Those who are involved in the music industry and have a certain weight in it should take on the task of creating their own recording studio. Otherwise, finding clients will be difficult.
Equipping a studio for professional recording of classical music or top pop artists costs several tens of millions of dollars. You can open a mid-range studio with one or three control rooms for several million rubles. It is suitable for working with musical groups, for recording advertisements, congratulations, audio books, etc. Some of the premises can be rented out as a rehearsal base.
An hour of work in such a studio for musicians usually costs from 600 to 1,000 rubles; mixing will cost more, 2,500-5,000 rubles. Recording audiobooks is an even more profitable activity: you can earn from 8,000 rubles per hour. Additional services like restoration of old recordings can increase turnover. If the workload is good, a recording studio with one control room can have revenue in the amount of 300,000-500,000 rubles per month.
Room
It is better to place a recording studio in a brick rather than a reinforced concrete building: brick reflects sound better. Houses located near railways, above subway lines, near fire stations, police stations and cell towers should be avoided: these objects create noise and interference that may be noticeable in the recording. A studio can be located on any floor of a building; often basements and semi-basements are chosen for studios so that there are fewer neighbors. You should pay attention to the ceiling height: acoustics experts believe that the minimum ceiling height in a studio should be three meters.
Musicians often come to recording sessions with their bulky equipment in cars, so it is advisable to have parking near the studio. To work, you will need two adjacent rooms: a control room (equipment room) - here a sound engineer monitors the recording process - and a tone room where the artists are located. The size of the first room is from 20 m2 to 50 m2, the size of the room for musicians depends on which groups will become clients of the studio. It would also be worth making a small rest room. Since the location of the studio is not so important, you can save on rent by renting a room not in the city center. It can cost from 50,000 to 150,000 rubles per month.
Repair
The recording studio will require serious renovation. Firstly, due to the many electrical appliances, you will have to install reliable wiring. Secondly, you will need to seriously consider soundproofing so as not to disturb your neighbors and so that your neighbors do not disturb you. It is believed that the optimal level of sound insulation is 80-90 decibels.
For sound insulation, cement bonded particle board, mineral wool, and plasterboard are used. For 20 m2, you will need to purchase material for 100,000-150,000 rubles, excluding labor. You will need to cut a window in the wall separating the control room from the recording room so that the sound engineer and artists can see each other and exchange lines.
Documentation
All changes to the structure of the building, including the creation of a hole in the wall, will have to be approved by the BTI. In fact, to start activities, you only need documents from the tax office about the registration of the enterprise. The fire inspectorate will check the materials used in the finishing for compliance with fire safety standards. The room will need to be treated with a fire-retardant coating.
Other expenses
Staff
You will need a good sound engineer who can help with the choice of equipment and will work with the musicians. We also need an administrator to record artists and maintain order in the studio, and a cleaning lady. Personnel costs can amount to approximately 200,000 rubles per month, most of which will go to the sound engineer.
There is an opinion that any computer manufactured after 2001 is suitable for creating music. This opinion is partially justified: all modern PCs can handle multi-channel recording. But there are some nuances.First, you need to decide on the dimensions of the device. If you expect to use your computer for live performances or plan to make music outside of your room, then a laptop may be a better choice. If you don’t have such prospects in front of you, we advise you to opt for a desktop computer with a large monitor.
Imagine your browser with a couple of dozen tabs that you need to quickly switch between. Uncomfortable? With music software it will be even more inconvenient. The interface of programs for recording and processing audio includes a bunch of buttons and controls, and plug-in windows overlap each other.
This is what the image on a sound engineer’s monitor sometimes looks like. musicradar.com
Choice operating system is also important. Decent software is everywhere, but not all programs are cross-platform. So, if you like the Logic Pro X sequencer, then you should choose a computer running macOS.
pay attention to RAM computer. Experts recommend a volume of at least 8 GB. However, even here you need to proceed from the needs of the specific user. Installing the software on an SSD will also improve performance.
How to choose a sound card?
The advisability of buying a new sound card instead of the built-in one is beyond doubt if you plan to play music seriously. The characteristics of built-in audio cards are usually sufficient for games and movies, but for comfortable work with sound you will need a special device.
Pay attention to the number of input channels of the sound card. The number of instruments that you can connect simultaneously will depend on it. As a rule, 2–4 inputs are sufficient for home recording, so we will not consider the segment expensive devices for multi-channel recording.
Also an important factor when purchasing is the presence of phantom power on board the audio card. Additional power to the connected device is required if you are using a condenser microphone.
djshop.by
A USB audio card with an instrument and two line inputs, as well as an XLR connector. There is a control for mixing the signal from the computer to the sound of connected instruments. There are also significant drawbacks: there is no phantom power and no separate headphone volume control.
focusrite.com
An inexpensive sound card with a nice design, microphone preamps, phantom power and direct audio monitoring that eliminates latency.
rolandmusic.ru
Sound card from Roland with three inputs and phantom power on board.
ek.ua
This sound card boasts minimal latency and excellent performance with both live audio and MIDI. Has two inputs with phantom power.
The listed audio cards are good for starting to work with sound and get acquainted with the basics of mixing. And choosing a professional card in higher price segments is a question that could be the subject of more than one article.
What speakers are needed for mixing music?
The preferences of music lovers when choosing home acoustics can vary greatly. The choice of studio monitors is also purely individual, but in this case it is determined by the musical styles in which you plan to create.
Remember that monitors for mixing music are not necessarily acoustics for listening to it. The main criterion when choosing studio speakers is their objectivity. High detail of the entire frequency range will help you hear inaccuracies in the mix, which can be smoothed out by speakers with various enhancers.
The sound we hear is not only the speakers, but also the space in which we are. If you don't plan to pay attention to the acoustic properties of the room, then purchasing monitors that cost thousands of dollars is not practical.
And don’t rush to throw away your old Geniuses. You can invest a lot of money in purchasing acoustics, but most listeners are content with just anything: built-in laptop speakers, inexpensive vacuum headphones, and even a speaker in a smartphone. You need to achieve good sound even on frankly bad media, so use the full range of available devices different classes for testing.
mackie.com
A budget option for those who are very strapped for money.
pioneer-online.ru
Inexpensive monitors with a nice design.
decks.co.uk
High-quality studio monitors with deep bass.
Please note that monitors of acceptable quality are usually sold not as a set, but one at a time.
What about headphones?
When purchasing headphones, do not forget to try them on. Mixing is a painstaking process that requires many hours of work, so convenience is key.
Make a list of headphones that you like and compare their frequency response (this information can be found on the Internet): the sound should be as smooth as possible at the frequencies involved.
mycroft.su
Inexpensive open-back headphones with neutral sound.
music-produktiv.ru
Closed headphones with velor ear pads. They have a nice design and balanced sound with emphasized high frequencies.
amazon.com
Open-back headphones with a pleasant design and natural neutral sound.
What is a DAW program and why is it needed?
DAW (eng. digital audio workstation) - digital audio workstation. It sounds complicated, but in reality everything is much simpler. A DAW is a software environment in which you record and edit your music.
FL Studio, Cubase, Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, Reaper, Ableton Live, Nuendo - the most famous representatives a number of DAW programs, also called sequencers. It is worth noting that the choice of software environment is no less individual than the choice of suitable headphones. In any of the listed sequencers, you can create music of acceptable quality, and here everyone should proceed from their own preferences. Download free demos, try them out and choose the DAW program that's right for you.
Image-Line FL Studio 12. image-line.com
A sequencer program with an intuitive interface. Great for creating and processing parts of virtual instruments, but the live recording function in FL Studio is not very convenient.
Ableton Live 9.2.2. ruprograms.com
Ableton was created as a program for live performance, but has become one of the most popular sequencers with intuitive controls, flexible settings and acceptable quality built-in processing tools.
Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X. macworld.com
Switching to Logic is a natural evolutionary step for advanced GarageBand users. It comes with cool software synthesizers and effects as standard. Logic Pro X is a little more difficult to understand than Ableton, but avid users say it's worth it.
The keyboard and mouse are not comfortable enough input devices when it comes to programs for creating music. Of course, no one forbids typing notes and registering automation of effects using the mouse, but this is not very convenient. Create effective communication MIDI controllers will help between the musician and the computer.
samsontech.com
A simple 32-key MIDI keyboard.
akaipro.com
Two-octave MIDI synthesizer with assignable knobs and programmable pads. It will cope with the role of a simple keyboard and drum machine, and will simplify the setup of effects automation.
m-audio.com
Five-octave MIDI keyboard for those who don't like stripped-down versions of keyboard instruments.
MIDI to USB cable
www.aliexpress.com
Perhaps you already have a budget self-playing synthesizer. Many of these inexpensive Casios have a 5-pin MIDI interface. To connect the synthesizer to a computer, an inexpensive cable from AliExpress is suitable.
How to use VST and VSTi plugins?
Our DAW program is just a shell. To make it sound, you will need to install virtual musical instruments, called VSTi. Modern VSTi plugins are able to reproduce the sound of both synthetic and live instruments with a sufficient degree of realism. The number of plugins is in the thousands, but we will focus on the most popular ones.
Native Instruments Massive
A large-sized synthesizer with hundreds of presets on board. We especially love musicians working in electronic dance genres.
LennarDigital Sylenth1
A synthesizer that is not distinguished by external sophistication, but has gained the love of users for its sound, which can sometimes be confused with the sound of real analog synthesizers.
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2
One of the best virtual live drum emulators. Presets of popular drum machines are also available.
To process both virtual and live instruments, we will need additionally installed effects - VST plugins. Their choice is no less wide, but we will give only a few of them as an example.
Antares Auto-Tune EFX 3
A plugin for those whose love for singing is incommensurably higher than the ability to hit the notes. Auto-Tune helps clear out false notes from a track by stretching them to the nearest correct ones.
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5
A must-have plugin for any guitarist. With Guitar Rig you can emulate not only guitar overdrive, but also various modulation effects or entire cabinets.
iZotope Ozone 7
Plugin for mastering - post-processing of a mixed composition. For those who find the interface too complicated, there are dozens of presets with optimal settings for different styles music.
What to do next?
We've covered the basic equipment for your home recording studio. At this stage you can start creating. The number and variety of staff that you can add to your studio is limited only by your means and imagination.
Remember that quality devices and musical instruments can be used for decades, and musicians are people subject to a constant desire to update their equipment. On specialized forums and in VKontakte groups you will find not only communication with like-minded people, but also many offers for buying and selling musical equipment. This will help you save a lot when setting up a home recording studio.
Creating your own recording studio is only possible for those who are truly closely connected with creativity and involved in business in the music industry. Otherwise, the business organizer at the initial stage risks being left without clients, who are so necessary for promotion and going beyond the payback point of the business. But not everything is so sad, if you are drawn to creativity and have a desire to start your own business, you can try to create a profitable recording studio.
For reference
Fully equipping a studio intended for professional recording of any type of music will cost the organizer (or investor) tens of millions of rubles. Of course, this does not suit us; we are considering a small business. So, you can open a studio in the middle segment of the market, including 1-3 control rooms, for a couple of million rubles. At such a studio, you can carry out all kinds of work with groups of musicians, record announcements and advertisements for companies and individuals, congratulations, original audio books, etc.On average, it is believed that an hour of work in the studio costs clients from 500 to 1000 rubles, and mixing costs up to 5000 rubles. A regular sound recording of an author's audiobook costs from 7,000 rubles. We would like to note that under normal workload on a monthly basis, a studio that has one equipment room and a rehearsal room can generate income open enterprise in the amount of up to 500 thousand rubles.
Highlights of opening a recording studio
Selecting a room
According to the recommendations of experts, it is worth placing a recording studio only in a building built using brick technology, but not in a reinforced concrete one. The territorial location must meet the requirements for noise immunity and noise level. In other words, you should avoid the proximity of such objects as:
- Railway lines.
- Metropolitan.
- Buildings of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the RF Armed Forces and hospitals.
- Radio and cell phone towers.
You can locate a studio on almost any floor, but don’t forget about the factor - the fewer neighbors, the better and quieter it is. Experts recommend choosing basement or semi-basement premises with a ceiling height of at least 3 meters.
It's worth considering the fact that most bands come to record in minibuses or vans packed with a lot of equipment, so nearby parking lots will come in handy.
The room should be divided into two main components:
- Equipment room. It is also a control room, where a sound engineer sits at the head and carries out the sound recording process. The most suitable size is up to 50 square meters.
- Tone-hall. A room where artists, musicians and others work. There is no single room size, but successful people recommend basing it on the number of participants in the potential teams with which the studio plans to start working.
Recording room renovation
A serious point that is worth paying close attention to is the renovation of a recording studio.The electrical wiring is all new and fair. As you understand, many electrical receivers require high-quality electrical wiring that can withstand significant loads.
Soundproofing. In order not to disturb your neighbors (if any) and so that no one bothers you, it is necessary to work out the issue related to the soundproofing of the room. You shouldn't save money on this. For reference, it is believed that normal level sound insulation varies between 80-90 dB.
Correct location of rooms. The control room and recording room should be adjacent and have a common window so that the sound engineer can see and communicate with the artists.
Business documentation
All structural changes to the premises must be approved by the technical inventory bureau. At the beginning of your activity, it is worth registering with government agencies (tax service) as an entrepreneur and receiving the entire set of documents from the tax service of your region. You will also have to undergo a fire inspection to ensure compliance with the requirements for premises according to fire safety standards.
Equipment
To make a sound recording you will need:- Professional microphone with filter.
- Combo amplifiers.
- Racks.
- Drum kit.
- Piano.
- Sound recording console.
- Monitors.
- Related equipment and accessories (connecting cords, voltage filters, splitters and much more).
Working staff
To operate the studio fully, you will need:It is worth knowing that during the crisis, the recording studios that won without concealment were dumping. Those studios that are located in their own home have grounds for dumping. Recording studios, which are located in large areas, have serious expensive equipment and high prices for the services provided (which are most often really high-quality), are doomed to losses and downtime.
This is due to the fact that the Russian music lover’s claims to sound quality are not at all high. He simply does not know what real high-quality sound is and why it is needed. In such cases, there is no point in paying more. There are also some rare music lovers who dream of recording in England and are thinking about how to open a recording studio, but they will not make a difference in the domestic market.
There is another circumstance that is important. Today, musicians themselves strive to get on the Internet, because they know for sure that sooner or later they will find themselves there with the help of pirates. It should be understood that the Internet and the quality of a musical recording are incompatible things.
Today, musicians still spend money on a CD, but they burn it right in the rehearsal room. At the same time, it will be good if not there, but in some small studio at home.
IN Russian Federation CD costs should be kept to a minimum. This is due to the fact that here music on various media serves as advertising glossy flyers that are handed out by girls and boys to passers-by on the street. The goal in this case is quite simple: to attract maximum amount audience to perform as part of a tour around the country or receive an invitation to a corporate event. It is worth knowing that the sale of discs not only brings absolutely no profit, but it is even unprofitable and can only be compensated by concerts. And now we need to ask the question: who in such conditions will think about high-quality recording sound?
Return to contents
How to open your own recording studio?
Those musicians who are still thinking about how to open their own studio will need to draw up a detailed business plan.
First of all, you need to understand that the most acceptable option would be to open a studio at home.
It became quite simple with the arrival digital technologies. The first advantage is the fact that there is no need to pay rent.
Return to contents
Recording studio space
As mentioned earlier, there is no point in opening a studio in huge areas with expensive professional equipment. All you need to do is open it at home. If there is no possibility or desire to open a studio in your apartment, it makes sense to think about finding the necessary premises and renting it.
It is worth noting that it is not at all necessary to choose a room that will be located in central region cities and have high traffic. Accommodation in a residential area of the city may be a good option. In addition, in such places the cost of renting premises will be much lower than in the city center.
The area for a sound recording studio will need to be small; approximately 20-30 square meters may be sufficient. meters. However, care must be taken to ensure that the room has good sound insulation. Otherwise, complaints may come from residents of the house.
Return to contents
Recording studio equipment
A recording studio business plan must include equipment costs. You will need to purchase the following:
- studio monitors;
- a computer with good power and a modern sound card;
- midi keyboard;
- several microphones;
- microphone stands;
- closed type headphones.
After this equipment has been purchased, you should proceed to preparing the studio.
You will need to install a special software on your computer software. An example would be Pro Tools. It's important to note that most musicians who want to save money make a fairly common mistake. It should be understood that all software must be licensed, including standard MS Office. This is necessary in order to bring the artist with his recordings to a fairly serious competitive market.
It is worth noting that paid programs may require additional expenditures of money, but professional licensed software will allow you to earn the trust of even the most picky client. In addition, the data computer programs have much greater functionality that allows you to record higher quality sound at a high level.
However, those entrepreneurs who do not want to spend extra money on purchasing licensed software should know that there are a number of programs on the Internet that are completely free, but legal. However, under no circumstances should you use pirated versions.
In order to purchase everything necessary equipment, the entrepreneur will need to spend approximately 150,000 rubles. Regarding employees, it is worth saying that one person can combine the duties of a composer, sound engineer and arranger.
One hour of recording studio work can cost from 500 rubles to 1000 rubles. Therefore, if an entrepreneur manages to find a sufficient number of clients, he will be able to receive a completely stable, albeit small, income. It is worth noting that such an income may be enough to live on.
Return to contents
Features of an unlockable recording studio
It is worth noting that each recording studio should have its own feature that will distinguish it from other possible competitors. In this case, it could be specialization by genre. Before starting work, the entrepreneur will need to decide what genre he plans to record in the studio he is opening: jazz, rock, chanson, rap, live instrument or electronic music. You will need to adjust your power to suit a certain style. It is impossible to record all styles at the same time, or the recording will be of very poor quality. Specialization must match the type of client. This can turn the newly opened recording studio into a kind of club hangout.
It is worth understanding that a recording studio is often not a separate independent business that can pay for itself, but an integral element of show business. In such a business, other elements cannot exist without it. However, he will not be able to feed himself. Therefore, if an entrepreneur has nothing to do with show business, there is no point in talking about any profitability of the sound recording studio he is opening.