I AM ALL RAGED UP. This is the message being sent to people who go to school for recording. I don't wanna name names [well I do, I REALLY do!] but I won't. There are some big name producers spouting this filthy lie out there, and I smell fear.
Music now is EASILY ACCESSIBLE - myspace, iComp, Soundclick, free radio stations on the internet playing indie music are all just a few clicks away. Bands have media players on their websites. The price of quality gear has come down to the prosumer level, and for loop and sample based music, the low price and high quality of samples mean that it's easier than ever to dive headfirst into a creative hobby. I know plenty of people who spit out top-quality tracks owning nothing more than their instrument of choice, a quality microphone and mic preamp, and a basic set of loops.
Thanks to home recording and the internet, there is more media available than ever before. While quality recordings are no easy feat to achieve, most people play low-bitrate mp3s anyway. The truth is that streaming media is never of audiophile quality and portable music players use compression algorithms to keep file size manageable, packing more tunes into your pocket. These days having a band without a demo is shocking. Free recording software is everywhere, and most instrument amplifiers have a recording output. Electronic drum prices are at an all-time low, and people are able to truly take their time and enjoy their creative process off-the-clock...
Gone is the necessity to pay outrageous studio rates when writing music, laying down tracks, or mixing and producing to perfection.
What does that mean for the big name studios of the world? I can see them running scared. They will always have business - big bands with big, record company budgets backing them won't go home to their own studios. But they have lost the "little guys" who will instead head out to the converted shed, local project studio, or just lose themselves in some head phones on the bus. It no longer takes a month's income to get in the studio for a day to quickly spit out your first album or demo reel.
I'm not saying that going to a big studio is bad. After all, the gear and talent behind the glass IS amazing. Recording is part skill, part science, and part art, and you may not want to get into that. If you are truly serious about taking your music to the next level, I do suggest you hire a producer and go into a big studio. If you write a lot of material and want to get it out there however, I suggest taking the time to do it at home, because for a few hundred bucks and a nice sounding space you can create tracks pleasing to the ear and readily available to your friends, family, and hopefully some newfound fans.
December 12, 2010