Want to showcase your band’s latest hit? Want to record an album? Just need some photos for the school yearbook? Here are some things we can do:
- Livestream your band’s performance
- Record your band for YouTube
- Record your band for an album release
- Photograph your band
List of Recording Engineers
Know a recording engineer with the expertise for band recording or photography? Contact us and we’ll add them to the list!
Buffa Music
Auckland based
Contact: Alexander Alford | https://buffamusic.com | alexander@buffamusic.com
- Live Streaming
- Recording – audio
- Recording – video
- Photography
- Location Recording
Dispersion Group
Auckland based
Contact: Luke Raymond | http://dispersion.co.nz
- Live Streaming
- Recording – audio
- Recording – video
- Photography
- Location Recording
Intense
Hawke’s Bay based
Contact: https://intense.net.nz
- Live Streaming
- Recording – video
- Location Recording
School of Music and Creative Media Production – Massey
Wellington based
Contact: James Coyle | J.Coyle@massey.ac.nz | creative.massey.ac.nz
- Live Streaming
- Recording – video
- Recording – audio
- Studio Recording
Swampshack Studio
New Plymouth based
Contact: Chris Foreman | http://www.swampshackstudio.co.nz
- Recording – video
- Recording – audio
- Studio and Location Recording
Things to think about when recording
Location, location, location
You’ll want to record your band in the best possible space. In acoustic recording (including bands and large ensembles) the acoustic of the room you perform in plays a huge role in the sound you’re going to get.
- Good Spaces
- Auckland Town Hall or Concert Chamber
- Auckland University Music Theatre
- Waikato University Theatre
- Massey University Studios, Wellington
- Auditoriums
- Theatres with a full stage and seating
- Bad Spaces
- School Halls
- School Gyms
- Music Classrooms
- Outside!! Also – many engineers will not record outside
Visually, bands look best in large theatre-style venues such as the town hall, with plenty of space on each side. A classroom may be convenient, but bear in mind it may not represent visually how you want your band to appear.
Time
When is a good time to record? In terms of the time of day, this will come down to when you have access to the recording venue, AND when your players can make it. Secondary considerations are traffic noise, and other background noise (is your venue next to a train station, for example, where you would want to avoid recording in rush hour?).
In terms of the bigger picture, we recommend recording at about the same time that you would typically play at something like the NZCBA Festival: give your band plenty of time to learn the music and to iron out ALL of the little details. Remember the recording day is for recording, not for troubleshooting and learning notes.
For some details on recording and setup time, look under the Cost heading.
Recording Checklist
You’ll know when your band is ready to record when:
- The band sounds perfectly in tune at all times
- The band plays together at the desired tempo
- The band plays with very clean, consistent dynamics
- The players are comfortable with the music
Cost
Cost is often a bit awkward to talk about. Chances are you’ll be paying industry professionals for their time, equipment, and expertise. Below are a couple of illustrative samples of timing and therefore cost. This will vary and will depend on your specific setup and the recording engineer’s fee schedule.
Some engineers will charge a flat rate; others will charge to cover equipment and time. In the industry, a standard fee is 1 – 2% of the cost of the equipment used. The sample table below gives an indication of the sort of price ranges you might expect – and remember these are illustrative only based on a range of criteria – the studio or engineer you contact will likely have their own fee schedule.
Some engineers and studios will acknowledge the community-based nature of concert bands, and may give a discount on this basis. Doing so is entirely up to the engineer in question, but it can’t hurt to ask – the worst that can happen is that they are unable to provide a discount, and charge full rates.
Basic Recording
Let’s say we’re recording a 20-minute programme.
Please note numbers in this illustrative example are not indicative of any one company’s fee schedule and do not constitute a quote in any way. Your recording is unique, and as such every recording’s fees are negotiated between your band and the engineers.
- There are two total costs involved; Fixed Costs which typically amounts to 1 – 2% of the total value of the equipment used in a session; and Time Costs which involves paying the industry professional for their time, same as any other profession. These are broken down below:
- Fixed Costs
- A recording engineer will typically bring the following to a session:
- Microphones: $1,000 – $5,000
- Microphone Preamps: $2,000 – $6,000
- Camera Equipment if recording video: $1,000 – $30,000 (no, this is not a typo)
- 1% of this comes to between $40 and $400 depending on the quality and amount of equipment used.
- A recording engineer will typically bring the following to a session:
- Time – Fees
- Standard rates are between $50 and $90 per hour, per person.
- Allow at least 1h for setup: this will typically include a main set of microphones, additional microphones as needed, and a camera (or more than one camera).
- Typically allow three full takes with fixes and adjustments in between. One minute of music will require at least 5 minutes of recording, so allow 5x the length of your programme to record, and round up to the next hour.
- Packdown doesn’t often take very long – anywhere between 30 and 90 minutes.
- Post-Production will vary depending on your desired outcome – an archive recording will typically be a nominal fee, while a polished release will require several hours of intensive work.
- Total – time may vary between 6 and 12 hours including setup and packdown = between $300 and $1000 in personnel fees for one person.
- Total: About $350 to $2000 + GST for a simple recording – plus travel expenses and so on, same as any other profession. If you are recording for an archive or just as a reference recording you may be able to reduce the fee further.
Detailed Video or Streaming
Let’s say we’re recording a 20 minute programme with individual microphones, or streaming.
Please note numbers in this illustrative example are not indicative of any one company’s fee schedule and do not constitute a quote in any way. Your recording is unique, and as such every recording’s fees are negotiated between your band and the engineers.
- As per the example above, there are two main costs for a big recording (including video) or livestream – 1 – 2% of equipment costs, plus paying the engineer(s) for their time. These are detailed below:
- Fixed Costs
- A recording engineer will typically bring the following to a large session or livestream – their fee is often 1 – 1.5%. There is a lot of variability in what engineers will bring to a session depending on the requirements for that particular ensemble.
- Many microphones: $6,000 – $20,000
- Microphone Preamps: $2,000 – $12,000
- Mixer (if a live stream): $1,000 – $5,000
- Camera Equipment: $5,000 – $45,000 (a high quality multicamera livestream is a very expensive thing to set up and run, for the engineer!)
- Lighting Equipment: $1,000 – $10,000
- 1% of this comes to somewhere between $150 and $1000 depending on the quality and amount of equipment used, and on the desired outcome.
- A recording engineer will typically bring the following to a large session or livestream – their fee is often 1 – 1.5%. There is a lot of variability in what engineers will bring to a session depending on the requirements for that particular ensemble.
- Time – Fees
- While recording may only include 1 person, a livestream may necessitate up to 10 people. An Auckland band livestreamed a 45-minute concert in 2021, and required 8 personnel to operate cameras, monitor audio, switch camera angles, and to cue camera and scene changes.
- Allow between 2 and 8 hours for setup: a big recording session or basic livestream will take a couple of hours to setup, while a big livestream may take a whole day or more.
- Before streaming or recording, allow an hour for sound and lighting checks – you may wish to use this time to rehearse with the band.
- A stream would typically run only as long as the programme – so a regular concert’s worth of material. We recommend no longer than an hour’s streaming – 45 minutes is a good length.
- A recording session would typically allow 5x the length of your programme – so to record 20 minutes of music, allow two hours of recording.
- Packdown may take between 30 minutes and 4 hours depending on the complexity of the stream or session.
- Post-production varies from none at all in a live stream, to 10 – 20 hours on a complicated mix with lots of visual cuts.
- Total – time may vary between 6 and 40 hours – so personnel fees may therefore run between $300 and $5,000 or more depending on the complexity of the stream or session.
- Total: Anywhere between $500 and upwards of $6,000 – each recording and stream is different, so check with your chosen engineer and they can put together a quote that is within your budget.