What if You Could Practice in a Studio?

The idea is great. Locking yourself in the vocal booth writing your soul out on paper. The guitarist messing around with a riff that catches the interest of the producer and the engineer. The engineer hits the talk back button on the mixing board and says “What was that?” The guitarist says “Just something I was working on. “The producer says “Let’s lay it down.” Magically, the drummer has a beat for it. The bass player is on the same groove and the lead singer’s lyrics fit perfectly. Aren't those movies great? We see it in music videos with the behind the scenes footage. This has to be the way it’s done, right? Well, not really.

Recording studios cost money. It costs bands and artists money… Even when the record company owns the studio. Let’s say you were in the studio for a month (31 days) making your new album. That’s a pretty cool statement to declare. Now let’s say you weren't in the studio for 24 hours a day, more like an 8 hour block of time each day. The studio itself will cost $55 an hour. Your engineer is $35 hour, producer is $60 an hour. One hour of time in the studio costs $150. Multiply that by 8 hours and you have $1,200 per day for 31 days. You are looking at $37,200 to make your new album and that doesn't cover mixing or mastering; only tracking. Now how much of that money/time would you want to spend practicing? And this is a really cheap rate.

Yes, bigger bands have bigger budgets to pull this off with. When you get there, you’ll probably also have enough to build your own high quality recording studio. Until then, the garage, basement, bed room, car, storage shed, barn, etc. are pretty cheap (respectively) ways to practice and get thoughts, ideas, layout and harmonies down cold. So when you get in the studio, it’s all business.

Here is how to make it look like you were there for longer than you really were. Bring in someone to film your studio session. The producer will most likely recommend a change to a song. Whether it be an extra note or a different key or adjusting the tempo or even a change in lyrics. Record on film (or digital) the lead singer writing down an adjustments to the lyrics, video of the drummer, bass player, guitarist and so on doing sound checks, and film of the band members in the control room listening to tracking while waiting their turn. Add all that together into a video and it looks like you all were in there practicing and being high rollers in the music industry.

Pridek Studios is the perfect all-in-one source for doing just that and you don't even have to bring someone to film your studio session... it's all right there. And when it's all done, you’re now looking like a full-time professional artist. Just think of the buzz you can create, and then be part of Industry Night at Pridek Studios. Not only does it look as if you have been practicing and developing your song in a studio, but you are being asked to perform on a special event with the studio! Now that is a home run!