How much to build a decent studio?

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:38 pm

I know nothing about recording but I'm looking to go to school for it soon and I was wondering. When I'm done with school how much would it cost for me to setup a little studio of my own? Nothing outrageous.. just the basics as to what I would need to keep my skills sharp and keep busy. Thanks

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:15 pm

Could you please change your <title>and omit the word Noobie</title> to be replaced with a more defined question?

Thanks. These guys know their chops...but that word can cause you to be overlooked. Or in some cases, over-ran Smile

Have you signed up for Fantasy football yet?

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:22 pm

Computer and decent interface 2,500
1 LDC and a bunch of 57's 1,000
monitors + headphones 1,000
cables, stands, other goodies 500
TOTAL $5,000

This is really the minumum ante to get in the game. I spent about 7K my first year in business and another 5K the second year, and another 5K the third and so on...
This obviously includes no building or sound control, but you could do some remote stuff to get started.

Just about everybody has a "studio package" to sell you, but I wouldn't do it. You will learn a lot more if you have to study and agonize over every piece of gear.

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:47 pm

"This obviously includes no building or sound control," /quote

All outdoors, eh? What a pita THAT must be?

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:26 pm

Hey, at least not having a building would mean not having to deal with all of those nasty reflections and standing waves and stuf like that.

The downside is having to dump water out of the microphones after it rains. And yes, I do know from experience that mics WILL still work after you pour the water out of them!

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:29 am

MarkG wrote:

And yes, I do know from experience that mics WILL still work after you pour the water out of them!

Good to know! I'm gonna run all my stage mics through the sink to clean them! Will Dawn cut smoky grease spittle better then Ajax? Shocked

Kapt.Krunch Wink

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:36 pm

Smoky grease spittle?!

I offer my clients chocolate and bottled water. What do you give them, cigars and baby-back ribs?

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:17 pm

I know where I'd record...

Can I get some of the honey glaze on this cigar?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:49 am

MarkG wrote:

Computer and decent interface 2,500
1 LDC and a bunch of 57's 1,000
monitors + headphones 1,000
cables, stands, other goodies 500
TOTAL $5,000

I note a DISTINCT lack of funds allocated for software. I'd suggest getting Audacity and Reaper (only a couple hunnerd ) and get as many free plugs as you can find, The DigitalFishFones stuff is great, also AIRWINDOWS has some good plugs, some for free.

just say no to craks.

dwoz

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:38 am

Can you drop out of school before you get started? Some of those schools will put you in hefty debt and chances are you won't be getting a job in the industry any time soon. Instead of the student loan, go and spend the money on gear and learn hands on. If you have to, go to the local adult learning center and see if they have a digital media program. A few hundred dollars for the basics is much better than 20 grand for the basics. You can learn a lot about mic placement from reading in forums like this AND from just experimenting.

Research on the web is free BUT there is a lot of misinformation out there. This is a good place to ask questions as the miss info is rooted out quite quickly here due to the large population of WORKING engineers(myself NOT being one of them). I come here to read and learn.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:02 pm

Are you planning to charge for your services? I would say a proffesional studio can be roughly started for $25,000 USD +/- 5,000 USD.

I have built 3 small studios over the past 15 years, and that number always seems to be about right. Each time I have traded up gear and acoustics.

For a first time professional studio (i.e. one that charges for your services) you should invest in your mics, monitors and acoustics. Pick up a simple all in one pc interface to start, then after a bit of time move on to the next stage.

The next stage would be A/D and D/A, PRE AMPS.

Don't forget the cables, they cost more then anyone cares to remember.

Anyway just a few thoughts...

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:15 pm

dwoz wrote:

MarkG wrote:

Computer and decent interface 2,500
1 LDC and a bunch of 57's 1,000
monitors + headphones 1,000
cables, stands, other goodies 500
TOTAL $5,000

I note a DISTINCT lack of funds allocated for software. I'd suggest getting Audacity and Reaper (only a couple hunnerd ) and get as many free plugs as you can find, The DigitalFishFones stuff is great, also AIRWINDOWS has some good plugs, some for free.

just say no to craks.

dwoz

That was a little on the low side. I was thinking of something like a protools rack unit with only the factory plugins. It deosn't take long to rack up another couple thousand in decent plugins. I also didn't factor in an external hard drive for about $300. I was probably thinking of numbers I would give my WIFE if I was going to build something. The estimate for my current studio (structure only) started at 20K....HA HA HA.....(over 40K and it's still not actually done yet)

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:21 pm

Not to mention, most hardware comes bundled with software anyway.

But I can't mention that.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:24 am

10 grand was enough for me. i use nuendo for software. gets the job done Very Happy

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:11 am

hmmmm... 10k? 20k? I wish......

I'm somewhere around $75k for the upfit and just over $120k in gear....

I musta' did sumpin' wrong........ <sigh>

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