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Bally Studios live 8-track recordings.

Recording Options.
Record a whole album from as little as £300, or a live video session from £400, fully edited.   
 

Bally Studios 8-Track recording sessions offer a super stripped down recording format that is simple enough to streamline the whole recording process and produce quick results, but without compromising the sound quality of your music.  We have created this format in a way that it can be tailored to your exact needs, based on your budget and how much help you need.   You can either take complete control over the whole recording process, or you can leave everything up to us, it's up to you.  If you able to record 12 songs in one day, taking 45 minutes to do each song in 5 takes, with an hour break in the middle,  and if you were able to mix that album yourself at home, it's not unrealistic to be able to record the whole album for £185, in total.  Difficult? Absolutely.  Exhausting? Very!  But possible?  Yes.

Whilst 8-tracks may seem basic by modern standards, it is still a much more sophisticated format than what many classic albums were recorded with. The inspiration for us to launch this recording service came when The Beatles released "Get Back" in late 2021, which was also recorded to 8-track. This project captivated millions of people around the world, yet the recording format did not limit the enjoyment that people got from it, and neither did it compromise on the quality of the songs.    The Beatles had a format that suited itself well to 8-track with x2 guitars, bass, drums and vocals, and we realised that the same applied to many other bands too.   If it was good enough for them, why now for the bands that come to us?  

Our recording set-up offers bands the perfect balance,  giving them complete control between the different instruments within the band, allowing them to shape the tone and dynamics of each part of their music, whilst also being cheap and quick enough so that bands can realistically finish recording projects within a single week, with it being cheap enough that the band can complete the project independently, without needing outside funding, allowing them to retain ownership of their own music.  In fact, our recording format is actually an 8+8 recorder, which means that you can record 8 tracks live, and then overdub another 8 tracks on top of this, simultaenously.  However, for most bands 8 tracks will be enough. 

This set-up will help you reach that stage of getting your music heard, allowing you to sell it, and then use the extra income and experience gained in earlier recording sessions to make better recordings in future.   There is no better way to learn how to record your band than recording your band, so let's get out there and do it.     

The recording process is split into the following two parts: 

Recording. 

Book any of our studios for your recording session, and pay the exact same rate as you would for a rehearsal.  We recommend Studio 2, our biggest studio, which costs just under £15 per hour.  This includes the hire of all the equipment that is always included in a rehearsal, including amplifiers, stands, and a drum kit with snare and cymbals provided.  All you need to do is bring your instruments/pedals and cables, just like with a rehearsal.  

Then add a one-off flat fee of £50, which includes:

- Hire of all equipment that you need for your recording session. (8-track recorder, all microphones, cables. stands, monitors, SD card, etc.  Everything you need to record your session.) 
 
- We also provide you with tripods so that you can video record the whole session on your mobile phones, to make a live session. 

- If your session runs over consecutive days, you can leave everything set up overnight, and there's no increase in the hire fee,  you simply pay for the extra time that you need, at the usual rehearsal session rate. 

- We will set everything up for you before you arrive, so that as soon as you set up your equipment you are ready to record.  Most bands are already recording within 20-30 minutes.  

- We then pack everything down at the end of the session for you. 

- We then upload all of the data to our Google Drive account, where all of the bandmembers can download the data, for no extra charge. 

Mixing/Editing. 

Once your recording session is over, you will now be able to download:
 
- all of the stem tracks from the 8 track recorder.
-  all of the video footage from each band member's video recording. 

You then have total control to do what you want with this data.  You can either: 

a) Edit the yourself, mixing the stem tracks together and editing the video footage into a finished video = free. 

b) Send the data to a professional video editor/mixing engineer.  Cost = it depends on who you choose, pick a person with a budget to suit you. 

c) Allow us to edit both the audio and video, which will cost: 

Audio Mixing:
£35 for the first song, and £20 for each extra song, or £200 for up to 12 tracks.   

Video editing:
£60 per song, for a performance up to 8 minutes long, with up to 75 edit points in it.  Each video will have 2 individual edits.
 
£550 for up to 12 songs to be edited, to the same specifications of the first song.
 
What kind of results can you expect? 
Here is an example of what you can expect from a single 8 hour session in which 10-12 songs are recorded.  These videos were recorded by Cody Jr in October 2023.  They recorded 5 songs in 4 hours, and then we took just over 90 minutes to mix the music,  and then less than 3 hours to make these two edits below.   The visuals were recorded with the band members' mobile phone, and mixed by our staff members.  The music in both videos is the same, and we are able to provide 2 different edits for each video. 

Cut Shot edit

The footage switches between different band members.
Quick videos to explain the recording service. 

Here's a video to show what the recording stem tracks can sound like.
Quad Cam edit.

We have 4 static cameras that each have their own corner of the screen.
 So long as the band is able to complete 5-6 takes of each song per 45 minute, with breaks factored in, they can expect to record 10-12 songs in a single 9-10 hour day.   Based on those expectations, a band would expect to pay the following, including all fees. 

Audio only. -
Band edits the audio themselves at the end:  £180-£200 for the 9-10 hour session, with recording equipment hire. 
Bally Studios does post editing:  About £400 for the 9-10 hour session, with 12 audio tracks recorded and fully mixed.

Video and Audio.-
Band edits the audio themselves at the end: £180-£200 for the 9-10 hour session, with all recording equipment hire. 
Bally Studios does post editing:  About £900 for the 9-10 hour session, with 12 songs to be recorded, the audio for each song mixed, with x2 additional video edits of each of the 12 songs, to the same standard as below.  At the end you'll get 12 songs and 24 videos, to the same standard as above.   

Each performance will be mixed in both "Cut Shot" (the camera switches between different band members) and  "Quad Cam" (where 4 camera are focused on the band members, and where the camera stays static throughout the video.). 

If you need extra information, more is available below, and if you have any other questions about anything, please do not hesitate to contact us, either by emailing mail@ballystudios.co.uk, or by contacting us on WhatsApp, at 07842 191 282. 
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