Reviving a defunct recording studio

[MrTone]

Hello,

I was recently commissioned to revive a defunt recording studio and would like to hear and learn a few things from my SOS friends.

It's located in this huge (music) building. There are a few rehearsal studios and one of the rehearsal studios has a control room attached. But the control room hasn't been in use for 5 or 6 years now.

Just by glancing at it, I could see it once was mainly a demo/tracking studio. I didn't see any vintage analog console, outboard gear or tape machines. Instead, there was an old Mackie board and a few monitors like KRKs and a Whirlwind copper snake coiled up near the rat hole and stuff. So it was defintely a project/demo/trackig studio.

Luckily, all of the rooms are treated, professionally. So that's a relief.

I think I'm going to go DAWless on this one, for now. A digital mixer with built in SD Recorder. So I can record and do a quick board mix and give them the SD Card so they can upload it to their DAWs or bring it to their Mix Engineer. And then gradually add pieces like Mac, Audio Interface, Outboard gear...

What do you think?

[Wonks]

Is this a hobby or money-making exercise?

What other facilities does the building have? I presume nearby toilets, but what about coffee/tea/drinks machines. Easy parking?

You say 'professionally treated' but how do you know and what level of treatment is there? Are we talking proper wall-mounted sound absorbers and corner bass traps, or just a lot of thin pyramid foam absorbers? Is the treatment fire-resistant?

What is the sound like in the live room? What's it like in the control room? Have you done any acoustics testing?

How isolated is the room from the other rehearsal rooms? If you've got a young (or old) band next door with all amps set to 11, can you hear it, especially if someone opens the door to their room whilst they are playing? Not great if you are trying to record a solo acoustic guitar.

I'd start by thinking of why people would want to use your studio with just basic equipment available. What's stopping them from using another rehearsal room and using their own portable recorder? What's your own experience of recording bands and artists?

What sort of mics do you have already and what level of mic do you plan to offer? Backline? Drum kit? Keyboards?

If you are going to move to a DAW, then why do you want to spend money on outboard equipment? Margins are tight, so you need to spend money where it matters, rather than on what you'd like to see in a studio. Plug-ins are so much cheaper than hardware and so much more versatile. Need another compressor? Just load another example onto the track.

Have you thought of how you keep vocal mics sterilised and headphones clean?

Have you looked at liability and equipment insurance costs? Advertising? Booking system? Payment system?

[Wonks]

Also remember that this is a defunct recording studio. Find out why it went defunct! If there simply wasn't the custom required, and the studio had a decent reputation, then what makes you think you can do better?

Also think about opening hours. If you are aiming at amateur or semi-pro bands, then they'll want evening or weekend sessions if they can. They might be able to take a day off during the week, but how flexible are you on working hours? And don't underestimate how long it takes to get a decent mix together if you are providing that facility.

Portable recorders have limited editing facilities, and it's much easier to review multiple takes on a DAW than a mixer/recorder. It's fine if the band are good musicians and know their stuff, but most of the time they will be pretty awful, but you will get blamed if the mix sounds bad. Live, mistakes happen but on recordings, no-one wants to hear their mistake replayed every time they hear the track.

[tacitus]

It’s a money pit. You need some sort of USP and a sense of mission take on anything like this. The survival rate of any music enterprise is depressingly low, even in good times.

[Sam Spoons]

Hello,

I was recently commissioned to revive a defunt recording studio

What exactly do you mean by 'commissioned'?

[Watchmaker]

Ask yourself: what is the ratio of perceived sacrifice to realizable benefit.

For example, are you cool with long hours, lots of BS, very little - if any - gains in money or prestige and very likely a massive amount of frustration and despair as a sacrifice against the possibility of a whole new set of knowledge and skills plus community and friendships as reward, or are you in it for a buck?

[James Perrett]

I don't get the point of a DAW-less commercial studio these days. Even the analogue die-hards expect the kind of thing that can be done in a DAW these days.

And if someone wants a basic live recording they can just plug a memory stick into the rehearsal room's digital desk.

[MrTone]

I spotted a few typos but I don't know how to edit the post. Sorry.

They are in a hurry. I don't know why, but they want this to happen right away.

That's why I'm thinking about going DAW-less, FOR NOW. I can plug stuff in and make some noise NOW. I don't have to spend hours, if not days on installing/activating plugins and calibrating all ITB. I can add a Mac and an Audio Interface later.

Maybe?

[Arpangel]

I spotted a few typos but I don't know how to edit the post. Sorry.

They are in a hurry. I don't know why, but they want this to happen right away.

That's why I'm thinking about going DAW-less, FOR NOW. I can plug stuff in and make some noise NOW. I don't have to spend hours, if not days on installing/activating plugins and calibrating all ITB. I can add a Mac and an Audio Interface later.

Maybe?

Who are "they" and surely you should know why they are in such a hurry if you’ve been commissioned by them.
You could go out buy a computer load Reaper and you’re away, but you don’t mention anything about essentials, you’ve got a desk and some cable, what about mic's? monitors etc etc etc.

[Wonks]

Is good broadband available in the studio now, or can it be connected if not? You'll certainly need it in the future.

Haste isn't good when doing something like this. You haven't answered any of our questions yet, which probably means you don't know the answers.

I'd walk away from it or you'll get the blame when it all goes wrong.

[Wonks]

And if you are happy to use a mixer/recorder, then you should be just as happy to use a Mac and Logic and just use its standard plug-ins for now. There might be some other plug-ins you'd like in the future, but the standard ones will give you far more choice than any built-in effects on a mixer.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I think I'm going to go DAWless on this one, for now. A digital mixer with built in SD Recorder. So I can record and do a quick board mix and give them the SD Card so they can upload it to their DAWs or bring it to their Mix Engineer. And then gradually add pieces like Mac, Audio Interface, Outboard gear...

What do you think?

Does it matter what any one here thinks?

Technically, a digital mixer with multitrack card recorder will record stuff... at a basic level. So yes, it could work. Tick.

But the people you really need to ask are the potential clients.

Are there any?

And if there are, what would they be required to pay to use this revamped facility?

More importantly, what would they expect to receive for that payment in terms of facilities, engineering /production support, and time?

And do these sums add up to a viable business?

...not forgetting that a working 'studio' needs a lot more than a DAW-less recording console. You mentioned some old KRK monitors, which is a start, but you'll need a range of mics, cables, mic stands, acoustic gobos, headphones and headphone distribution systems, a talkback system, etc etc

Oh... and just as a heads-up: a facility where the rooms are "treated professionally" wouldn't have a "rat hole" for a multicore cable between control room and studio since that would severely compromise the acoustic isolation between the two rooms.

The rooms may be fitted with commercial acoustic products, and they might even sound good, but assuming the installation is 'professional' sounds quite a stretch.

Is there actually sufficient acoustic isolation between the rooms to be workable?

[James Perrett]

I don't have to spend hours, if not days on installing/activating plugins and calibrating all ITB.

It takes less than 5 minutes to download and install Reaper. It gives you all the tools you need to get going if you know what you are doing.

[Drew Stephenson]

I don't have to spend hours, if not days on installing/activating plugins and calibrating all ITB.

It takes less than 5 minutes to download and install Reaper. It gives you all the tools you need to get going if you know what you are doing.

I think this goes for most DAWs now, the quality of included plugins is generally superb, whether that's Cubase, Logic, Reaper or Ableton.
And if it's a space that other people are going to use, having 'vanilla' installs is probably more useful.

[ajay_m]

I would hazard a guess that while the conventional recording studio paradigm is arguably a bit niche now, having fairly decent acoustic environments that - hopefully - don't leak noise to the outside world - could be attractive for any bands that want to just rehearse. Obviously not a pile of money in that but if somehow you have acquired these premises really cheaply, they could have value in terms of being a 'space' for people to use.

The actual recording bit has to some extent been devalued these days as you could just rock up with a Wing Rack and a bunch of mics and cables and probably capture a pretty decent recording without the need for any on-premise infrastructure except toilets and a kitchen. You can then go back to your own home studio and do the post-production work there.

So I don't see any point in worrying about the actual infrastructure that might once have been installed in such a place, but this doesn't mean the actual acoustic environments aren't useful, just that people will 'bring their own' when recording. But this all comes down to the cost structure. You can't charge much, so you better not be paying a lot of rent either.

[Sam Spoons]

I spotted a few typos but I don't know how to edit the post. Sorry.

They are in a hurry. I don't know why, but they want this to happen right away.

That's why I'm thinking about going DAW-less, FOR NOW. I can plug stuff in and make some noise NOW. I don't have to spend hours, if not days on installing/activating plugins and calibrating all ITB. I can add a Mac and an Audio Interface later.

Maybe?

Much more info need MrTone of we are to give any useful advice (beyond "walk away"). For starters, are you being paid to do this?

[Simon Wheeler]

If you are committed to a DAW-less workflow maybe look at getting something like an Allen & Heath Qu-5.

It will multitrack record to SD card, but unlike a portastudio style recorder can also be useful in rehearsal spaces or for live stuff. Much more expensive than the solid state recorders though.

[Arpangel]

But the people you really need to ask are the potential clients.

Are there any?

One of thee most important questions.
Surely go with what most of your clients require, if you’ve got a client base who are into acoustic based country or hard core 50’s Rock n Roll their requirements are going to be different from electronic based R&B/Rap outfits, different again if your customers are Metal heads, different equipment/room priorities for all those people. Have you researched what the main type of music in your area tends to be if there is one, in the clubs bars etc, is there a trend for particular genres? and would people welcome a new studio?
There is such a thing as a general purpose studio, BUT! We are in the days of cheap home produced recordings that are good enough sometimes more than enough, that using a pro studio just isn’t necessary for a lot of people, so if you stand any chance of surviving these days, I think it’s important to target the market you are aiming, and get a reputation for being the go-to place for that type of music, if so what market are you aiming at? or are you planning to be a general purpose outfit? Very difficult place to be in, unless you’re offering something a cut above the competition, and that normally means better than average gear, things that people are prepared to pay for, vintage synths, classic outboard, Hammond organs Rhodes etc etc, but the investment for that is huge, plus, is the market there to get anywhere near getting your investment back?