Living Illusion » Studio

Pro Studio Album Budget for Rock Music

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:30:06 +0000

Initially I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to post this or not, but in the end I decided I should. I wanted to let everyone know what it takes financially to do a high production studio album, and keep in mind this is just an EP. Maybe this will help other bands make decisions on what they choose to do and how they choose to spend they’re money. Either way here it is:

Living Illusion Suffering Album Budget
Studio/Producer: $7,500
Mixing: $2,700
Mastering: $2,400
CD Duplication: $2,200
Remixes: $700
Drummer: $600
Pre-Pro Jam Space: $600
Album Cover Art: $400
Hard Drives: $350
Album Layout Design: $300
Drum Skins: $200
Cello Player: $150
Barcode: $50

Subtotal: $18,150

Additional Expenses:
Marketing Videos (EPK, Suffering): $900
T-Shirt Artwork: $390
CD Release Party Live Drummer: $300
T-Shirts & Hoodies Printing: $1,500

Subtotal: $3,090

Total: $21,240

So there it is. That is the money that was actually spent on the album. Yah, there were some other costs in there that weren’t directly related to the album itself ie. T-Shirts, but that being said you get the gist of it. You roughly need 15 – 20k to do an album with high end production values.

Now I just need to find a way to pay it all off.

MUSIC IS FREE.

FML

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Acoustic Guitar & Vocal Tracking Video

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:32:37 +0000

Hey hey! I just finished editing and uploading the last of the videos from our long days at the studio. This video is of the acoustic guitar and vocal tracking sessions. I may go back and make one long video of everything all linked together and post that at some point, but for now at least all the content is finally up and I can cross it off my to do list!

To check out the video go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79XkxBDmo8Q

Also, our photo shoot went great on the weekend and we got some amazing shots that we will be posting once the new website launches.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/

The End is Nigh! Plus Bass Tracking Video :)

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:14:26 +0000

Dear god, after months and months of being in the studio the finish line is finally approaching. We’ve loved every moment of being in the studio and it will just be amazing to be done this mammoth of a project (and we can’t wait to start playing live again!). So it’s been a while since I’ve updated any thing but let me tell you I have been busy as all hell. I’ve been working my ass off to pay for this record so I don’t go into hella debt, it’s been an intense summer. Hitting the studio multiple times a week, working full time and working most weekends DJing or doing web development. I am in need of a vacation.

But hey, your not hear to listen to me bitch! So here’s a new video of the bass tracking sessions at the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSFFwnkhT6w

Our bass player for the record (and hopefully forever!!!) Dave Stoten (Owner, Producer and Engineer from Fail Safe Studios) rocked the bass like a master. Kevin Hoskin as always engineered the sessions. In the coming weeks I’ll have another video of the acoustic guitar session and of the vocal tracking sessions, just need more hours in the day to put it all together

Alright, back to work.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

The Wall of Sound aka Guitar Tracking!

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:59:45 +0000

Here’s a video from the guitar tracking sessions at Beta Sound. Kevin Hoskin (Our Engineer) and Nathan Kidd from Long Way Down (Our Assistant Engineer) set up the mics and teched the amps for the recording sessions. We recorded the amps so loud that we blew up the Marshall Plexi. I’d say we used a lot of amps, but I think the video speaks for itself.

And without further ado, here’s the video from the guitar sessions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhgtii48V0c

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Guitar Setup and Recording Has Begun!

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:17:22 +0000

So we’ve finally rigged up this massive lot of sweet guitar amps! We’re running a Mesa Boogie Rectifier, Marshall Plexi, Deizel VH4, Randall, Orange, Top Hat and a Burman, plus a couple more vintage tube amps. It’s going to be a massive wall of sound, and if you don’t know, yes we will be running all the amps at the same time. We’re shooting for 9 – 10 amps total, but even if we only use 7-8 it’s still going to sound amazing and freaking huge.

Today was basically a night of getting sounds, figuring out what the best sounds are from each amp and building their sound out to compliment each other. This is definitely the most exciting part of the recording process for me, seeing as I’m a guitarist that obviously makes sense. I am essentially tapping every amp resource I have available to make this possible and the fact that I got the Diezel amp is out of this world. Special thanks to Ryan Chipeniuk of Grounded Star for that one, YOU ROCK!

After we get all our sounds we’ll get started on recording rhythm guitar parts then do leads and overdubs later in the week. Any way, that’s all for now, I’ll post something next week of the guitar tracking. It’s going to take 7-10 days to get all the guitars done so I’ll have lots of pictures and possibly another cool video to post.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Drums for the New Album Sound Freaking Huge!

admin — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:48:17 +0000

Last weekend we recorded all the drum tracks for the new album. Kevin (Our Engineer) and Bill George the drummer from Portal spent their Friday night at the studio teching, tuning, and seating the drums for the Saturday recording session. They set up so many microphones on the drums, I swear there was over 24 mics set up… and some weird mics I had never even seen before (what the hell is a ball and biscuit mic!?). Needless to say their hard work paid off and the drums sound sick!

Props to Cal Beaudion (our drummer for the new record) who did an awesome job, he played drums like an animal and hammered through everything in one day, that guys a freaking machine! Also, a special thanks to Bill George for being our Drum Tech, and to Nate from Long Way Down for Assistant Engineering during the recording session. In the next couple days I’ll post some videos of Cal playing drums at the studio so you can get a feel for what the drums will be like on the new record.

Tomorrow I’m headed into the studio to hear all the edited drum tracks. We took a little break from the studio to give Kevin and Bill Kennedy some time to finish up the Order of Chaos and Chunk projects that are also on the go. It has been a good week of rest, was starting to burn out and get a little sick there for a while. Have to stay healthy and steer clear of the swine flu! LOL, hahaha.

Last, here’s a little video for you from the drum session day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvTzu5jz2o

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Recording Update – Tracking Starts Next Weekend!

admin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:34:12 +0000

After an intense month of pre-production at Beta Sound with Kevin we are finally ready to start tracking! These songs have gone through so many amazing changes and we’re all really excited for what’s to come. We have one more rehearsal / pre-production session then we’re replacing all the skins and teching the drums with Bill George from Portal in preparation for drum tracking. It’s going to be a damn good birthday weekend!

My life since we moved into the studio has essentially been, work and studio… now repeat that every day of the week (well almost every day). I must admit though, it’s not all working at the studio, we do work hard but we play hard too, even Dave at Fail Safe Studio (in the same building as Beta Sound) has been joining in all the partying and playoff hockey watching. It’s one big happy family there and were this months adopted children… who pay to be there… okay not quite adopted children, lol.

It’s just crazy to think that we’ve already been in the studio for almost a month, time has flown by so fast! We will have some more studio footage posted down the line, videos and lots of pictures, but for the time being we’re all really focused on getting our parts as tight as freaking possible for the excessive amounts of recording we’re going to be doing. We’re going to use 6 – 10 guitar amps per guitar, it’s going to be a massive WALL OF SOUND

I can’t even begin to explain the advantages of working in a real recording studio. From the gear to the expertise, recording at Beta Sound has been a huge blessing, and we haven’t even started tracking yet! I can’t wait to hear the finished product, I’m going to be bouncing off the walls when we finally get to release this album and play our CD release party.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned much about the record itself yet in any of my blogs so here’s a litte rundown. We are still working on the track names for a couple songs but as it stands, we are recording a 6 song EP, 5 full band (guitars, drums, bass, vocals) and 1 acoustic track with some orchestral instruments. We have high hopes for the record, but with that being said we’re all doing it for our love and desire to play and write music.

Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Studio Sessions – Pre Production

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:30:08 +0000

Here’s the second of many quick little videos that we’ll be making at the studio during pre production. The pictures in the video were takin while we were hammering out song arrangements and working out all the tempos for the new tracks. Being at the studio is addictive and every thing is going really really well. I can’t wait til we start tracking drums sometime in the next 2 weeks here! Finally a new album is coming, it’s about freaking time!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuWnTVYqPs8[/youtube]

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Studio Sessions – Moving Day

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:39:26 +0000

We are officially moved into Kevin and Bills studio inside Beta Sound! Since moving in we have already done intense amounts of pre production and our tunes are sounding incredible. We’ve been filming a lot of the process and I’ll be posting some videos of the Studio Sessions for the duration of our time at the studio. Starting with this one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExTUQ-pnR8Q[/youtube]

Expect more to come!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com