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Author Topic: What Do You Charge For?  (Read 8834 times)

Fibes

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2007, 11:44:13 PM »

As a studio owner and one that has to compete with some of the free set up guys i give a little slack on the setup but IMO if you are setting up stuff specifically for their session you are working. Working means the clock is running.

Also, in my experience the same people who complain about setup time also show up late so if they are dicks about it i clearly spell out that comped setup time starts when the session time is scheduled to start and is 30 minutes. i also inform them that I start billing on all subsequent sessions the minute the session is up. So, if they book a session for 1pm the session is opened then and if they show at 1:30 they paid me to post on my forum for 30 minutes waiting for them.

Oh, and this fits into my "it's valuble to them if you charge them for it" mentality. See, free means worthless to most and if i gotta be away from my family for them i expect to be compensated for it.

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Fibes
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rankus

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #16 on: March 15, 2007, 08:19:40 PM »



LOL,  I have a songwriter who books a couple of hours here and there to drop some vocals on something we recorded earlier etc...

He usually shows up at least 30-45 mins late, walks in with his bag of McDonalds food... heads for the lounge and eats.  Comes into the control room and sparks a doobie, (then I shoo him out into the hal), once his doobie is done he sits and chats for about 20 minutes...   I suggest tracking, he says sure ok, and slams down a take or two (maybe 20 mins) ... then he sits and chats me up some more while I comp vocals...  

In short he works for about twenty minutes and pays for three hours... Plus drops cash in the beer machine and usually tips me by insisting that we actually were at it longer than we were....

I need about a dozen more clients like you Taylor!

Just thought I would share.... Cool
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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

Ive done stuff I'm not proud of.. and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting ~ Moe Sizlack

"There is no crisis in energy, the crisis is in imagination" ~ Buckminster Fuller

Iain Graham

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2007, 09:35:38 AM »

You've found the perfect client.

Shame you can't get him to do several full days in a row.... Laughing
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Iain Graham

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floodstage

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2007, 03:51:28 PM »

rankus wrote on Thu, 15 March 2007 20:19



drops cash in the beer machine  


Beer machine?!

Now that's what I call thinking!!!
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NelsonL

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2007, 04:04:40 PM »

floodstage wrote on Fri, 16 March 2007 12:51

rankus wrote on Thu, 15 March 2007 20:19



drops cash in the beer machine  


Beer machine?!

Now that's what I call thinking!!!


Rick's new band:

Vancouver Beer Machine
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rankus

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #20 on: March 17, 2007, 01:57:49 PM »

floodstage wrote on Fri, 16 March 2007 12:51



Beer machine?!

Now that's what I call thinking!!!


Yeah,  I picked up and old pop machine and stock it with "ice cold beer"  .... People love it ... It dosent make a ton of money but it brings in a hundred bucks here and there for cables etc.

Ya gotta be creative and find lots of small income streams to keep the lights on
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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

Ive done stuff I'm not proud of.. and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting ~ Moe Sizlack

"There is no crisis in energy, the crisis is in imagination" ~ Buckminster Fuller

tom eaton

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #21 on: March 20, 2007, 09:41:11 AM »

Never comp time here... hourly rate... rolls at session start time.  I sweat more during set up than any other time of the day.  I like having starting point mics on stands and cabled before anyone shows up, that's generally off the clock (unless it takes me more than 30 minutes) and allows me to feel organized, but once there's a client in house the clock has to roll.

I use my kit half the time... and I'll get it set up if I have time, but frequently do back to back sessions (two four or five hour blocks, the first of which always runs over right up to the next session's start time) so lots of time there's no time for me to get my act together before the next client is here.

The "hearback" monitor thing has been great to reduce setup time... label the things, give everyone good stem feeds and let them get exactly what they want to hear... I can't tell you the last time I heard "can I have a little more ..."   In a band session I swear they save half an hour of setup, and help people play better, too.

Regardless, 40 minutes is VERY reasonable for setup for drums alone.

t

Earth Terminal Studios

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #22 on: March 21, 2007, 10:27:52 PM »

This goes a little (!) on and off topic but I hope you can see the sense within..

I used to have a client who'd book 3hrs, turn up late, had a really relaxed work ethic and used to tip heavily. He always came in with a couple 'singers' who he'd have track directly to DAT anything they felt like singing so he could 'check out how they sounded'. The artists he brought were always great looking 20-25yr old's, usually very inexperienced in front of a mic, but with obvious vocal training. I could never really work out the vibe of this until some years later when I bumped into one of these singers who explained that the guy had been charging
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dconstruction

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #23 on: March 22, 2007, 01:28:14 AM »

This previous post is poignant and pertinent.

Truth is, I saw no art.  This revelation is the real source of frustration for me.  I'm pretty generous, really.  I've given plenty of time to plenty of artists because they were artists.

But, then again, taking this post to heart, I'll admit I was really in no mood to put up with poor musicianship and disregard for what, ultimately, is a creative input I wanted to contribute, but the client didn't want.  To their detriment or not (I of course feel listening to me would have been a good idea), they didn't want it.  I was there to record (their schlock) as well as I could.  I don't know that I did that.  I don't know that I even tried, really.  I mean, you've heard about polishing a turd, right?  But if that's what was asked of me - well, I'm conflicted.  My livelihood is not tied to gigs like this.  At worst, I earn some bad will.  That's bad.  But, from this band, I don't care.  Maybe.

Am I burying myself?  This would be so much easier if it were my sole source of income.  I'd totally know the right thing to do: work.

All this said, I don't think the cassette-to-cassette-to-cassette-to-shrubbery scenario is really fair.  The player I want to be, the engineer-producer role I want to play, really, would have been a huge influence in my favorite album's sound, regardless of who they are, or how much static, wow, flutter or mud is on the master.  That's just a bad master.  The process is interesting to me.  Not this particular process, though.

If audio engineering were a panting?  Man, I have no idea.  The quality of paint?  Sure.  Yes.  Absolutely.  But it would also be the size of the canvas.  The lighting cast upon it.  The decision whether it's canvas or plaster or any other medium.  The difference between umber and burnt umber.  Is that important?  Hell, yeah.  Do I want to make those decisions?  Hell, yeah.

Ah, man: it's after midnight and my girlfriend is on the couch next to me, watching a Tivo'd episode of Survivor, and I'm staring at a laptop.  I don't know anything, and that's all I really know.

L
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j.hall

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #24 on: March 22, 2007, 03:48:15 PM »

i think there is a balance between engineering not mattering and mattering.

tip your opinion too far to either extreme and you'll end up in a niche group of engineers that hardly work.

i run my sessions super laid back.  i don't claim to be able to get any sound uder the sun, and i'm very upfront to artists about not asking me to make them sound like some one else.........they just aren't that person, why copy something when you can do something new?

i get a lot of feedback from clients telling me how relaxed the sessions were and how easy it is to work with me........i don't pretend to be just a button pusher, nor do i cling too tightly to any artistic ideas i toss out.....they are IDEAS, not me pushing my will upon some one else's thing.

IMO, the role of the engineer is to achieve the vision of the project AND to add to it.  that is both technically difficult and artistically difficult.

as far as charging a client.......i provide a service that is in demand, i charge for it, and my family pays bills and eats.......
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Vladislavs Korehovs

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #25 on: March 27, 2007, 04:03:44 PM »

rattleyour wrote on Thu, 08 March 2007 15:35


Tell her plug and play is for usb mics only.

Smile))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
i don;t take money for setup, because i don't change it usually.
i think if you are beginner you should not confront your clients and agree to most propositions like that, you can rise your rates later...and possibly include setup time.
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M Carter

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #26 on: March 27, 2007, 04:09:12 PM »

Vladislavs -

There's a big difference between being a beginner and starting a new business.  

Any business should have policies in place to protect themselves AND the client, no matter how long they've been open.  It can really help save you from some otherwise awkward and client-relationship damaging situations when you can say "this has been our policy for a long time now, and you knew about this going into the situation".  It really helps keep everything on the up and up.

Matt
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Matt Carter
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j.hall

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #27 on: March 27, 2007, 05:00:16 PM »

raising rates in this line of work is probably the single hardest thing i've ever attempted........

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dconstruction

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #28 on: March 27, 2007, 05:18:50 PM »

I found one piece in the most recent Tape Op astonishing (perhaps from the Terry Manning interview, and I'm paraphrasing):

.  TAPE-OP: So, what were the studio rates in 1966?
.  TERRY MANNING: $25 an hour.

Uh, 1966?  $25 an hour?

Whew.  Talk about wage stagnation.

L


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Vladislavs Korehovs

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Re: What Do You Charge For?
« Reply #29 on: March 28, 2007, 02:35:24 AM »

Just interesting how big rates you all take ?
Taking in accound average salary. As inflation is not for comprison:)
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