Stueyb

Ok, strange (or maybe not) question.

How much would it cost to book a recording studio for 2 days ? Also how much would a female with nice voice, but not too nice £££ wise cost ? I know im bein vague but im just after some indication of cost for my dreaming

SiPie

errrrr I think people 'outwith' the music industry could answer that one as well

Kyl3cook

There are many factors, but if you are going to a cheapy studio with no engineer, you'd probably be looking at a good few hundred...if however you'll want an engineer, and a good studio, then we're talking thousands......you get what you pay for, and all that.

Stueyb

Ok, basically im needing to know how much it would cost to produce an audio book, based on a standard novel. Everything would be required so to speak as I know sweet FA with regards to production methods etc

Freak

Varies
Small-ish studio with enginner you are looking at couple of hundred per day.
Larger ones, multiply that by 10 ( but dont think you will be needing a large one for this)

It depends if you want music, sound effects etc etc in it, or purely the voice recording.
If its the latter, you could do that very cheaply at home with reasonable results for probably the same or less than a studio would charge, then take it to a pro for mastering/editing etc.

Try a college with an audio course-they may be able to help you out.
When i was studying this (btec and degree level) we would always have to find projects to record- never charged the client either as it was benefitting us.

David Lock

Where are you?

My boy and his band cut a CD at 811 Studio, Cowfold, Sussex.

I think www.811studio.co.uk but will check this.

These rates from their site.

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811 Sound Studio offers a variety of packages to suit every need. The studio is available either staffed or unstaffed. On our books we have a broad roster of proven Engineers, Programmers and Producers - rates starting at £100:00 per day [10:00 am - 2:00 am].
RATESStudio rate [unstaffed] per [10:00 am - 2:00 am] day : £220:00 Includes full back-up + 2" tape hire - if required 'Live Session' rate per [10:00 am - 2:00 am] day : £160:00 Includes full set-up, 2" 24 track recording - no overdubs [excluding repairs], mixdown to CD-RAccomodation per person per night : £10:00 To a maximum of £40:00 - e.g. 5-piece band, one sleeps free

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HTH. D

hedgehog

I'd guess that if you look around and talk to a few people you will find someone with a home/project studio that would do that for you for not a lot of cash per hour. If it is just spoken word then you are not looking at a lot of gear involved but on the down side you might not find a lot of people interested in getting involved because it can be fairly tedious work.

Can you do the post production yourself in terms of editing out mistakes etc? Doesn't look like it from your comments so your operator will have to do that for you. In that case and if you are talking a novel then I think 2 days is unlikely to be anywhere near long enough to get a finished product.

Take a look at most of the current audio books out there and see how long they are, if your novel is of an average length then that is the sort of finished product you are looking at, maybe 8 hours or so.

After that it all comes down to who is doing the reading and how fast your operator is but you might be very very lucky to record an hour a day and looking at half an hour might be more reasonable in planning terms. Unless it is a very short novel my guess is that you are looking 8 - 16 days allowing for retakes, editing, discussion etc.

Don't under estimate the contribution of the person who does the reading either, for something of that length you really need a pro who can bring it alive and keep it sounding interesting. You might get someone off the street who can do that but I would have my doubts. They will also need prep time to read the novel before hand and it would be helpful to have it presented on A4 paper typed double spaced and loose leaf so they can move pages out of the way to read the next one rather than having to do a noisy page turn once they are in front of the mic.

Sorry to be so negative but if you want to do it right then you've got to appreciate that you need the right people doing the job and sufficient time to get a result. Getting good audio is no different from anything else in that respect, good people might make it look quick and easy but that's not to say that it is and if you want them then you have to pay for them.

wakeboardar

if its only a book you just need a good microphone a reccording device and some where quiet