The budget breakdown

[the finger genius]

the title of this thread should be called "pushing buttons".

[Nick Sevilla]

In Jeff's defense...

This is normal for him.
Welcome back to the forum Jeff.
Too bad you have a propensity for dumbass commentary.

I hope this year you are able to break that 0.25c per hour rate you are charging for your production skillz.

Cheers

[chris harris]

I'll save you some time, Garges....


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHAAAA!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!

What are you going on about? He agreed you silly git.

You're right. He agreed with everything you said. Then, he told you to go and fuck yourself.

Enjoy Fantasyland!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAAAAA!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAAAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

It's a real shame that you don't have the capacity for embarrassment.

[T-rex]

This thread should be called "The Nervous Breakdown". . .

[Gentleman Jim]

*wanders into the room, nonchalantly*

So, uhhhh.... what are you guys talking about?

[MoreSpaceEcho]

so is $25 the new $35 now?

jeff, i presume we've reached the point in the thread where, having had your ass handed to you by the rest of the board, you stop posting altogether, but on the off chance you can be convinced to put fingers to keyboard again, can you please elaborate on your 3-5 hours per song for vocals? i am genuinely curious about this.

[Jay Reynolds]

[wayne kerr]

so is $25 the new $35 now?

Hey, times are tough!

[Jon Nolan]

from that other thread, once more: if someone throws you a ball............

but anyway. what I could do with $5000! fuck me, man. I mean, let's just step back, shall we? how many songs? say ten. then guess what. the $5000 determines what kind of record you can make. remember that scene in apollo 13 when they dump the shit on a table, and they have to make an air filter "Ok guys, we've been given this one from the guys upstairs and we've gotta come through on this one." SO come through!

HOW to MAKE a KILLER TEN SONG RECORD for $5000 or less ~ By Jon D. Nolan esq.

*1. band writes ten killer songs and learn how to play them like motherfuckers.
cost = free. maybe, beer and snacks.

2. band books six days with ?ber recording genius jon "mutt" nolan
cost = $1800

3. days 1-2 cut songs live in the room. vox in a booth.

4. day 3 decide what vox need to be recut. do it. drummer adds percussion in booth while vox are cut. maybe add a second guitar, or kazzo solo or two. djembes. lots of djembes.

5. days 4-6 mix, with set up mic for last minute overdubs.

6. master with grammy winning mastering dude in NH for say, $1000.

7. buy 1000 discs in digipaks for $1200

8. do whatever with the extra $1000 left over. copyright or whatever. buy some snacks and shit. again.

(*) = the hardest part.

can you make a backstreet boys record like this, hell no. can great songs get over when cut live, by a good band in like, no time, hell yes. if a band wants to make a record with a shit ton of overdubs and stuff, then they need to budget for it. is it a *necessity?!* NOOOO. make your record for whatever you have to make it with, use the limitations to push your creativity. put it out. play like a motherfucker. move on. write more songs. make friends. fans. play shows.

point: my band say zuzu recorded AND mixed a record with Bradley Hartman (willie, emmy lou) in FIVE days. $2500 at the time. Was it Abbey Road? Uhhhhh.... No seriously, it totally was better than The Beatles. That's my point. We were that good. Kidding. No, it wasn't. But whatever it was, it was what we could afford, we worked up the tunes as best we could. we cut 'em live with few overdubs, sang 'em up, and put Bradley under the gun for two days of mixing like twelve (!) tunes. it caught the imagination of some Italians. There was an organic buzz. They bought 3000 discs in six months. we went over there five times over the next few years. put out more discs which sold well too. turned it into touring holland also. turned that into touring germany and belgium as well. signed with a little label in germany and made TENS of dollars. i don't think we ever spent more than $9000, soup to nuts, discs in hand for any of the eight records we put out over the years. did we ever become huge? no. did it have anything to do with the fact that we spent "so little" on recording? no. we had a terrible, terrible name. I know. don't remind me. We were from NH. I'm not pretty enough, and, frankly, although we meant a lot to some people, we were probably a fair to average band. thems the breaks. that said, i don't regret any of it for a second, and the people who do, and did, love our band are not "wrong." it is meaningful to them. That, my friend, is a big honking WIN.

i hate to think what would have happened to us if we had been told by some dude that we had to come up with $10k or some shit to be taken seriously or record a "good" record. fuck that noise. it's trash. don't believe the hype, peebles.

music is ancient shit. ancient. it doesn't even need a record to change peoples lives. it got this far mostly on it's own.

[Gregg Juke]

Jon,

This was absolutely my favorite part:

>>>>signed with a little label in germany and made TENS of dollars.<<<<

GJ

[wesley.wittich]

Mastering, assume a project rate with a decent ME $500

Could be. Cheaper rates are out there, but no top name guy is gonna do this for you. A kid in his basement won't be able to deliver a Red Book CDR and embed ISRC and UPC in the digital data.

This is such a stupid comment. If your budget is $5000, you're going to have a hard time getting a 'top name guy' (whatever the fuck that means) to do anything on the album. In that case, you have to settle for someone who isn't necessarily 'top name,' but is still extremely qualified and skillful. To insinuate that only 'top name guys' can deliver a well mastered album is asinine. Carl Saff isn't the best mastering engineer in the world (he certainly isn't a 'top name guy'), but he's good and extremely affordable. I had him do an album of mine a couple years ago, and he was charging $6 per minute of final audio. He has since gone up to $7/min, but if you work with him regularly, he has deals for repeat customers. At that rate, you can easily get an album mastered for $500 or less, and it certainly isn't some 'kid in his basement.'

You seem really fucking oblivious to reality.

[frans_13]

I have to side with Jon Nolan on this: cut the tracks live as a band. Overdub vocals. Saves time like noting else, did I mention it sounds better (instant glue on all the tracks, called "spill" by the haters who can't set up a band in a room the right way-haha!) and makes for better performances? Just explain them they got to rehearse it well as that saves a lot of money.

"Bleach" by some obscure band called "Nirvana" was done for 600 bucks by a bloke called Jack Endino. Fits the mentioned budget well. Even if I never had a band that talented in my halls and for the life of me won't ever even be able to hold up half a candle to Mr. Endino I have made good records for little money. A lot of people have. I can't even understand the problem.

[lyman]

I typically spend around 500+ hours producing and engineering an indie record.

Really. Over 500 hours to record a "typical" indie band?? That's over sixty 8 hour days in the studio.

How do records get made these days?

By not spending 500+ hours in the studio!

How would you guys break down the $5000 budget for the artist?

Depends what you want, aesthetically. All I know is what I've experienced. But I made my last record, 10 songs, for under $5k. I feel that the quality of the services I paid for (engineering, mixing, mastering, and duplication) was very good. Just because people aren't "top names" it doesn't mean they're not talented and hard working.

[fossiltooth]

the title of this thread should be called "pushing buttons".

This thread should be called "The Nervous Breakdown". . .

This thread should be called "A helpful poster reminds The TOMB of what the dictionary definition of pretentious is".

http://tinyurl.com/2xj26k

[@?,*???&?]

All excellent input guys.