Dry Hire rates?

[jeremyc]

Hello

I am just trying to work out how to price for a dry hire rate of the studio.

Can anyone suggest how to work this out?

I am a sole trader, so the studio is my primary income, I have been asked to give a price of the space and my gear for pre production without myself as engineer....

Do you use a percentage of what you would loose not having the studio available for your work?

any ideas would be awesome

Thanks

jeremy

[mylesgm]

Maybe you should consider it a paid holiday, far too few of those in this industry.

[Kurt]

People ask me that about my PA "What would it cost if we bring our own engineer?"
I answer, "The same, I come with it, and it comes with me." No-one's knocked it back yet...

I can't afford not to work but maybe you're doing better than me.

[gigpiglet]

depends on how you work things out.
kurt obvoiusly has a different set up to me for instance... i draw my income from a number of different places.
its BEST for me to not be there (so i can be somewhere else)

i price as the day rate, plus the engineer (and different engineers charge different amounts)
you will see others do the same (look at A sharps site for instance)

is the building/ gear/ everything paid for? do you have a lease to cover?
if its just a one off hire, and not what is going to be usually happening, just make up a number that you feel covers the above, and like someone else mentioned - have a few days off.

if you need to make repayments etc, then maybe look at it a bit more closely.

it is worth thinking about though, as there really is a "studio hire" and an "engineer fee" that are distinct as they simply are two different things (and depending on circumstances either of them can change along the way)

i can discount down my studio hire for a long hire/ close friend/ quiet week etc... but i can never discount down my time cause i am a busy man and its not worth it.

make sense?

[jeremyc]

Thanks so much for your replies

There is a studio hire rate that is applicable regardless, so that is the bass rate, I have added an equipment hire on top of that and come to a figure I feel comfortable with.

It is the first time I have been asked do quote on this, and luckily I have a paid gig outside of the studio in another studio that week as well.

I don't owe any money of the gear, with the biggest expense being insurance, equipment and public liability at the moment, so that extra for the equipment hire may cover some of that.

Thanks for your words of wisdom.

Jeremy

[Sammas]

It could go every which way I guess depending on how you and your studio operate.

How busy is the studio?
Is it your only income?
What happens if they want a 2 week dry hire?
What happens if they want to book another 2 weeks of dry hire in a months time after concluding this session?

Those are some things to consider. A lot of studios follow Kurt's approach for those reasons. The same, or slightly discounted rate regardless of whether they bring their own engineer or not. Either you are the engineer, or you are the assistant on those sessions. That way you won't go hungry if they take a large block of time. You won't kick yourself if a band wanted to book in a 5 day session with you as the engineer. And you are also there to help/keep on eye on your equipment, etc.

[gigpiglet]

if anyone wants big blocks of dry hire time - gigpiglet is the place!
its totally geared to do that (hires often of 1, 3 even 5 weeks)
huge control room that you could literally live in.
massive hang out spaces and full kitchen facilities.
keep it in mind if any of you need that kind of facility.

[DarkSky]

... And you are also there to help/keep on eye on your equipment, etc.

Yes -- unless every piece of gear is bog standard and bordering on indestructible (not to mention insured for full replacement value), there is no substitute for being there, IMO.

[ChrisW]

I work with the same engineer on most projects. So we are always booking studios minus engineer.
Many studios provide an engineer or assistant to help us get started, figure out any strange gear or routing, but if they hang around all day, or get too involved it gets in the way to be honest. Most times someone will pop their head in the door once an hour at most.