My oldest client has betrayed me by trying to record at home

[Scodiddly]

are there studios set up were there is a dead vocal-size booth permanently outfitted with a high quality mic, pre-amp
and always setup to track at a moments notice?
(well not really a moments - but with reduced booking "hassle")

Maybe the VO booth at a video post-production house?

[wirerecording]

Trevor's post have stated the strong consumer position. he desires the conveinience store recording studio. That by it's nature is not a quaility driven business. It values customer conveinience over everything else He may well be right that this market is ripe for someone to come in and cater to it.
However i believe creating music demands and deserves more than the Walmart/7-11 approach. Great studios and recording folks create environments and atmospheres that are unique. They draw you in and inspire you with personality, then build trust with invisible professionalism. They rise above just gear and space to magnify your vision.

The client is NOT always right. If a studio is good enough to be in demand, nickles and dimes shouldn't outweigh dollars . We have to aim for lockout sessions and long bookings or we can't survive

stuart
wirerecording

[Scodiddly]

After all this (very enlightening!) discussion, my take on it is that it's basically about hiring people. Gear isn't as much of an issue, it's having somebody to set up and operate the stuff while the musician plays.

And people, long term, are not going to be both cheap and quality at the same time.

I think too many musicians are caught up in the "perfect sound" hype to understand that their best option would be a minidisc recorder, the $80 Sony mic that plugs into it, and a couple months getting a decent collection of songs together.

[Moon Unit]

are there studios set up were there is a dead vocal-size booth permanently outfitted with a high quality mic, pre-amp
and always setup to track at a moments notice?
(well not really a moments - but with reduced booking "hassle")

Ya know, I've been to some shopping malls and amusement parks where they have these booths set up so that you can go in and sing karaoke-style to popular hit songs.

They'll even give you a lyric sheet and burn extra disks for you. Some will even put your name / picture on the disk. Oh yea, and they have cool reverb they can put on your vocal if you ask them nice.

[trevord]

are there studios set up were there is a dead vocal-size booth permanently outfitted with a high quality mic, pre-amp
and always setup to track at a moments notice?
(well not really a moments - but with reduced booking "hassle")

Ya know, I've been to some shopping malls and amusement parks where they have these booths set up so that you can go in and sing karaoke-style to popular hit songs.

They'll even give you a lyric sheet and burn extra disks for you. Some will even put your name / picture on the disk. Oh yea, and they have cool reverb they can put on your vocal if you ask them nice.

hehe
ROTFL


touche moon unit
tou-effin-che

[MT]

If the client turns out to be a gifted engineer, then she'll probably not return unless she really needs your skills, and getting a home setup will be a natural progression for her.

If she's not gifted enough, then she'll be back in order to get the superior sounds she achieved at your place.

Nothing wrong with giving her advice, since it will help her come to the latter conclusion much faster.

MT

[insta-fame]

I haven't read the whole thread, but wanna chime in. I've been recording for cash for 11 years now and the short session is probably more of a norm for me than full booked weeks. i rarely do sessions over 5 hrs at a time. My studio building is next to my house and everything takes 5 min to turn on and start recording. i charge $5/hr more if you book less that 5 hrs at a time. My clients are mostly all people who record at home and want to have a professional space to do tracking in situations where worrying about the technical details will kill the vibe. People like my tracking room and atmosphere too. this schedule works better for me. I am the only person that engineers at my studio. I owe very little money-usually just my last months worth of expenses. I have young kids and do 2/3 time at other jobs. I prefer the flexibility of living my life and not being locked into long projects i can't get out of. I actively encourage people to play with recording themselves at whatever level they can afford. They mostly end up with a better understanding of what i am doing and can do for them. griping about someone trying to learn more about the process and being creative seems counterintuitive to me. i guess all i'm saying is that there are lots of kinds of studios and perspectives. probably just what everyone else is saying. cheers, ben.