recording studios - what do you think ?

shabbyroad

What do you (as a musician/band/artist) dislike about recording studios ?
is it the cost ?
attitude of people working there ?
lack of experience ?
environment ?


and what do you like ?


if you've never used a studio what is the reason ?


please don't name specific studios (cos that's not nice !)

disclosure : I run a small recording studio - I also hire studios regularly so am curious to find out about other people's perceptions.

bombidol

I love going to the studio, love the way you have complete control over the way you sound and everyone is working towards the same goal. i think i prefer the smaller studios because the people are USUALLY nicer, but saying that ive been in a lot of the big name studios in Dublin too and most were friendly, also from my own experience the guys in the bigger studios tend to be at it longer and have an amazing ear, not to say that some of the guys in the smaller studios dont:)
I think the biggest problem with recording is the price, i understand money needs to be made but some places are priced absolutley mad, im a qualified sound engineer and ive worked in studios before so i understand the hours that go into a session but sometimes even that cant justify the prices i heard quoted.
I think another problem is hours, i was in the studio a few weeks ago and i had to take a few days off to do it as the weekend rate was too high, whats the story with a few overnight sessions, we used to do it all the time, you finish work, kip for a few hours, go to the studio, play and go and kip for a few hours then work! obviously there would be an extra charge involved in an all nighter but a lot of bands would chose that option over taking a few days off work, your losing money by being out of work and then you are paying out the arse for studio time. just some of my thoughts anyway

Shred

whats the story with a few overnight sessions

Overnight sessions suck ass, IMO. The band I play with started recording our album ( which still isn't finished:mad: ) on two overnight sessions (friday & saturday) in February. We did it because it was cheaper (in the end it only worked out being about €60 cheaper per night), but we all agree we'll never do them again.

We've been back in a few times during the day and the difference in performance is huge! You can hear it when you listen back to the tracks now. We just couldn't muster the energy at 4 or 5am and you can hear it (not that the tracks are in anyway dire, they just could've been a lot better/more energetic). It's worth the extra money to go in during the day.

Anyways, back on track. I've always enjoyed going into the studio, it's always been brilliant craic.
I suppose the cost would be my only complaint.
Everytime we go into the studio it costs us €500 - €340 for the studio and €160 for our engineer. We've spent about €2,500 on studio costs alone. Then we go over to our engineer's house regularly and do additional guitars/vocals/keys (using pro-tools) which is cheaper but we've still spent about €5000 - €6000 already without duplication etc:(

polarbelly

dislikes: cost to get quality

likes: pretty much everything else

Muppet Monarchy

Holy ****. You've spent 5/6k already ? Jeez looeez. What are you recording? Siamese Dream?