Recording Studio setting up?

mark_dumpleton

Hi all,
A couple of good friends and myself are in the process of setting up a recording studio in our school (we are 17 year old sixth formers). This is hopefully going to be open to both the students and outside community to use, therefore being beneficial to the community.
We are, however, limited with capital and do not know how to raise some the most effective way (such as grants, or if possible other ways in which we would not have to pay the money back!)

We have all of the major equipment but are missing leads and connectors, etc, so needed somewhere in the region of £150-£200.

Any help with sources of finance for us would be appreciated!

Thanks, Mark Dumpleton
Director, QEGStudios

Savvy_Sue

Wonder if Awards for All would be able to help? Or your local Freecycle might produce what you need. (Google Freecycle and your local town to find your nearest group.) Although of course there might be H&S issues, you'd need to get freebies checked over, probably.

Also trawl back through this board, someone posted some links a few months ago about funding for arts projects, I think. And have a look at the NFP and charity 'stickies' at the top to see if there's anything useful there.

mark_dumpleton

Wow, thanks ever so much for the information there Sue, we were thinking about freecycle and then realised that what we need is quite niche and therefore not too many people will have it!
Any more suggestions people?!
Mark

barrymung

What sort of leads/connectors are you seeking?

positivelymummy

big lottery fund? sorry didn't do a link! i've had a few friends who applied for funding through awards for all (all music related too) and all of them were successful, they have a great reputation. If its mostly going to be school based maybe you could think of a way to get the school to to raise the funds, school disco/sponsored day where you all come to school dressed as a clown etc/school concert?

mark_dumpleton

We are seeking XLR to either XLR or 6.3mm Jack connectors/cables, or anything that would be able to assist with our studio (such as microphones, anything going spare really!)
Yours,
Mark

mark_dumpleton

positivelymummy wrote: »

big lottery fund? sorry didn't do a link! i've had a few friends who applied for funding through awards for all (all music related too) and all of them were successful, they have a great reputation. If its mostly going to be school based maybe you could think of a way to get the school to to raise the funds, school disco/sponsored day where you all come to school dressed as a clown etc/school concert?

Thanks ever so much for your advice. I will definately lookup the Big Lottery Fund, but I think it is for over 18s only (we are 17!). As I attend a grammar school it is very much against fundraising for things that do not bring money to be used however the school wishes, we only have one non-uniform day a year!
We were considering doing a school concert at some point to raise funds, it's just a case of getting it organised!

Yours, Mark

positivelymummy

mark_dumpleton wrote: »

Thanks ever so much for your advice. I will definately lookup the Big Lottery Fund, but I think it is for over 18s only (we are 17!). As I attend a grammar school it is very much against fundraising for things that do not bring money to be used however the school wishes, we only have one non-uniform day a year!
We were considering doing a school concert at some point to raise funds, it's just a case of getting it organised!

Yours, Mark

what about the princes trust? i think the ages is 14 to 30 for that? i understand what you're saying about the school etc, you might be better (if you're in a band etc) using a venue thats not connected with the school if they're a bit funny about it, bearing in mind you're under 18! oh and if you're thinking of using a church or church hall note that you're not allowed to charge at the door/sell tickets, you're only allowed to 'ask for donations', and if you want to try a wild idea why not try and contact someone like a famous musician from your area/who went to your school/someone you really admire etc and tell them about your situation and ask if they can 'donate' anything to help? you may be surprised?

mark_dumpleton

Thanks ever so much for the advice there! I may just do that, in terms of contacting a musician...just need to think of a famous one from our area now haha...how many famous musicians come from east lincolnshire? Not many lol...
We were thinking about getting bands interested in using the studio to play at a gig, which could be at the local village hall. Thanks for the info regarding this, I did not know about rules concerning church halls!
Yours, Mark

positivelymummy

nope i cant think of any from lincs either!:D try one of your fave uk artists then, and dont you have a 'sound of the summer' festival coming up? maybe you could try and contact them, there'd be plenty of sound men there who could also give you advice on studio equipment and where to get it etc?

elite_2

Might be worth having a chat with the arts council, they often help out with developing artists

I have only ever dealt with them in a performance (concerts) context, but if they are unable to help with funding, they might have some valuable advice

Good luck!