Coronavirus Plans (what are yours?)

[markjazzbassist]

I'm blessed to work in IT so i can work remotely and still have a job, i understand that is not the case with many workers and i am aware of that and trying to help friends who have been out of work. That being said, i'm planning to use this downtime to really try and finish a record i've been working on for years now and get it all together. I have the gear, and now i have the time and mandate (i'm in ohio) to stay in.

Anyone else have any plans? I'm hoping a lot of you studio owners are able to make ends meet during this time.

[Scodiddly]

I work in live sound, and as of this weekend most of my co-workers have been laid off while a skeleton crew keeps the business afloat for the interim. Tough times, and hopefully it won't hit you guys in the studio biz as hard as the concert biz has been hit. I'm at least glad to still be employed.

I've already been working on one goofy side project just to keep busy, though. Remember when racking Yamaha PM1000 channel strips was all the rage? I happened to get a pair of PM5000 channels a couple years back, and I'm finally putting them into a rackmount format. Definitely a lot of changes since the PM1000 design, which took a bit of figuring out. Right now I've got the electronics sorted and am most of the way through the packaging part.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

So thankful to no longer be running a commercial studio. It was getting hard enough to fill the calendar this would have killed me.
Thankful #2 - I now work out of my garage so being stuck at home doesn't mean I can't work.
Thankful #3 - I just got the upfront first half payment for a soundtrack gig. Not so thankful that my writing partner and I can't be in the same room together but I'm hoping we'll be able to pass ideas back and forth and make it work.
Thankful #4 - I was wondering how I'd make time to finish my band's record. It's tracked but needs some vocals and other parts by me. Scheduling time isn't really an issue now.

Not so thankful that all my face to face gigs for the next however long have just gone up in smoke but I'd rather stay safe and healthy and keep my clients the same. I'm somewhat confident that the lions share of them will reschedule once this calms down. Fingers crossed.

Stay safe everyone.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I'm also planning to mix a few projects that have fallen by the wayside for various reasons over the last few years. I don't even know if I'll bill or expect that the artists would have the spare cash to pay. More like a Coronavirus present.
I just mixed a free jazz saxophone and violin duet album that's been sitting for four years. Very liberating.

[kslight]

My county goes under stay at home orders on Tuesday, and surrounding counties, though most have been largely voluntarily like that in the past week or two already. My work is classified as “essential business” so I must still go in, but I am grateful for that versus the alternative that many of my friends have to face. But I also just started a new job a few weeks ago so there is looming anxiety regardless.

I started back on my home gym routine, as my daily gym finally decided to close itself last week.

Been working on trying to use some of the toys that haven’t gotten much attention lately. The last few days I’ve gotten my Tascam 388 up and awake, doing some Nord Modular jams to that (to be put together further probably on a sampler and or in the box). Just trying to get back in a groove. My singer has been sending me stuff but Pro Tools Collaborate is stupid.

[alexdingley]

I just bought a new house, and am just getting to the point at which my small guest-room temporary studio is up & limping.

Since audio is no longer my full time career, I’m counting myself lucky that I have a FT job that lets me work from home 100% of the time.

I am about to start editing together a new full-length comedy album for a comic who traveled the UK with a zoom h5 all last year. So it’ll be lots of iZotope and UA k-stereo... I might also dabble with passing the segments through a Rupert Neve 5045 primary source enhancer (if needed)

Thankfully this comic has been recording every gig for the last 15yrs, and he’s serious about getting the material cleaned up properly. It’s a great WFH audio gig.

I’m also alternating between staying calm / distracting myself with wire-dressing projects / quietly panicking about what it’s going to be like for us to deliver our first child in 9wks at a suburban philly hospital, when this pandemic seems to have reached our area pretty early.

[Recycled_Brains]

Fortunately my day job is solid in that I can work from home, minimally, but still retain full salary and benefits. Feel grateful for that. Had to cancel any sessions I had coming up. Once I mix the couple projects currently in my cue, I'm going to have to find something to do.

Grabbing a couple DIY kits to keep my brain busy so I'm not feeling so anxious about all this.

[vvv]

I've been working from my home office since last June, and job-wise am doing a lot more phone work as opposed to in-person as I avoid the hour+ commute to the Loop, for now.

Recreation-wise, I'm cooking and eating more, drinking less, and recording a lot. I have 10 songs out to my friend to sequence and do the art work, and have the drums and bass done on 4 more, and a collaborator just last night sent me a nice two-mix of his drums.

And I have some manual projects: a distortion pedal to build, and a Fender JP90 to set-up, some patch and mic cords to fix, a cuppla outboard pieces to repair, also.

And then there's the backed-up DVD's ... Looking forward to Babylon 5 and Longmire, and some movies.

Also, I took out 8 books the day before lock-down here in IL; I have 6 to go.

And, the latest issue of TapeOp!

[Nick Sevilla]

Learning this:

https://learn.unity.com/course/create-with-code-live

And relearning to play my guitars. After carpal tunnel surgery on my rt. hand,
I am so much happier.

[drumsound]

I've got a remote drumming project that is trickling songs in. I've suspended my private teaching, but will do a remote teaching project instead of doing it in person for the university music biz class. I'm thankful for that. I had a long talk with a potential client who contacted me right before shit started hitting the fan. We both thought it would be best to wait. Luckily my girl can work form home, and her income won't change.

Like Dave I;m going to dive into a mix that's been waiting. Its my brother's band, who I often have to wait until I get around to finishing.

A band I play in started production on one track, and did some rehearsal recording. We'll possibly continue, but I'm not totally sure.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Still have mastering work coming in, did a really cool record yesterday....studio's a separate building on our property, so staying home is no problem for me. Ms MSE is working from home, although at the moment she's taking a lil nap, don't tell her boss.

A friend is putting out a "quarantine songs" compilation, I've been working on a track for it, gonna finish that today.

Stay safe everyone!

[nicholasdover]

Well, we're on lockdown here in UK now so Canyon Sound (my only income source other than PRS royalties on library music I used to make) is dormant but still costing me the full £700 a month in rent... So I'm kind of doomed if the government doesn't deem me eligible for a £10k small business grant. Fingers crossed - I've applied, and almost don't dare think about it - but my longer term fear is I get the grant, use it to keep paying rent to landlords so I don't lose my studio space (invested months and a few £k in building), then landlords could go under if others in buildings haven't kept up their rent (many not so invested as me) and I'd lose everything! No way of knowing/predicting that though, so for now I'm just doing all I can to be active and positive from home. I've brought a small studio setup to my living room, but I have 2 kids (and a 3rd on the way) so I'm doing loads of childcare and home schooling while everything's closed so that my wife can do some work - she's self employed but she's better placed to keep work afloat than me, and she's said she'll supplement my studio rent - she's super supportive of me doing it properly after messing around at home for years. I'm writing songs collaboratively with player friends to feel musically alive which is just great, and have just had some new mix work come in which is heartening, but even the mix work I had in the book has been paused since the label I have work with has had their release schedule blown up by cancelled gigs. A load of my recordings were immediately cancelled by bands who are self funding and relied on tours/gigs to fund album recordings. I'm fairly cheap so I deal a lot in unsigned bands in Bristol and small local labels. SO yeah, a pretty grim time for me... I got off to a good start with the studio - my first gig was recording Kirk Fletcher's "Hold On" and I've done a few albums with UK artists I'm really proud of - right before closure I did Nuala Honan's album which has a lead single on BBC 6music playlist just now, so I'll be super upset if I have to fully close down. I mean, I'd find another space and set up again somehow - I don't have career options, it's only music on the table! But, I'm seriously having to consider whether this is the end of this particular effort...

[roscoenyc]

We are locked out of our commercial recording studio.
All of us are doing what we can at home.
Like everybody else my calendar has been wiped clean.

I did start working with a guy I always wanted to work with sending stuff back and forth online and that's been pretty fun.
I brought my home rig a little more up to date just around the new year with a new iMac and I got a newer UA X6 interface which came with a free quad satellite. It's been humming along nicely with everything hooked up via T-bolt 3.

I had been sitting on a bunch of out takes I had recorded on myself over the years. Some compilation cuts too. The announcement of that no commission Friday from Bandcamp a couple weeks ago got me off my butt to put together what I'm calling the Shut In Singles Series. So far I've released 4 different tracks for that and I have another 6 ready to go at www.ericambel.bandcamp.com


I did a streaming concert too where I skipped my own songs and played a bunch by bands I've produced over the years.

Trying to be productive but it's gonna be a while.

[vvv]

"Cocaine Eyes", "All Down the Line" - coulda been a rock opera.

[winky dinglehoffer]

"All Down The Line" with Warner Hodges reminds me of a long ago time when I happened to be in a club during the Scorchers' sound check, & they (with the club's sound man joining in on vocals) did an impromptu version of "Wild Horses." Thanks for stirring up some good memories!