Chris--You sound exactly like the kind of studio and engineer I can't afford. That's okay. You're probably at the higher end price-wise, and worth the money.

Just to clarify...I didn't say I thought the studios or engineers were over-priced. I'm not trying to get something top-notch and pay a low price for it. It's more like I want to get a plain gold pinky ring for my 13-year-old and every jewelry store says they can't sell me anything less than a 2-karat diamond ring, if you know what I mean.

I'm just trying to record my church band. I really enjoy playing with them, and I think we sound pretty good. We all have day jobs; we're not trying to make it in the music industry or compete with Eric Clapton or anything. I just want to be able to give my extended family members a nice CD for Christmas. I do have high musical standards for myself, and I have been lucky to attract some talented people to play with me, but I'm not a perfectionist. I just want to capture how we sound live, and it doesn't have to be the kind of quality that you describe.

I appreciate your long post, though, and I have learned a couple new things. I will be checking with my guitar player about strings, for one thing! This gives me some new questions to ask the engineer about as well.

One little thing I noticed at the top of your post---I could be mistaken, but I think the person who posted above you, Ronan Chris, was talking about $200 just for the plane ticket, not $200 to pay an engineer.

Anyway, thanks for the reply! --Jean

[This message has been edited by JL (edited 06-30-2004).]