No good deed goes unpunished

I should add that the electric guitar he doesn’t like the sound of is a vintage Telecaster through a 1958 Gibson GA-40.

He also didn’t like the sound of KM84s through our API 1608 console on his $150 Fender acoustic guitar.

A few clients like that have passed through my doors. I cut one loose after a single session not too long ago and unfortunately he's been badmouthing me as much as possible to people I know over it..

But anyway, your client obviously has a vision for what they want, regardless if they have even tried to honestly describe it to you. That's more than I can say for a few clients I've had. Most just follow whatever their favorite band is doing at the time which leads to quickly changing minds.

I'd say that if you wanted to finish the session out as smoothly as possible, see if you can get the artist to really describe their vision in excruciating detail. They'll be forced to think about it while they're describing it and it's possible they'll think better of some decisions and at the very least you'll have verbal (record it) record of what they want so you can reference it to them when they change their minds.

Otherwise, it's a hard thing to realize that nobody really values other people's time when it comes to their money. They'll push for more in their favor until you say no.

Yeah, this is what happens with set fees. Sorry.

Hmmm.  I would have thought he would be thrilled to have finally captured, in all of its natural glory, exactly what a $150 Fender acoustic guitar sounds like.   But that’s just me.   

Well, a great recording of a sh!tty guitar is a great recording of a sh!tty guitar.....

S'OK. Just pass the damn jug!

And now you know to charge by the hour, if it’s a set fee it’s for x amount of time. The only ones who are worse than the set fee guys are the freebies! The worst freebie I ever did was a post project I got talked into doing for a medical school on what was to be a free training series on dealing with trauma incidents ( gee think the guilted me into that one?) turns out they were selling the videos! Well because I have never been a trusting sole my contract for such freebies includes a clause that if this free venture should be used for profit I get 5% of the gross. President of the med school said he would fight it in court, till of course I pointed out that I am far more sympathetic in the media, and nobody wanted the public to know they were charging $120 for each 30min video nor did the institutions paying want to know they told those involved it was to be free!

Im curious now.

I have a friend and a new potential client that Im going to probably do a lot of work for helping build an album for. What are you all ball park wise doing hourly? $20-25/hr? $30-35? $50? Im curious because for this kind of project I think I will want to charge hourly, but dont' know how to do it.

I do a day rate usually for freelance recording gigs assuming a 10 hour day. So $500 a day usually. If Im producing it's higher though.

Man, I don’t know anyone making near $80/hr in my market. There are seasoned pros (some with Grammys) charging like $350/day. I average $25-$35/hr depending on how the deal is structured. That’s for music work. I get $40/hour from podcasting clients.

Very true. Im just curious as to what people are charging per hour as I have not done that. But this thread shows a lot of good reasons as to why to do that. 


$350 a day? Every grammy/emmy winning engineer I've worked with charges WAY more than that. Over twice that for a day rate. Hell I was charging $300 a day just out of school. 

And interesting to see the Podcast gig paying more. Though i suppose that's not that surprising if I think about it. 


Haha not an ex friend. In fact he is the only other roommate I've ever had in my life other than my girlfriend. He'd a fantastic musician and composer. He is hoping to do most the recording or have friends record themselves, but wants me to mix/edit/master. 

I know how to do hourly haha I use Toggl for that but have never just charged an hourly rate, have been on day rates pretty much. Okay..i was hourly when I was basically an intern but that was $15/hr. 

Thanks for posting your numbers though, that is insightful for me to see. 


I think I'm feeling comfortable with a number around 40-50 for this project and going from there.






Another part is does anyone ever really try to get points for royalties ever? I know that's not very typically in the US, but certainly is in Europe right? 


Maybe I'll start another thread to discuss all of this. I think it is worth talking about. 

haha i do not. But I know if you that and over a lifetime of work can amount to something. 

And yes this is very true. He is aware of this already and one of the first things he talked to me about was separating business from friendships. He takes that seriously and have a good track record, to the point where other people who aren't good at doing that he doesn't work with. 

I would like to think a large majority of folks I've worked with I can still call my friend. If I can make it through classical chamber albums on good terms, I think i'll be okay haha 

My recording gigs at my place are $250 / 5 hour half day or $400 for 10 hour full day. I don't book time for less than a half day.

Mixing is flat rate of $200/song with 2 revisions. All tuning, comping, timing, etc is done during the hourly studio sessions and mixing is unattended on my own time. Each additional revision is $20/song and mastering is $50/song.