Musician's Survey / Questionnaire

flyingdoctor72

Hiya,

I'm currently attempting to get a business plan organised so I can set up a small mobile recording business. As part of the market research stage I have knocked up a short survey/questionnare aimed at musicians (and those that may be involved in music in any capacity) so I can have some statistics ready for my "Business Mentor Clinic" meeting in a couple of weeks and hopefully convince the money men that my idea is worthy of a grant.

I'd be grateful if you could spare me 2 minutes of your time to have a crack at the questions. There is no need to answer ANY question that you do not wish to or is irrelevant to you, and a reply in ANY format or manner will do and even one single question answered from you will be of help to me. I will NOT be keeping any data particular to any individual (who answered what etc...) this is purely to generate some statistics and hopefully show the money men that my idea is a good one and that there is a demand for a service like this.

Thanks a million

I apologise in advance as there maybe a better way of presenting this but being a relative rookie on boards.ie I'm not aware of a better way.

Questionnaire


All musicians/performers will inevitably wish to have high quality recordings of their talents at some stage of their "career", be it for demo CD's, online web pages, commercial releases or just for private listening. Unfortunately, a relatively low percentage find they have the financial means to approach a professional recording studio with the aim of turning that wish into reality. The usual course of action in this situation is to purchase some equipment and attempt to record themselves at home or in their rehearsal space. Although this is usually (but not always!) the cheaper option it also presents its own problems - the most obvious of these difficulties being the degree of skill it takes to use this type of equipment to its maximum capabilities and achieve the highest quality sound recording as well as mixing and mastering the audio to get the best possible finished article - a task which can take considerably longer to get the knack of than most who try anticipate. However, even with a very good working knowledge of sound engineering, most musicians find it almost impossible to be a good sound engineer and be a creative, expression filled performing musician at the same time and often their performance will suffer because they are trying to be technical on the one hand, concentrating on mic placement, compressors, FX, EQ, Limiters, etc etc whilst trying to muster up a musical performance worthy of their musical project.

Is there a middle ground option between high cost studio based recording and relatively low cost D.I.Y. recording?

I plan to offer mobile high quality audio and sound engineering in situ in the comfort of your own home / rehearsal space environment or at a venue for a live performance with further off premises audio mixing & mastering for the best possible results at a greatly reduced price to that of the tradition recording studio.

1) What involvement (if any) do you have with music or audio? I am a...
Musician / Singer / Venue Manager / Festival Organiser / Other (please specify)

2) If you have ever had recordings made in a professional recording studio please indicate which of the following most accurately describes your experience.
Perfect / Expensive / Performance suffered due to unfamiliar surroundings or "clock-watching" / Engineer's vision different from your own / Didn't receive raw audio files, only a mix

3) If you have ever used recording equipment to record at home, at a rehearsal space or at a live venue please indicate which of the following most accurately describes your experience.
Perfect / Disappointing audio results / Difficulty using equipment & performing together

4) Do you have now, or can you envision in the near future, a need or desire to have audio (your music, speech etc...) digitally recorded & mastered for the purpose of, for example, a music demo or commercial recording etc?
YES / NO

5) What price would you consider good value for money for a recording session with a qualified and experienced sound engineer using hi-spec digital equipment at your home / rehearsal space? (per hour)

6) What price would you consider good value for money for mastering of individual tracks by an qualified and experienced sound engineer ? (per track).

7) Please place the following in order of importance to you when considering recording (1 being most important and 5 being least important)
Audio Quality [ ] Friendly & Relaxed Atmosphere [ ] Value For Money [ ] A Great Final Mix [ ]
Equipment Spec [ ]

8) Please indicate if there are any services or advantages that any Audio Recording company could have that would persuade you to use them as opposed to any other company?

Thank You

fitz

flyingdoctor72 wrote: »

Hiya,

I'm currently attempting to get a business plan organised so I can set up a small mobile recording business. As part of the market research stage I have knocked up a short survey/questionnare aimed at musicians (and those that may be involved in music in any capacity) so I can have some statistics ready for my "Business Mentor Clinic" meeting in a couple of weeks and hopefully convince the money men that my idea is worthy of a grant.

I'd be grateful if you could spare me 2 minutes of your time to have a crack at the questions. There is no need to answer ANY question that you do not wish to or is irrelevant to you, and a reply in ANY format or manner will do and even one single question answered from you will be of help to me. I will NOT be keeping any data particular to any individual (who answered what etc...) this is purely to generate some statistics and hopefully show the money men that my idea is a good one and that there is a demand for a service like this.

Thanks a million

I apologise in advance as there maybe a better way of presenting this but being a relative rookie on boards.ie I'm not aware of a better way.

Questionnaire


All musicians/performers will inevitably wish to have high quality recordings of their talents at some stage of their "career", be it for demo CD's, online web pages, commercial releases or just for private listening. Unfortunately, a relatively low percentage find they have the financial means to approach a professional recording studio with the aim of turning that wish into reality. The usual course of action in this situation is to purchase some equipment and attempt to record themselves at home or in their rehearsal space. Although this is usually (but not always!) the cheaper option it also presents its own problems - the most obvious of these difficulties being the degree of skill it takes to use this type of equipment to its maximum capabilities and achieve the highest quality sound recording as well as mixing and mastering the audio to get the best possible finished article - a task which can take considerably longer to get the knack of than most who try anticipate. However, even with a very good working knowledge of sound engineering, most musicians find it almost impossible to be a good sound engineer and be a creative, expression filled performing musician at the same time and often their performance will suffer because they are trying to be technical on the one hand, concentrating on mic placement, compressors, FX, EQ, Limiters, etc etc whilst trying to muster up a musical performance worthy of their musical project.

Is there a middle ground option between high cost studio based recording and relatively low cost D.I.Y. recording?

I plan to offer mobile high quality audio and sound engineering in situ in the comfort of your own home / rehearsal space environment or at a venue for a live performance with further off premises audio mixing & mastering for the best possible results at a greatly reduced price to that of the tradition recording studio.

1) What involvement (if any) do you have with music or audio? I am a...
Musician / Singer / Venue Manager / Festival Organiser / Other (please specify)

2) If you have ever had recordings made in a professional recording studio please indicate which of the following most accurately describes your experience.
Perfect / Expensive / Performance suffered due to unfamiliar surroundings or "clock-watching" / Engineer's vision different from your own / Didn't receive raw audio files, only a mix

3) If you have ever used recording equipment to record at home, at a rehearsal space or at a live venue please indicate which of the following most accurately describes your experience.
Perfect / Disappointing audio results / Difficulty using equipment & performing together

4) Do you have now, or can you envision in the near future, a need or desire to have audio (your music, speech etc...) digitally recorded & mastered for the purpose of, for example, a music demo or commercial recording etc?
YES / NO

5) What price would you consider good value for money for a recording session with a qualified and experienced sound engineer using hi-spec digital equipment at your home / rehearsal space? (per hour)

6) What price would you consider good value for money for mastering of individual tracks by an qualified and experienced sound engineer ? (per track).

7) Please place the following in order of importance to you when considering recording (1 being most important and 5 being least important)
Audio Quality [ ] Friendly & Relaxed Atmosphere [ ] Value For Money [ ] A Great Final Mix [ ]
Equipment Spec [ ]

8) Please indicate if there are any services or advantages that any Audio Recording company could have that would persuade you to use them as opposed to any other company?

Thank You

You'll probably get a better response by using surveymonkey or some other online survey tool...

Joe Doe

and a shorter survey, unless you're offering something in return for peoples time.

Most folks have the ability/basic equipment to fire up some software and record/mix-down to decent quality themselves.
Maybe the only really tricky thing is perhaps drum kits and soundproofing of such.