Jayhell wrote:
My band seriously needs to record some of our tracks and I'm so gatvol for trying to record them myself in the little time we have. Where is a good studio in West JHB
Specific studios, I'm not sure, but I'd probably PM Arno (I'm not sure if he's recording others, but worth asking) or OneDayClint (who advertises as Watts Productions in the classifieds) and see what they can do for you.
and how much does a track go for these days?
Most pro studios charge for time rather than per song, and rates vary widely depending on the facilities available. It also depends on how well prepared you are, how fast you can work and how much you are willing to compromise for sake of speed. You have to budget time for setup, tracking, mixing and mastering - and the first one depends on both you and the studio, while the second is mostly down to you. So really, your question is like asking "how long is a piece of string?" or "how high is up?".
I've always found the best approach is to try and set your budget first and then start approaching studios for rates. Get an idea of how much time you can afford.
The classic mistake everyone makes is by thinking "well, each song is three minutes long, so we should be able to record a CD's worth in an hour". ? I'm usually happy if I can get
a drum sound on the first 8 hour day (if you don't have a good drum sound, you have
nothing, IMO). Then again,
if there is a properly and permanently set up studio kit (that the drummer is happy playing as-is) and
if the drummer can nail his performance in one or two takes, and
if the band can play through all the songs together from beginning to end without major mistakes, I'd expect to have an album's worth of drum tracks and the scratch tracks for the other instruments by the first day.
