Save some money while building your studio

For my blog this month, I want  to talk about some potential ways to save some money if you are planning on owning and operating a studio. If you know anything about, or are involved in the recording industry, then you know that operating a recording studio in the capacity of music or film is a very costly investment. But what I personally feel that people don’t consider is that there are ways to save money in different areas. One example that could prove more cost effective is to only use the “traditional studio” for just the components that you may not be able to record inside your home or rental property such as drums or orchestral instruments. I’ve done a little research on studios in the Orlando area and what I’ve found is that some of the top studios have some pretty steep rates even the minimum can be as much as $1000. With some quality outboard gear and microphones you could potentially do an entire album in your own home. I think it would make better sense to use startup capital to focus on better equipment then to spend on facility costs, rent/mortgage, property taxes and a massive electric bill. For mix engineers this definitely applies. Just about every mix engineer that I know doesn’t operate out of a studio, but rather out of their home. It seems to be the most logical idea these days. Most mixing gear is compact and mobile anyway and  software and plugins are starting to sound identical to analog gear. However, where there is an advantage, there is usually a drawback. In this case, working from home with clients could cause concern for security. This definitely applies if you have a family and high dollar assets. Of course, this is all based off of my point of view and how what I have experienced from being in the recording industry.