I have a question about EA's initial & current financing.

Steve - did you wait until you had the cash to build your current studio and purchase your equipment or did you take out a bank loan?

I'm not sure if it's wiser to take out a loan to buy the tools I'd like to work with now or buy them over time as I earn the cash.
I do have a steady trickle of clients, but plenty of free time, too.

In your MTSU lecture you say you draw a salary from EA. Do you recommend this way of paying yourself? Right now I'm self-employed and pay myself a percentage of any income my business generates.

I split a small studio with a band in Philadelphia, but we are separate businesses.

Thanks for reading this,
Bill

i've read in a few different posts that Steve built Electrical with loans.

though,
as a fellow Philadelphia studio owner, i can offer this advice (which you can obviously either take or leave):

use what you've got now and use it to the very best it is capable of, improve or upgrade gear as is needed as money comes in, and if (god willing) you are booked solid 6 months in advance, then consider taking out a loan.

taking out a loan seriously adds to your overhead, and what with
the Philadelphia music scene being what it is, you know never know when the work will occasionally dry up. my studio has been perpetually booked 3 months in advance for the past year-and i still have yet to resort to taking out a loan. this may change- as i currently have more work than i can handle- and i've been really debating building my recording fortress, but still, i very accurately remember those past sad times when it seems no one's calling and it's like "crap, what am i going to do now?"

i guess what i'm saying is- i've always felt like the gear is secondary.
do great work, make great records, and if your studio is so ridiculously in demand that it seems that there's no reason not to take out a loan, then by all means do it!
but, i feel if considering the heavy albatross of a loan, perhaps you should wait until the word "trickle", when referring to your client base, is replaced by "deluge".

one thing i definitely learned in the 4 years i've kept my shitty studio afloat is that people do not pay for gear- they pay for my service.
most clients really don't care what mics, outboard, etc. you use as long as it all sounds amazing in the end.
sure, i have wanted to push my crackly MX-70 into the Delaware River so many times- but dammit, alot of people seem to really be into what i can make that shitheap do!

that's my 2 cents.

morze wrote:sure, i have wanted to push my crackly MX-70 into the Delaware River so many times.

an aside, but i also own an MX-70. have you replaced the clear matsushita (sp?) relays on the audio cards with gas sealed omrons? that will take care of the common "space ghost", "crackle", "wind on microphone" problem that those stock machines have. easy repair once you know what you're looking for. RL 1 & 2 primarily (record & erase) RL 3 you can get by without doing since it's for the NR (assuming you don't use NR). replace with OMRON G6E-134P-ST-US 5V DC

god did that make my life a living hell for like 6 months trying to track that down.

best,
nick

I am near Philly. We totally need to drink and talk.

"Seriously"

morze wrote:most clients really don't care what mics, outboard, etc. you use as long as it all sounds amazing in the end.

(sigh) Where can I find these clients?

"where do i find these clients?"

you don't.
do great work and they will seek you out.

Infernal wrote:I am near Philly. We totally need to drink and talk.

"Seriously"

sure, as long as the first round is on you!
shoot me an email sometime.

From the stories and history I have heard/read about Steve and how he got to where he is, I think he grew into things slowly over time.... starting with a meager set up from insurance money I believe.... the more experience and clients he had, the more gear he amassed. It seems a lot of what is in Studio A is from his old studio in his home. Yes, the switch from the ad hoc house to the custom built studio was a big leap, but I assume at that point it was a good bet and he could take on the debt according to his workload history.

John McEntire seemed to have done the same.... his old studio was tiny and home-made inside the old Tortoise loft.... but slowly from job to job he seemed to acquire more and more gear and instruments.... now he has SOMA which is an incredible place and an incredible achievement.

skatingbasser wrote:

morze wrote:most clients really don't care what mics, outboard, etc. you use as long as it all sounds amazing in the end.

(sigh) Where can I find these clients?

No shit.