How many hours in your studio working day?

if6was9

This is a topic that's been in my mind for a good while now and I've been wondering what other people's opinions are on it lately.

How long is your normal working day in the studio?

My regular day would be start at 10.30 then work till around 9/10 ish at night. I try finish up at 10 or close to it as I live in a city and don't want to be bothering the neighbours and get a noise complaint. I don't mind hanging on for an extra 20 mintes to bounce stuff out or do a few small changes. I don't usually take breaks either, I eat while we're working so there's no lunch or dinner break for an hour.

I've done a few sessions in my old place and out on location that went till much later, sometimes after 1 and on one occasion well after 3 and found them to be unproductive as everyone's worn out and ear fatigue combined with mental tiredness makes it hard to judge good from bad takes and to listen out for the subtle little details that are so important. 3 hours work at this stage can be done in half an hour in the morning.

I feel a 10-12 hour working day is fair enough, I don't charge a ton for my work but a few times before I've had bands question the length of the day.

Got a band that want to do their next recording out on location. When they started looking at places in the city I suggested we just do it in my place then. They figured we could pretty much record from morning till the small hours of the night if we did it somewhere isolated and assumed I'd be charging the same daily rate though I'd be doing 17 or so hour days.

I've considered before offering a daily rate up to a certain hour and then an extra hourly rate for any extra time on top of it but up till now it's not really been a problem in my new place.

So whats your studio day length?

off.the.walls

8 hours 10-6 simple reason i live in a neighbour hood they neighbours are cool about it but then i'd take off then to make sure they stay cool about it. Then usually mix from about 8 untill 11 so alltogether doing about 11-12 hours.

DamagedTrax

depending on where im working its usually 10am till about 12pm. if i finish early i usually end up editing at home studio anyway.. no rest for the wicked!

Robin Ball

10 - 6.... I used to work till 10 but I like to lead a life also. I also believe that a level of respect for my time needs to be maintained from the client. My last boss worked late for years, eventually had a heart attack in his mid forties and didn't go back to it, made me think.

PaulBrewer

Being of a certain vintage - I like to work sensible hours - I'm of the opinion that 'creative' work ( as opposed to 'house keeping' ) takes a dive after 6 to 8 hours.

Ears being bio-mechanical (is that a word/term?) wear out after a certain time/ volume ...

From my perspective results are better when life goes on in between sessions.

The physical, emotional and creative fuel tanks need time to refill.

Today's break adds to tomorrow's creativity.

drumdrum

Just for a slightly different perspective, I work a day job (9-5) to pay the bills and do my music production by night and weekends. When I wasn't working, I would be at it from 10 - about 7 or 8 depending on the project. I'm a musician who mainly produces (or tries to anyways!) his own music and occasionally for friends. I've a huge interest / passion in home recording as its a lot of fun and I like the fact that I feel like I have something of value at the end of it all. Better than killing time in front of the TV, though that has its place too.

Anyways, unfortunately for me, I couldn't get a full time job in the industry (I did try for a while), so now I get at it for about 4 hour sessions at a time.

My mixes have improved no end when I was forced to work at it less. I put this down to mainly by being forced to make quick decisions and stick by them, coupled with ever growing experience. My confidence and decisiveness in audio engineering has come on leaps and bounds since I started my new job, so ironically, spending less time at what I love, has made me better at what I love!

Weekends if I'm working on a new tune that I'm really into, I can spend up to 8+ hours on it. I still try to go out and have fun on Sat night and Sunday is for recovery!

Don't get me wrong....if I had the choice of making a living at my 9-5 or producing music I would pick the music everytime, but not being able to put all your time into your passion isn't the end of the world that I once thought it was. Also, the my current work flow at the moment is working for me, so I'm happy at the moment.
Like most things in life, you're at your most productive (and often happiest!) when you have a good balance.
And @Robin Ball: heart attack mid - 40s! Yikes! Thats a big eye opener!

hoopmusic

8 hours would be normal for me. Many sessions do run over time. To be honest, I'm thinking of cutting it back to 6 hours. I find the last couple of hours are not very productive. I grow impatient, standards go down and the end product suffers. Much better to come back with 'fresh' ears.

dav nagle

Robin Ball you have officially freaked me out!

krd

dav nagle wrote: »

Robin Ball you have officially freaked me out!

That's right Dave. Work too hard/too stressful, don't eat properly, get no exercise, you will die young.

Some facts about heart attacks:
1. Only 50% of people survive their first one. That is the other half die.

2. After a heart attack, your heart is usually permanently damaged. So even if you survive - your life won't have that much life in it.

3. Give death the finger, death will kick you in the balls.

Dave, I've seen a recent photo of you in your studio. Big happy face on you, but you do look like one of those people with death stalking over them. And we will come to your funeral - eat soggy luncheon meat sandwiches and give condolences to your mother - but it doesn't have to be that way.

I don't think the long hours pay off. Good production people do all their stuff really quickly. If it's taking you hours and hours to do something, you have to ask yourself why it's taking that long. And work on getting those skills sharper and quicker. Really, it only takes a long period of time to learn how to do something. Once you know how it's done - you do it in a flash. If you're just tweaking and fff'ing around, you're doing no one no favours - including yourself.

drumdrum

On what KRD posted above (and to which I completely agree! ), heres a handy process link to approach mixing.

Its called the "3 hour mix".
It may seem a bit mad at first, as lets be honest, 3 hours mixing is usually not enough time for even the pros, but you really need to try it. I did for a while and it really helped my mixing confidence and decision making more than anything else, which IMHO is REALLY important and makes you get to know your gear better and quicker.

Granted, I was left with mixes at the start where I never got around to the vocals or the guitars or some main element due to time, but its a training process that is really good. Its not meant to be used for paying clients or anything, though if you get a mix good enough in 3 hours then fair play to yeh! As you get better (ie, finish mixes with time spent on all major elements) then what I did is I added an hour to the 3 hours, so I went from 3 hours, to 4 hours per mix, to 5 etc...

I'm now at 6 hours per mix (sometimes 7 - 8 if the arrangement is huge!) and my mixes are sounding better than ever before. Standard rock mix time breakdown:
1 hour focusing on drums, 30 mins for bass sound and linking it with the drums, 1 -2 hours for guitars (both rhythm, effects and lead...depending on number of guitar tracks) 1 hour 30 mins on vocals, and 1-2 hours on the overall picture....whatever time I have left. The track is built up, ie, after the drums, the bass is mixed with the drums, then the guitars are done WITH the bass and drums playing. Soloing stuff IMHO is mostly useless for mixing bar checking performance issues.***

I usually throw in an extra hour after a good nights sleep for minor tweaks. I know I've still a long way to go, but sure mixing is a never ending improving process!
But you gotta know when to stop, and when going further is detrimental to the mix.

Try it out. You'd be surprised at how good you will get at it, and curse the days you were up until 4am tweaking compressors!

*** Note: These are rough times only and they often vary from song to song. Depends on how good or bad the recordings and performances are. Sometimes you will blast through a great bass performance & recording in 10 minutes, other times it'll take 2 hours minimum on the guitars to get them sounding right. As I said, rough guides only.

dav nagle

krd wrote: »

That's right Dave. Work too hard/too stressful, don't eat properly, get no exercise, you will die young.

Some facts about heart attacks:
1. Only 50% of people survive their first one. That is the other half die.

2. After a heart attack, your heart is usually permanently damaged. So even if you survive - your life won't have that much life in it.

3. Give death the finger, death will kick you in the balls.

Dave, I've seen a recent photo of you in your studio. Big happy face on you, but you do look like one of those people with death stalking over them. And we will come to your funeral - eat soggy luncheon meat sandwiches and give condolences to your mother - but it doesn't have to be that way.

I don't think the long hours pay off. Good production people do all their stuff really quickly. If it's taking you hours and hours to do something, you have to ask yourself why it's taking that long. And work on getting those skills sharper and quicker. Really, it only takes a long period of time to learn how to do something. Once you know how it's done - you do it in a flash. If you're just tweaking and fff'ing around, you're doing no one no favours - including yourself.

I am a very fast editor, I put most of my time into promotion, marketing, deals etc..I smoke, don't drink and don't party. Have a look at me here and tell me I look like death, I think your being mean. http://www.facebook.com/PopStarStudios

I hardly look like death do I?

krd

dav nagle wrote: »

I am a very fast editor, I put most of my time into promotion, marketing, deals etc..I smoke, don't drink and don't party. Have a look at me here and tell me I look like death, I think your being mean. http://www.facebook.com/PopStarStudios

I hardly look like death do I?

No, Dave you look fine.


It's that shadow in the background just over your shoulder.......that looks like Death.

I'm only joking, you're not seriously taking me seriously.



Some people run themselves to the point of collapsing from exhaustion. And sometimes they can put the collapse off for years. I've seen people look very old by the time they hit their late 20s. I've seen people look ancient in their mid 30s. I don't know every circumstance is different. If you feel you're working yourself sick, you are.

Sacred_git

I only work at night in summer/nice days, usually after 10, when its grey and miserable i work continuously through the day into the small hours!!

PaulBrewer

Sacred_git wrote: »

I only work at night in summer/nice days, usually after 10, when its grey and miserable i work continuously through the day into the small hours!!

You should move to Galway - you'd be very productive then

Robin Ball

dav nagle wrote: »

Robin Ball you have officially freaked me out!

Why did I freak you out? If you don't take care of yourself you'll be getting sick and less able to work. Look after yourself!

dav nagle

Robin Ball wrote: »

Why did I freak you out? If you don't take care of yourself you'll be getting sick and less able to work. Look after yourself!

Your right I am cutting down the time I spend in the studio and more time walking in the fresh air.

Robin Ball

dav nagle wrote: »

Robin Ball wrote: »

Why did I freak you out? If you don't take care of yourself you'll be getting sick and less able to work. Look after yourself!

Your right I am cutting down the time I spend in the studio and more time walking in the fresh air.

Good on you man! Stay healthy! Then you can keep going for more years. I think us engineers need a life/work balance. We all love being in the studio but it's great to do things outside it too!