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My band is doing a new 3 song EP in august and like last time, we're recording it in my home studio.

However, since becoming a 5piece (from a 2piece), i can no longer rest on drumkit from hell superior and donät have the equipment/space to mic a 2 kickdrum, like 10 cymbal, 5 tom drumkit in my house...

We decided we'd record the drums in a studio that runs off Pro Tools or even Cubase then get the drums exported onto a DVDR (like, individual mic tracks), for mixing back at my home.

3 sounds, our drums are fairy east and our drummer could probably nail perfect tracks in a few hours. For the purposes of murphy's law and such, say a day. (i realise Micing a kit takes a long time).

How much (if you can, in £GBP but answers in $USD are great also) should i expect to pay for this service?

O realise it's a big vague but even a rough idea so we don't get ripped off!

Thanks!

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anonymous Wed, 06/07/2006 - 15:28

This is quite vague. I know studios around here that charge $25/hour all the way to $80/hour and the $25/hour studio has an HD3 getup with a spectacular mic closet. It's really not something your could nail a price to. Say, 8 hours to record, you could get a block discount or pay by the hour, all dependant on the studio.

Boswell Wed, 06/07/2006 - 15:49

I found these rates for Mill Hill Music in north London. I think they're fairly typical for UK studios.

Mill Hill Recording Company offers the following for these rates including an engineer:
Less than 8 Hours: £25 Per Hour
1 - 3 Days: £20 Per Hour
3 - 7 Days: £19 Per Hour
7 - 12 Days: £18 Per Hour
12 Days + :£17 Per Hour

E-mail us at recording@millhillmusic.co.uk with your exact requirements and we will make every effort to meet them.

The email link is there or you can visit their website.

anonymous Thu, 06/08/2006 - 16:15

Boswell wrote: Go for it, but do check what studio help you get for that sort of money. Some studios of this type have a miked-up drum kit already in place, so you don't have to spend your first hour doing that.

I'd be interested to hear about your experiences.

Aye man! Should be fine, our drummer rekons, as long as he can use his own snare, any other kit will be fine.

And yeah, itäll be a learning experience anyway. Never gone into/paid for a studio before cause i usually do everyhthing myself!

anonymous Fri, 06/09/2006 - 03:45

alimoniack wrote: Gav, that's a good rate, which studio in Glasgow is that if you don't mind me asking? Make sure it's a decent place before you book it obviously.

Actually I know a place that might be able do do that sort of thing very slightly cheaper lol...

Stealth studios.

Found them via google, the guy seems great and is a dead on person!

anonymous Fri, 06/09/2006 - 03:46

alimoniack wrote: Gav, that's a good rate, which studio in Glasgow is that if you don't mind me asking? Make sure it's a decent place before you book it obviously.

Actually I know a place that might be able do do that sort of thing very slightly cheaper lol...

and..

SCOTLAND!

Where abouts are you from, bro?

Dosser Sun, 06/18/2006 - 06:17

It depends on how fancy you want to get.

It usually takes me or my assistant an hour to go into an empty studio, set up mics, cables, cue box, etc., and then patch in my rack of gear and speakers, and also test everything out for recording drums. Then, you can spend any amount of time getting sounds with the drummer playing. This can be very quick and straightforward or it can be time consuming depending on how you want the kit to sound, if you try different snares, how well the drums are tuned/prepped for recording, and the consistency/skill of the player.

At rimes, I've spent 20 mintues with a professional drummer getting great sounds and then rolling, and then another time I spent half a day with a band drummer really discovering exactly what the band wanted the drums to sound like. So, I guess its a bit hard for me to separate how long it takes from the artist, since so much of it depends on them and their instrument.

As far as recording time once we're set up, again , it depends on the player. I try to make it where the player NEVER has to wait around on me to be ready for him/her to play the song. I have to be prepared enough that they can move as fast as they feel comfortable doing in the studio. That being said, there is usually a lot of listening back and checking to make sure the performance/editing is right before moving on to the next song.

If the artist has a drummer who's an experienced prfessional who knows the songs, I could easily get three drum tracks in about 4 hours, including set up and tear down. This is only possible if the artist is used to working this fast. If you're having to ask how long it takes, then I surmise you haven't had that much experience doing this, and I would say it will take longer because of that.

I would also advise sitting in on a session with the engineer (and/or hired Drummer if you hire one) before your session to see how smoothly the session runs. This may or may not be possible, depending on your situation.