The Bitter Taste of Poor Workmanship Lasts Long After The Sweet Smell of a Cheap Deal

I remember reading “The Bitter Taste” on the side of a building a long time ago. When, as a young fella, I bought a cheap Japanese car jack for $10, when the Aussie one was $25 and regretted it almost immediately. I got it out to use one rainy Thursday night on the way to a gig and guess what... it didn’t bloody work!!

You know what, it’s not just the $10 jack that I wasted $10 on and had to pay $25 to get the dearer one anyway (therefore costing me $35), but the cab fare to the gig when the jack failed ($45), the extra time and effort getting my guitarist to give me a lift back to my car after the gig, getting home late, kicking myself – you know what – come to think of it – that bloody $10 jack just about ruined my whole life!

Let’s see what it costs to be in a band.

INSTRUMENTS – usually by the time a band is ready to do a decent demo or CD, you’ve bought your first instrument, sold it and bought a better one; same with the amp. For a guitar player, you’ve sold your 10 watt gorilla practice amp, that you thought sounded loud until you played with a drummer, now you’ve got a Marshall Stack.

So you’re down, say, $3000 for the amp + guitar and let’s say you’re a 4 piece band and all the other guys are like you = $12,000.

PRACTISE - OK, you used to practice in your bedroom till you got a drummer, so you moved to the garage, till your parents got bomb threats, so now you’re rehearsing at the rehearsal studio @ $60 per night once a week for say a year = $3,000.

PARENTS - Your Mum & Dad I’m sure will be involved in many forms of transportation, purchasing and printing of promo, including terrible attempts to make T-shirts with the band logo on them – over a 2-year period, let’s say $1,000 per family unit = $4,000.

RECORDING - Now, having done all of the above, if I said to you the next step to becoming the next “U2 or Coldplay” is to go to a mate’s place who has a bit of amateur recording gear, has a bit of experience, has recorded at least 2 bands, one of them with a kit of drums, but you can only record one at a time cause there’s only one room and 2 mics – would THAT sound like a great business plan after the money and time already invested?

A sad tale, but true folks – yeah – I know what you’re saying, we can’t afford to get a proper “Recording Studio”.

I’m saying you can’t afford NOT to go to a proper recording studio. Here’s why:

1. A Pro Recording Studio has great mics, great room, great gear and what happens is that you’ll sound GREAT – because of all this pro gear, the band will sound the best it will EVER sound up to that date.
   
   
2. The Producer/Engineer will give you a crash course in how to get better sounds out of your instrument. He’ll tune the drums, make some changes to your amp to improve the sound and will encourage, nurture and position you all to play the very best you can.
   
   
3. The songs will be mixed in a manner to make you sound like a band rather than 4 guys playing separately. Because of the experience of the guy mixing, he will bring a maturity to the sound of the band, you never thought you had!
   
   
4. You will learn more in that one day than in the last 6 months, that’s what you get when you hang around experience – who would you learn more from in a day – Nelson Mandela or Rove??

Conversely, your mate’s mate is learning off you – you think he’s cheap – he should be paying you – he’s the one getting the experience!!!

OK. So having spent your $19,000 over 4,000 hours collectively, what to do now for your first recording.

I suggest you record yourself as much and as best you can, get a few mics into the computer, get the family out of the house for a day and record and see what you sound like and made any improvements you can.

THEN

All go to 2 or 3 studios, meet the recording guy, pick the good one and book in for 1 day recording and 1 day mixing. Do 4-5 songs only and I guarantee you’ll be a better band, a stronger person and a more complete musician – I’ve seen it thousands of times – I’ve done it a thousand times.

The End Result... every day for a month, you'll put on you own CD and go YEAH, that sounds cool, it was worth it...

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

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