starting a rehersal/recording studio

[neatobassman]

Alright, so me, my guitarist and his future brother in law want to start a rehersal/recording studio in their house. Acoustics are great in there and neighbors don't care too much abou the niose, or at least they don't say anything. We want to start it off as a rehersal spot and get a steady flow of bands and money, and just buy equipment for the recording part.

My question is what will we need. We know the basics (PA, computer, preamps, board, monitors...) but what are some things you guys personally love have that not many people use?

[10571z]

compressor you will NEED....
Plenty of head phones
and Just a good setup buy a nice desk for your computer and nice rack unit....
whats your budget..???

[neatobassman]

We don't really have a budget at the moment. It's just whatever you can buy, buy it at first. As soon as we start getting money flowing in from renting the time, we will have more of a budget.

[Tiger]

One of you go to college so you actually know how to use this shiny gear.

[10571z]

We don't really have a budget at the moment. It's just whatever you can buy, buy it at first. As soon as we start getting money flowing in from renting the time, we will have more of a budget.

i think it awsome that your doing this but have you thought it through how much money do you think your gunna make having 1 rehersal room??? your just making 1 room im guessing??? a good studio costs ALOT. Where my band recorderd they spent $200,000 on the studio.

[neatobassman]

i think it awsome that your doing this but have you thought it through how much money do you think your gunna make having 1 rehersal room??? your just making 1 room im guessing??? a good studio costs ALOT. Where my band recorderd they spent $200,000 on the studio.

Well the room isn't just going to be dedicated to bands practicing. We are planning on getting like 3 bands practicing like twice a week at first. I forget how much we are going to charge. And about the money for the studio stuff, we understand it's going to be a lot of money, but we don't need the best equipment (as of now). We just want to aim for small bands just trying to get themselves heard, so they wont be too picky. Also, there's a bunch of used stuff out there. lol. It's not going to happen over night. We plan on having everything in full swing(recording bands on a regular basis) in like 2-3 years.

[10571z]

i see. Your from California right so i guess theres plenty or bands???

[KKKKKocaine]

Alright, so me, my guitarist and his future brother in law want to start a rehersal/recording studio in their house. Acoustics are great in there and neighbors don't care too much abou the niose, or at least they don't say anything. We want to start it off as a rehersal spot and get a steady flow of bands and money, and just buy equipment for the recording part.

My question is what will we need. We know the basics (PA, computer, preamps, board, monitors...) but what are some things you guys personally love have that not many people use?

Just a note first. You probably won't make much money at all. From my experience most practice rooms struggle to get by.
If you don't already have a P.A., or even if you do. Why not just cut it out completely?
If you are willing to spend a little more time setting gear up then you can run everything through a 6 way headphone amp. Which gives the following advantages.

1. The amps don't have to be as loud and you have no P.A. cranked up that the bands might overload plus whilst the nieghbors don't mind now, when bands are in week after week, they might. The reduction in noise from using headphones might help this.

2. Bands can get a much better sound, better definition between instruments and suffer less hearing loss.

3. It's a unique selling point, Not many studios are doing this so this could win over part of the market.

4. You can tie it into the recording, offer bands two recording services.
A. The standard practice room recording, just pressing a record button in this case. The artists get a cheap recording, but it isn't really mixed beyond the soundcheck at the start.

B. A proper recording, or as close to one as your gear and expertise allow you.

Option A probably won't detract many sales from B as you already have the headphone amp set up. you can simply charge the band for the hire of the unit they'll record onto and let them handle it. So there's a contrast between that and the proper recordings.

A few more things. Check the tax laws in your area. If you're running this in your home you may have to pay extra tax or business tax.
Just remember to make a business plan, list your equipment budget and then calculate your monthly costs to see how much you'll need to earn to make it worthwhile.

One of you go to college so you actually know how to use this shiny gear.

College really isn't neccessary. I've spoken to alot of studio owners who didn't study anything about Music Technology in college. It helps but it's definately not neccessary, just buy some books by Paul White, find some good recording forums and articles on the internet and then experiment.
Alot of the time in college courses (like mine) you learn the majority of what you do on your own, not in lectures. After about 6 months of the course some students were still sketchy on their polar patterns, and when given a list of 4 AKG mic models they couldn't tell you which was the industry standard for bass drums.

[10571z]

i agree run it through headphones and maybe have a seperate drum room thats what my band did when we went to the studio. Its alot easier

[airborne50caliber]

Books Paul White.. so true.

[KKKKKocaine]

i agree run it through headphones and maybe have a seperate drum room thats what my band did when we went to the studio. Its alot easier

Or if a seperate drum room isn't availible, just buy some isopads, or other soundblocking pads which will drop the mic leakage.

[Striker62]

One of you go to college so you actually know how to use this shiny gear.
This unfortunely doesny always work... my friend went to college for this and blew 16000$ and dont know ****... Id say find a cheaper way. Once you research and get experience its way better than college. I do suppose which school you goto tho :)