Studio Tour: Aalaap Factory – Score Music Tech
Why was it started?
I (Akshay BM) have been a musician for the last few years, and have been playing with bands for almost 7 years now. The problems we faced during our jam session and recording session as a band, I wanted to solve a few of those problems at a very reasonable rate for the budding artists , thus decided to start “Aalaap Factory”.
Before I started, we had a small jam space inside my house where my band used to Jam often, and I always wanted to rent it out to others and make some small pocket money, but with support of my parents ,I ended up setting a professional Jam Room & Recording studio.
Process of Setting up
We had empty space in my dads office building and I decided to utilize this space. Made a proper business plan & PPT’s and pitched it to my dad , and he decided to fund me for this project.
So I my homework and went though lot of videos and spoke to lot of the Industry experts and made my dream project in span of 3 months. Once I started I wanted to make it big, so decided to do my Masters in Entrepreneurship ,which helped me in discovering a new dimension of Music Business.
About the space, Services Offered & Gears you use: (One Stop for all the music needs)
1. Sophisticated Jam Room – With Best Equipment’s + Live Recording Facilities (16 channel mixer, Mackie PA System, Amps, Drums, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion’s, etc)
2. Recording Studio – Ambient and Well equipped gears ( 8 Channel Interface, Few Analog Preamps and Compressors, Wide range of Condenser & Dynamic mics)
3 Mixing & Mastering – Very Professional engineers for mixing and Mastering (We offer both Digital & Analog Mixing).
4. Music Production – (Songs, Short Films/ Feature films, Ads, Jingles, etc)
5.Video Shoot & Editing – ( We also have a team of video-graphers and editors for shooting Band Music Videos & YouTube Covers)
6. Photography team – For Band Poster Shoot & Artist Portfolio
7. Instrumental Rentals – We rent out Instruments for musicians for their shows/practice.
8. Voice Overs & Dubbing Facilities
9. Artist management – As of now we have few bands and artists that we manage under us.
10. Pantry – Anytime you walk in we have 6 flavors of Tea, Coffee , Juice and a few short eats.
11. Music Training & Workshops.
Apart from all of this, we also conduct a few workshop and training programs for the artists, we also provide a lot of internships to students
We had also conducted the first “Tea- Party” for musicians on the occasion of 1st Anniversary of the Aalaap Factory where in 30 musicians were part of the event and few Live performances
Pieces of gear you cannot live without
Its a very tough question, for a Musician like me no gears are enough, I put most of my earnings on these gears and its never ending. So I treat all my gears like my babies and treat them very well. But if I really have to pick one, then I would go with my latest buy “Warm Audio Analog Compressor”.
Describe your typical work day in the studio.
Usually 3 days a week my day starts at 6:00 am , Jamming with my band.
Post that I have few recordings and post production work lined up.
I also make it a point to have a meeting once a week with all the artists I manage and plan their time table of Gigs, Rehearsals & Releases.
Some days we had whole day bookings and sometimes its only few hours of booking depending on the projects.
I have few engineers who help me with my studio works.
Few days when there is deadlines , we have work straight 24hrs
Along side I also help my dad with our Family Business ( Both are in same building)
I also love to cook, I do write food reviews & want to have a restaurant of my own when I turn 40.
I travel a lot , I have attended lot of music festivals & Music Expo in Mumbai, Germany ,etc.
Take us through some of your most significant releases from your studio and why it is special.
We have recorded more than 400+ ( since 2018) songs for movies, ads, music videos, etc. We have shot 30+ music videos.
Few of our special release are:
1) Call Me Kumara – Barfi India Band ( Song was completely Composed, Recorded, Mixed, Master, Video shot , Produced by Aalaap Factroy ) – This video was shot in 18 Iconic Locations of Bangalore. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV8Qo8bnxGY)
2) Ley Haida – Barfi India Band ( Song was completely Recorded, Mixed, Master, Produced by Aalaap Factroy & Barfi India ) – This song was shortlisted as one of the only south Indian regional songs to pitch for Non- Film Music at All About Music 2020.
We also record tracks for few of the Kannada’s top Music Directors like Arjun Janya, Ajanesh Loknath, etc
We have had a lot of Playback singers and International Musicians who have Jammed and recorded here, to name a few,
1. Prakash Sontakki Ji (A Co-Composer , Vocalist and Guitarist on the Grammy Winning Album “WINDS OF SAMSAARA” and the only one to have won the Independent World Music)
2. Karthik Mani
3. Sangeetha Rajeev
4. Sangeetha Ravindranath
5. Ananya Bhat
6. Inchara Rao
7. Flautist Sameer rao
8.Escher’s knot…. the list goes on
We have many bands from Chennai, Kerala who visit us for jam when they have a show in Bangalore..
What’s your next buy for the studio?
As we are now going towards Analog recording, I’m planning to buy lot of Analog Pre-amps & Compressors .
And new Neumann’s on the way & DAW Control Surface.
As a drummer want to buy Roland Handsonic & upgrade my Electronic kit
Tips to aspiring owners of studios
For people who are starting new, make sure you work on a proper Business plan.
Work on your numbers, work on your services & strategies , work on marketing , Build contacts.
We musicians tend to do things for passion , but when you start a professional studio or jam room, make it a point to run it professional because there is too much investment involved.
Maintain proper accounts.
When it comes to investment, always go step by step, prioritize your gears.
More than all these, people do not come to you because you have expensive gears, they come to your for the kind of work you do and how you treat your customers. So master your art of Music & treat your customers well.
Do Follow :
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/aalaapfactory/?hl=en
