Sound engineer on demand
A sound engineer who comes to you - film set, live show, an offsite session, a home studio build. Flightcore, Warsaw, working since 2017.
In short: A sound engineer goes out to wherever you need one. For a show: live engineering 1500 PLN, Autotune Live 1000 PLN, PA and sound reinforcement from 2000 PLN depending on the size of the project, each item plus travel costs. To a film set, to a session outside the studio, or to you when you are building your own studio and need acoustics, measurements and calibration. We quote the scope and the travel before we confirm the date.
Part of the work with sound happens outside the studio by its very nature. A show happens wherever the stage is, a shoot wherever the camera is, and a studio someone is putting up at their own place is, by definition, at their place. So we pack the gear and drive out.
We go out in four scenarios: a show, a film set, a recording session outside our location, and a studio build at yours. They are independent of each other, each can be ordered on its own, and each has travel costs added on top.
What does an engineer outside the studio cost?
A show has set rates on our price list:
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Live engineering for a show | 1500 PLN + travel costs |
| Autotune Live support for a show | 1000 PLN + travel costs |
| PA and sound reinforcement | from 2000 PLN, depending on the size of the project, + travel costs |
Travel costs are added to the rate and we quote them before we confirm the date. Sound reinforcement gets a range rather than a flat number, because it depends on the size of the project, and projects reach us in wildly different sizes.
A film set, a session outside the studio and a studio build are quoted by scope, because a one-day shoot and measuring a single room is a different job from a week on set or acoustics designed from scratch. Tell us what needs to happen and we’ll come back with a figure, travel included.
How do we run a show?
Live engineering at 1500 PLN is the base item, and every conversation about going out starts there.
Autotune Live support is priced separately, at 1000 PLN plus travel costs. Tuning live is a different job from tuning in a session: there is no second take and no undo, and the settings have to hold the vocal through the whole set, including the moments when the artist runs off the stage or sings out of breath. That is why it is a separate service with its own rate.
PA and sound reinforcement starts from 2000 PLN depending on the size of the project. If you know where you are playing and to how many people, say so up front - that is what turns the range into an actual number.
We book the live rehearsal separately, because the first meeting of your material and a PA system is better had before the show than during it. We can also stream the event, if the show is meant to reach more than the room.
How much does preparing a live version of a track cost?
A track made at Flightcore gets prepared for its live version for 50 PLN. A track from outside Flightcore costs 100 PLN.
It is a normal price-list item, so you can order it whether we handle the live engineering or someone else runs sound on the night. Pricing is per track, so with a longer setlist tell us how many songs there are and we will scope it.
Who watches the sound on a film set?
Our engineer, if you book one for the shoot. Sound on a film set is a separate item on our service list and a separate craft: dialogue is recorded once, in a place whose acoustics nobody chose for recording, around a crew with its own priorities.
That matters, because processing will not undo what happened at the moment of recording. You can take off noise, hum and a good deal of reverb later while keeping the voice natural, but every such operation starts from the material that already exists. The better the dialogue was recorded, the less work goes into cleaning it up, and the more is left for what the audience actually hears.
Part of the team are graduates and lecturers of the Sound Creation programme at the Warsaw Film School, where building a soundtrack to picture is the daily job.
We carry the material from the set on at our place, if you want: cleaning the tracks, sound design, a 5.1 mix, ADR sessions, and dubbing from recording the actors through to the finished mix. You can also take just the production sound from us and hand it to your own edit suite.
Will you come out to a session outside the studio?
Remote engineering at your location is a separate item on our service list, and it comes down to exactly what the name says: the engineer takes the gear and works wherever the session is. Sometimes the reason is a place that cannot be moved, sometimes the artist simply records better at home.
The same mode covers voice-over recording, podcast production and directing recordings outside the studio, plus streaming an event and streaming a recording session. Tell us what is meant to happen and where, and we will quote the travel together with the work.
It works the other way around too. If you would rather work with your own engineer but in our acoustics, you can rent the studio and bring your own person to the desk.
Will you help us build a studio at our place?
Yes. It is technical work, done on site in your room. We do studio acoustic design, acoustic measurements, monitor calibration and the setup of the technical infrastructure, meaning the cabling. On top of that comes technical and equipment consulting, for when the question is more “what to buy” than “how to set it up”.
We know how it looks from the builder’s side, because we put up three studios of our own and a mastering room in Żoliborz - the last one with Andrzej Lipiński, who built the monitors still working in it today.
We agree the scope before we drive out, because measuring a room, calibrating a pair of monitors and designing acoustics from scratch are three different sizes of job.
What happens to the material after the trip?
Nothing has to happen - you can take the recording from the trip and work with it somewhere else.
If the material is meant to carry on with us, the post-production rates from the price list apply: mix with mastering from 500 PLN, vocal mix alone from 400 PLN, mastering alone from 300 PLN, DDP files for CD pressing from 500 PLN. The whole process, turnaround and revisions included, is on the mix and mastering online page.
How do you book an engineer to come out?
Tell us what is happening: what the event is, where it is, when, and how long it will take. On that basis we give you the rate together with travel costs, before we confirm the date.
The studio is at Adama Mickiewicza 9/U1 in Warsaw, in the Żoliborz district, 5 minutes on foot from the metro and 20 minutes from Chopin Airport, and there is a restaurant in the building. The three studios can work separately or as a single complex. We invoice foreign clients in foreign currencies.