Average good recordings price

hotpickups

A big question and many variables but how much would you say a decent recording of 3 songs in one day would cost? I'm not talking about polishing a turd here. Just good quality separated recordings 

guitarfishbay

What do you mean by separated?  Tracking instruments separately?  What genre and what do you mean by 'good quality'?

At the end of the day you'll probably be buying a day's worth of time from a studio which could be anything from £150-300, or more or less depending on where in the country and the person in question.  Whether it's possible to do 3 multi tracked good quality recordings in one day depends on a huge number of variables.  If you're going for a sound similar to what you can perform then sure, if you're going for a big layered up production with loads of vocal harmonies and super tight instruments even one finished song a day can be fast.

hotpickups

Layered instruments so no bleed from other instruments. So we can edit if we choose . 5 piece wanting to crest a very good live type sound etc

Danny1969

Studio time is generally charged per hour, so how much you get done in a day depends largely on how well prepared the material is and how rehearsed the band is at playing those songs. 

I've had days in the studio where it was all day on one song. Other days polished bands would come on and do an album in one day by all playing live in the morning then layering vocals and solo's in the afternoon

Mixing is another thing mind ... a lot of guys including myself won't mix on the same say as tracking ... it's too hard on the ears

The isolation you get when recording depends largely on the size of the room and the techniques used .... I could generally get quite good isolation with very little bleed but we had a large live room, in smaller rooms it's a lot harder. 

AvalonAndy

I'm assuming you will be recording and mixing in the same day.

I'd recommend taking a whole day for a single song, particularly with a 5-piece. If you were doing a live recording, you could perhaps get 2 or 3 songs recorded well (though not recorded AND mixed), depending on the reliability of your band members.

If it were me, i would be recording 1 song if recorded and mixed in one day, or 2 songs if you're recording to mix later.

The best studios i have used generally charge approx 300 per day.

Funkfingers

hotpickups said:

Layered instruments so no bleed from other instruments. So we can edit if we choose . 5 piece wanting to create a very good live type sound etc

I see a fundamental contradiction here.

I understand why you want minimal bleed across instrument tracks but, in attaining maximum audio separation, you will be killing off the real time interaction that brings about a live feel in the first instance. 

As for editing, if you need to excise one particular instrument in the song arrangement, the odds are that the entire section is lousy anyway.

In your position, I would want to record in a venue with good isolation for the drums and singer(s). The things most likely to go noticeably wrong are the vocals and instrumental solos. The obvious solution is to leave the "proper" versions of those until the overdubbing phase. 

You still need the singer to sing a guide vocal when the backing track is recorded. You never know, the bugger might turn in a unexpectedly good performance because the pressure was off.

hotpickups

Funkfingers said:

hotpickups said:

Layered instruments so no bleed from other instruments. So we can edit if we choose . 5 piece wanting to create a very good live type sound etc

I see a fundamental contradiction here.

I understand why you want minimal bleed across instrument tracks but, in attaining maximum audio separation, you will be killing off the real time interaction that brings about a live feel in the first instance. 

As for editing, if you need to excise one particular instrument in the song arrangement, the odds are that the entire section is lousy anyway.

In your position, I would want to record in a venue with good isolation for the drums and singer(s). The things most likely to go noticeably wrong are the vocals and instrumental solos. The obvious solution is to leave the "proper" versions of those until the overdubbing phase. 

You still need the singer to sing a guide vocal when the backing track is recorded. You never know, the bugger might turn in a unexpectedly good performance because the pressure was off.

Yeah I've spoken to a sound engineer and he has suggested what you said. He prefers a live performance too and can isolate some instruments in doing so but there will be a little bleed but not much to notice really. It was just so good to have been able  to take off the sax on our last recordings and put a guitar solo in it's place easily. As long as that is covered for the possible future I'm happy