

in our case, it is probably the most visually impressive/intimidating machine, a tall body Studer A80mkII... it is taller than most clients.

cheers,
John

[Shane Michael Rose]

i dont have any isos, but we have more guitar amps/ guitars available than most bands. we have an organ/ fender rhodes/ juno. i am working on a piano.

boston is a huge city for rock bands, especially traditional rock bands, and i want to keep a stronghold on that idea.

[drumsound]

I would say at least half of my projects use tape. It's usually anything more serious like full length and EP releases they usually go to tape. My current machine is an MCI JH24. A lot of demos are cut on the RADAR. I'll admit I do sell the tape angle a bit as I believe in it for a number of reasons.

I think the amps and instyruments are a bigger thing for musicians. Having a bunch of things that they know how to use and maybe always wanted to have will help sell the room. When I give a tour the drums are usually set up. There's a stack of amps, guitars on the wall, a big Piano, the Hammond, the Wurlie all right there in the live room. Then the go into the CR and see the tape decks, the big console and the rack gear and that solidifies the "this joint is serious" attitude.

[dokushoka]

I sold my wonderful sounding JH-16 a while back, just before the market really dropped out. I sat there and realized that most people were asking for an HD rig (I didn't have one yet) and almost no one was asking for tape anymore. I figured if I hung on to the MCI any longer, the value would just go down. Sucks.

I am located in SF, so I don't know what other markets are like. I mostly mix, too.

[djimbe]

We have an MCI JH-16. Maybe 40% of projects go to tape? Around there, anyway. We're mostly a tracking room (that's probably 70% of our business) so having that option for folks was important to me, and apparently for clients as well. They track live, dump to PT, and leave with tracks to massage/do overdub/pre-mix/etc. at home. Sometimes they come back to do final mix off our Studer A80-R.

And, yes, most bands would rather see lotsa instruments in the live room I think. There are currently 16 keyboard type things in the live room right now...all set up, plugged in, tuned and ready to go. I know some bands that come to us just so they can use real Hammond/Wurlie/Optigan/Roland sounds. And we usually have 4 or 5 drum kits at any one time...

[TapeOpLarry]

Looking at your gearlist I'd suggest more microphones, especially something really deluxe like a Brauner or such. Also a pair of good small diaphragm mics for overheads and acoustics. You'll have less repairs than a deck (usually) and get more use out of the mics.

Sure, I have 3 decks parked in my control room. But they were paid off a long time ago! If I was opening a smaller studio like yours I'd lean towards all digital like it is or make it all tape - make it a boutique place or something.

[BusyBoxSt7]

I second Larry's thought that there are other areas that need attention first. And also that it'd be best to focus on stuff that will definitely get used on every recording. From a studio's on a similar budget, here are some other things that come to mind (besides the mics):

-instruments: guessing you've got lots of guitars/amps? (didn't see them listed)... anyway, more drum options would be fun

-have you done much to treat the room? that's often the best bang for the buck that most non-pro studios either totally ignore or just buy a box of foam and think it's done. Reading up on it is free in a sense.

-tape machines do sound good but there's maintenance to consider. Another option to seriously effect ALL of your signals is to upgrade converters (and then the clock if it can be again improved). I switched from an 002 to a Lynx Aurora. Best jump in quality I've had other than my first real pres (api 3124).

just some thoughts...

st7
myspace.com/thebusybox

PS. liked the tunes on your site.