For you old studio dogs....what do you consider to have been good investments?

[Di_Sousa]

I wouldn't consider Room Acoustics as a good investment, its something that has virtually zero resale value.

In terms of Financial analysis an investment is money you spend in something with the expectation that it will allow you to recover that amount after some time and then starting making profit after that, called the Breakeven point

If an investment depends on "resale" value or not it depends on your business and industry type.

In this case the business is a Service, being it "Recording" , "Mixing" , "Music Production" or Mastering, that business if successful doesn't depend on resale value at all.

So analyzing acoustic treatment:
- You will have a better sounding room were you can have a better judgment and make better choices  - your work will be better - more clients - more work - improved reputation - more money coming in - with enough money coming in you will be closer to achieve the breakeven point - when you achieve the breakeven point you start to make profit - then it's an investment

The old studio I worked in had great acoustics designed by Andy Munro, the room sounded great, the Speakers and the Sub were also really nice in that room, Our work was better because of that but there was another thing also, the clients loved to come out of the Live Room and listen the recorded sound in the Control Room, that would make everyone happy in the first day of recording when artists and musicians are really nervous, that would chill them out.
The fact that recording artists also enjoyed the acoustics there brought much more work into the studio an a reputation of a great sounding room that still persists to this day.


Some other pretty vague examples of investments that have no resale value:
- Education
- Fertilizers in Agriculture
- An Athlete buying lighter shoes for running the Marathon
- A company giving better conditions at work for their colaborators
- Going to the doctor when you're sick
- Using warm white light in your home  ;D

 

[user 37518]

So analyzing acoustic treatment:
- You will have a better sounding room were you can have a better judgment and make better choices  - your work will be better - more clients - more work - improved reputation - more money coming in - with enough money coming in you will be closer to achieve the breaking point - when you achieve the breaking point you start to make profit - then it's an investment

You are such an idealist if you think that chain of events will happen just because you have a better sounding room.

 

[scott2000]

My Sigma tile cutter....lol

 

[Di_Sousa]

You are such an idealist if you think that chain of events will happen just because you have a better sounding room.

I can only speak about my personal experience and my knowledge,
as a professional mixing and mastering engineer working on a room with decent acoustic treatment is detrimental to help me make better decisions and has a direct impact on the final quality of the service I provide.
The Service I provide is what pays my bills.

So yes, experience wise acoustic treatment is in my opinion one of the most important and one of the first invesmentments I would do in a studio, being it a recording, mastering or mixing studio.

 

[Mbira]

So yes, experience wise acoustic treatment is in my opinion one of the most important and one of the first invesmentments I would do in a studio, being it a recording, mastering or mixing studio.

Agreed. Not having proper room treatment means I can't do my job, so regardless of whether it is a "good investment", it is an essential business expense.  Also, room treatment has shown itself  to be one of the best bang for my buck.  Plus, if you build your own, it's a pretty forgiving material to move if needed.  I repurposed all of my treatment from my old space to my current space with minimal expense. 

The purpose of this post was to ask people what they considered good investments to themselves-not to argue about whether one persons good investment was actually a bad investment. 

 

[gyraf]

..headphones, coffee-machine, sofa. Whatever it takes to make clients feel comfortable is probably the best studio investments..

/Jakob E.

 

[Rochey]

..headphones, coffee-machine, sofa. Whatever it takes to make clients feel comfortable is probably the best studio investments..

/Jakob E.

Whatever makes them stay longer (at an hourly rate!) too

I guess it's a case of "tools that make you create a final product faster" mixed with "conveniences that make clients want to stay longer!"

 

[Mbira]

Whatever makes them stay longer (at an hourly rate!) too

I guess it's a case of "tools that make you create a final product faster" mixed with "conveniences that make clients want to stay longer!"

What are these "clients" that you speak of?

 

[Rochey]

well, we're talking abotu investments that help you make money.
one assumes that you make money by having clients.

Do we actually have people here that make a living recording and selling their own content?  8)

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Anybody with a keen business sense probably wouldn't pick  owning a recording studio as a  sure fire winner.  There are other business plans  that have a better chance of a good return on investment.
Do it because you love doing it.  Buy what you need to get it done.  You might come across a couple of bargains along the way... ? 
But the days of finding a Neve desk for £5K, a Neumann M49 for £1K are over. 

I wish I still had some of the stuff I snagged back in the '80's and '90's...    I'd be living by some idyllic  beach within a month or two 

 

[QUEEF BAG]

some good thoughts there my serious answer is quality mics-
if you don't turn sound energy into electrical energy in a graceful manner,
it won't matter what else you do down stream...you are phucked.


but why hasn't anyone said the one for sure winner?


buy the building

 

[C_F_H_13]

Two ways I would look at this...the actual value and the long term value for me as an engineer...and the answer is almost the same.

Outboard gear / microphones / studio toys all hold their value relatively well (for now), but the end is near for a lot of that stuff. People scoff at the newer modelling microphones, but these are all Gen 1....10 years from now you won't be able to tell a difference. Same with outboard, even now I think most people would be hard pressed to hear the difference between an 1176 and a plugin version in a blind test.

I think where the real long term value is in instruments / stuff your clients can play. I probably spend (well clients spend) more on rentals than we do on studio time or gear rentals. I bought a custom snare for myself a few years ago for personal use, and I've already paid for it twice over in "rental" income from friends borrowing it to record.

If someone handed me 100k to outfit an existing recording space now, I'd probably spend 25k on CPU/Interfaces/Pres, and the rest on drums/basses/guitars/amps/cabinets and microphones etc. I think the value of an artist being able to show up with nothing and be able to still have options from a tonal perspective is far more valuable than wondering if I should use a 1176 or a Distressor on a vocal. Even with microphones, I'd be hard pressed to spend 2800 dollars on a pair of coles 4038s when I could get two Townsend modeling mics for 3000 and have all the other options.

 

[Di_Sousa]

well, we're talking abotu investments that help you make money.
one assumes that you make money by having clients.

Do we actually have people here that make a living recording and selling their own content?  8)

I don't know what you mean,
but I make a living Mixing records and Mixing Live Shows and Mastering records. It's my job and what provides me income.
I don't do a lot of recording nowadays, it was a personal decision so I could concentrate more on mixing and mastering.

 

[remsouille]

You are such an idealist if you think that chain of events will happen just because you have a better sounding room.

well... he's damn right.

 

[dbelousov]

And if it does, they will still see it as a home-made affair.

The most famous pro-audio journalist in Russia refuses to compare "brand" converters with converters from one of our local companies. The company is, basically, a single person (as usual), and I know about converters enough to understand that it is a good staff. The journalist call it something like "home-made affair that isn't worth mentioning", the Russian synonymous for this idiom is ruder, though, and this opinion is based only on the "brand" bias. And the payments, of course. The journalist's understanding of the audio gear design is VERY limited, there are lots of stupid mistakes in his articles and... there is nobody in the comments who can point to them. And if somebody, occasionally, makes a point, nobody can understand them anyway

Thus, the only option is to invest in your brand, without it people just don't care. And the biggest luck is to be born in the US, the UK, Germany, e.t.c., where just the writing "Made in Countryname" makes your gear awesome)

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The most famous pro-audio journalist in Russia refuses to compare "brand" converters with converters from one of our local companies. The company is, basically, a single person (as usual), and I know about converters enough to understand that it is a good staff. The journalist call it something like "home-made affair that isn't worth mentioning", the Russian synonymous for this idiom is ruder, though, and this opinion is based only on the "brand" bias. And the payments, of course. The journalist's understanding of the audio gear design is VERY limited, there are lots of stupid mistakes in his articles and... there is nobody in the comments who can point to them. And if somebody, occasionally, makes a point, nobody can understand them anyway

Thus, the only option is to invest in your brand, without it people just don't care. And the biggest luck is to be born in the US, the UK, Germany, e.t.c., where just the writing "Made in Countryname" makes your gear awesome)

OTOH most clients don't care about the brand of converters. They often understand Neumann, Protools, Shure and most of them would be happy to see Bose on the monitors! 

 

[dbelousov]

Yes! The most valued part of my Neumann mics is the rhombus straight it the face of a client. Nobody even dares to question recordings what was made with them. My custom mics are better that my Neumanns, though, but I use them with the clients who I know for a long time only.

I made a test once and sent it to my fellow engineer. He showed it to his friend. That friend said to him, that it is impossible for some "ordinary guy" to make something better, than the almighty Neumanns, so game was rigged and I am a cheater and liar

 

[Rocinante]

A console. We use a DM2000 now but I loved the feeling of analog mixers and the act of moving the faders and knobs during mixdown. Its intimate. It's a very zen moment.  I am present. With the DM2000 I can route and recall but luckily at mixdown I leave the unautomated tweaks to myself to feel the music and mix. I find it refreshing.

 

[btyreman]

Gefell and Neumann mics, I think the U87ai is a classic workhorse mic, so is the UMT70S by gefell, monitoring, outboard gear that reduces time spent, nice preamps like neve,

using real hardware faders saves a lot of time, and using a kensington track ball instead of a mouse, making my own cables instead of buying them, and obviously acoustic treatment, I make my own bass traps and have even made several QRD style diffusers for my back wall.

 

[pucho812]

There is a story from an older studio owner who proclaimed his best investment for the studio was the ping pong table. His reasoning was the amout of billable hours people spent playing ping pong vs recording or mixing.