Sound Pure Studio Rates and Policies

To get our most current rate information or to book studio time, please check out our contact page or call (888) 528-9703

Payment Policies | Lockouts | Hard Drive Backups

Sound Pure Studios is one of the premier new recording studios on the East Coast in terms of its facility, room acoustics, and equipment. Everything is completely modern, and state-of-the-art. While the rooms are designed to meet the needs of top record labels and superstar artists, we gladly work with independent artists, local musicians, and anyone else looking for general sound work. While our rates will inevitably continue to rise, we currently have extremely aggressive promotional rates available. The rates are designed to attract a wider audience of musicians and other studio uses, which typically would not be available to access a studio of this kind of caliber. There are always lower rates available for studios near and far - however, you pay for what you get, and there is no better pricing available for a studio of this caliber.

Reservations, Deposits, and final Payments:

Reservations/Deposits: Sound Pure will gladly place a tentative hold on your studio reservation for up to 24 hours at no charge, but within 24 hours of the hold placed, your studio reservation must be booked or cancelled by you. At the time of booking a 50% non-refundable deposit for those days booked is due and required. The entire deposit is put towards any session work done on those days for which the deposit is taken. Should you choose to cancel your recording session or otherwise not show up your deposit will not be refunded. Your deposit may, however, be refunded (at Sound Pure’s sole discretion) if both: 1) the client rebooks the day cancelled for another day in the studio and provides a deposit for that new booking, and 2) Sound Pure is able to successfully rebook the day for which your deposit was held.

Final Payment: The final payment for all work completed is due at the end of the recording session, without exception. No product, whether it be uploads, CD’s, DVD’s, demos, hard drive transfers, or any other media will be released to the client until the current balance due is paid in full.

How we Compute Hours/Cost: Sound Pure computes billings on a per-hour basis for all work occupying the Sound Pure Recording Studio Facility. All work with the exception of a handful of unmanned duplication and transfer tasks are billed at the hourly rate prescribed to your particular session. Any task that ties up the studio (studio A or studio B) which you have booked - whether it be tracking, mixing, mastering, editing, recording equipment setup, simple cd-burning, punches, fixes, remixes, voiceovers, etc. - are billed at the prescribed hourly rate. While client load in and load out are not billed, any setup involving an engineer - including microphone/stand setup, session template setup, etc. - is billed normally. In many cases, however, in order to maintain the most efficient uses of the studio, an engineer will be building his session templates, patching, or otherwise doing setup work simultaneous to the artists loading in and setting up themselves. In some cases, and when available, more than one engineer may be required or preferred for tasks such as setup, or otherwise managing very large productions. When this is required, in order to keep client costs at a minimum, and production quality at its best, the Room rate will be billed hourly, and the additional engineer will be billed separately, only for the time requested/required. This option, by design, is to keep client costs as low as possible by providing the most efficient use of the studio as possible. For example, once setup begins, if there is an opportunity to save the client money by having more than one engineer involved (by reducing the overall studio time billed) Sound Pure may make this recommendation, or simply provide an additional engineer, billed separately, for this purpose.

We do not differentiate between the various services we provide in the recording studio by differentiating their costs. Some tasks that can be completed without the use of the recording studios, for example, may be billable at a lower rate, although there are few tasks on which we work that do not require the studio. On multiple day sessions, certain tasks can be set to run overnight (such as backup), and to the extent these tasks do not require an engineer to monitor their progress in the studio, these charges will not be billed to the client. However, in many cases, even backups require monitoring or verification of the completion of the task by an engineer in the studio, all of which takes up time in the studio and must be billed. While our billing practices are typical for most high-end commercial studios like Sound Pure, the good news is that our extremely low hourly rates make all of this possible even for projects on smaller budgets. We can work with you to minimize time, and work as efficiently as possible when sessions are properly planned in advance. With proper planning, and proper budgeting of time and money, sessions can, and do, come in within budget.

Studio A, Studio B, and Other Rooms: Sound Pure has two control rooms with adjoining recording rooms, which are differentiated by size, equipment, and cost. The primary recording suites at Sound Pure Studios are considered the “Studio A.” This includes the large control room, large live room, and adjoining isolation booths. Studio B which includes a smaller control room, and a small adjoining tracking room is made available at a discount, though its use is limited by its size.

Sound Pure is a large facility, particularly when you take into account the shared studio rooms, conference room, and other areas, some of which are shared among uses. While the use of the studio lobby, kitchen, and bathrooms is shared amongst users of both Studios A and B, in many cases only one Studio will be operating in full-effect at any one given time. In some cases, Studio A clients may wish to utilize portions of the Studio B (and vice versa), or other portions of the facility for their particular needs. For example, numerous acoustically untreated rooms including the Recording Studio Lobby (with concrete floors, walls and ceiling), Main Sound Pure lobby (with its 30-foot ceilings), or the Guitar Showroom are all wired to both Studio A and Studio B and have been used strategically for a variety of non-traditional tracking. These rooms may be utilized to your advantage as well (at no additional charge), with the proper planning and timing.

To the extent Studio A clients encroach on the use of Studio B (and vice versa), special requests can be made, and are often granted at no additional costs to utilize more of the facility than was originally booked when it does not effect the use of the neighboring Studio. However, some care must be taken during simultaneous use of both Studio A and Studio B rooms by two different clients, and we ask that you respect your engineers direction regarding the use of any shared spaces including shared isolation or sound locks, and other communal spaces including the outdoor area, lobby area, and kitchen area.

Users of Studio A may also wish to utilize Studio B (by switching between the rooms for various tasks throughout their session) and utilize its lower rates. Likewise, projects utilizing studio B may wish to utilize Studio A for certain tracking tasks that they could not otherwise accomplish in Studio B (such as the use of the piano). Fortunately, these switches are possible due to the shared networking, comparable ProTools HD rigs, and similar plug-in suites available to both Studios. In some cases, such uses might be cost advantageous for your particular project, and should be discussed and choreographed with the engineer in charge of your specific project, to determine if there is a cost advantage available to you.

Hourly Minimums: Sound Pure enforces minimum hourly charges for client work in the Sound Pure Studios. The hourly minimum does not apply to multiple day, or long-standing client work, nor does it apply to quick fixes, edits, and other work done on a client’s project should they need to return following a session to make those changes. The Sound Pure minimum hourly booking is only two hours. Often is the case, however, that all but the simplest of tasks tend to exhaust two hours.

Lockout Policy:

“Lockout” Definition at Sound Pure Studios: Sound Pure defines the term lockout to mean that the studio is reserved exclusively for the client during the lockout period. No other work will be allowed to take place in any way that shall interfere with the client’s locked-out session. When a client makes a lockout reservation, all instrument setups, microphone positioning, preamp/EQ/Compressor settings, patch-bay patches, mix positions, etc. can be left exactly as they are from day-to-day without any disruption nor manipulation by others. This also means that all client valuables can be placed safely under lock and key without the need for the client to take these valuables such as their musical instruments to their hotel or home each night. “Lockouts” are available for all types of session work, including tracking, mixing, mastering, etc.

Lockout Requirement: To meet the Sound Pure lockout policy, the client must book the Studio they desire for multiple consecutive days in a row, with a minimum average hourly use of eight hours per day. The lockout will be provided at no additional charge to the client provided that they do meet the hourly minimum, on average, across the lockout period. For example, for a three day lockout, the client will be billed a minimum of 24 hours of studio time should they choose to use the studio for less than 24 hours total during that period of time. Additionally, for example, should you work for twelve hours on day one and only four hours on day two, you will still be provided a lockout, and only be billed for sixteen hours total.

Lockout vs. Hourly Billables: Sound Pure does not differentiate between the hourly charges for clients wishing to utilize a multi-day lockout. This means that you are billed for the hours that you utilize at Sound Pure Studios on an hourly, not daily, basis. Accordingly, securing a lockout does not mean that you may utilize Sound Pure Studios and one of our engineers for twelve hours in one day, and only be billed for eight hours. You will be billed for the full twelve hours of time that you utilize in the studio.

Discounts for Extended Lockouts: Extended Lockouts stretching into multiple weeks may be provided some additional discounting, depending on the length and type of use that the client is looking for. These are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, please inquire with us to determine the costs associated with your desired recording session at Sound Pure Studios.

Credit Card Payment Policy: Sound Pure does accept all major credit and debit cards including AMEX, VISA, MC, Discover, and paypal. However, we are charged at minimum 2% to process these types of payments. All prices quoted are for our cash-discounted prices. If you wish to utilize a credit card, the charge is 2% higher.

Smoking Indoors and Drugs Prohibited: Sound Pure expressly prohibits smoking indoors, and does not allow illegal drugs on our premises. Sound Pure does have convenient outdoor areas available to all clients utilizing the Sound Pure facility where smoking is allowed.

Food and Drink Not Permitted On or Near Instruments or Equipment: No food or drink is allowed on or near any of the instruments including, but not limited to, the Piano, the Hammond Organ, or the Control Room Recording Desk. No food or drink is permitted beyond the producer desk (large granite countertop marks the boundary for food and drink) in Control Room A. Drinks in the Live Room (recording rooms) is allowed, but must be contained in a screw-top bottle with the top engaged when not being consumed. Otherwise, food and drink is permitted with caution. If an artist has a special need that otherwise cannot be met by the above policy, permission may be granted but only on a case-by-case basis. There are numerous areas where food and drink can be consumed throughout the studio common areas, and in the back of the control rooms. Studio clients are responsible for providing their own bottled drinks if they wish to consume beverages inside the actual studio. Any food or drink is the artist’s responsibility to provide. Catering and other food and drink can be provided by the studio at a cost, and should be arranged for prior to the recording session.

Damage Policy: Normal wear and tear to the premises and equipment associated with your session is anticipated and by no means is preventing this a client responsibility. However, any damage associated with misuse of the studio, failure to follow the rules of the Studio, any accidental breakage, or liquid spills that cause substantial damage, by a client or client’s visitor, is the financial responsibility of the client. Sound Pure takes special care in limiting the studios to respectful and responsible musicians and makes every effort to educate clients, musicians, and their visitors of the particularly high value and fragile nature the instruments, equipment and facility; but, it is the client’s duty to make sure everyone participating in a project as a musician or any other visitor is aware of their obligation to maintain care around these valuables. Sound Pure advises that particular care be taken when alcoholic beverages are involved, or visitors are intoxicated or impaired, and reminds the client that any damage to the equipment, facility, or instruments, is the clients responsibility and will be billed at full replacement cost, including the man-hours involved in procurement or management of the replacement or repair. For certain uses of the studio, an additional damage-deposit may be required, but whether or not a deposit is required does not limit the total cost of the damages in any way, as all damages even those that exceed any deposit requirement will be billed to the client.

Data Backup Hard Drives Available for Purchase, and note on Backups

While not required, as a convenience, Sound Pure makes compatible hard drives available for as little as $125 sufficient to cover even most large sessions. To the extent you wish to migrate your files to another location, or retain a backup of your session files after your session is over (this is typically a definite requirement of all but few sessions), it will be necessary that you bring or purchase a hard drive from Sound Pure. It is a necessary device, and small price to pay for long term access and guaranteed backup of your work. You can most-likely find a suitable less expensively drive yourself, as we simply offer them as a convenience. We typically do not run sessions directly off of external or backup hard drives, so the specifications for such a drive are fairly lose. Our computers do read most formats such as USB, Firewire, and eSata. However, if you have specific compatibility concerns about a specific protocol, or for some reason desire that your session be run directly from an external drive (not recommended for primary drive for direct tracking purposes), we do highly recommend that you speak to an engineer prior to assuming your drive will work.

Sound Pure bears no responsibility for data that the client chooses not to have backed up by a secondary device in the event of a drive failure. Additionally, upon departing Sound Pure with the backup, it is the client responsibility to check for corrupt data immediately upon receiving the hard drive to verify that the drive contains everything that they need and the drive and data is intact, in completely working condition. Sound Pure can retain the original information for some days following your session, if you do need the extra time to verify data integrity at the drive’s destination. This being said, and because hard drives can fail, it is always a good practice to maintain two physical backups of all necessary data, and verify that BOTH have all of the data that you need in an uncorrupted format. If you would like for Sound Pure to have your hard drives guaranteed available for your session, please make this request within 5 business days of your session start date.

It is best practice to utilize 2x backups, and backup after each day of session work. For multi-day lockout sessions the engineer can leave the backup process running overnight. To the extent the client does not wish to retain a backup of his material after all session work is completed, it is still a good practice to utilize 1x external backup throughout the course of the session, and to be perfectly safe, to keep the backups offsite in case of some kind of accident involving the core Protools computer. If the client does not wish to pay for any backups, the engineer may require at least redundant locations inside the computer, or on a Sound Pure hard disk due to the chance of hard drive failure.