Pro Tools: DIY recording and the end of analog studios.
In the past, recording, editing and mixing an album was a very costly endeavor. The picture above is of a Neve 8028 mixing board. When Sound City studios purchased it new in 1973 it cost $76,000. This was double what a house sold for in the San Fernando Valley where the studio was located at the time. Today, you can purchase Pro Tools digital mixing software for $300-$600. Anyone with a computer and music equipment can record and mix their own album. You can purchase a complete package that has everything you need to record an album minus the instruments and computer from Musicians' Friend now for $3,700. The low cost of modern digital recording equipment is enabling aspiring musicians to create music without the support of a record company.
Modern digital recording equipment is not only helpful to amateur musicians looking to record their music. The recording industry has benefitted from this technology as well. It used to take countless hours of mixing and cutting and re-recording tracks to make an album. All of this was done on tape. You were limited to the number of sounds you could incorporate to the number of channels on the mixing board. You had to literally cut and splice tape together to make any changes to the recording.
All of this had to be done with the assistance of professional engineers that would cost you around a hundred dollars an hour. Today, there is no limit to the number of sounds you can add to your recording. You can cut and add new material with the click of a mouse.
In 2011, Sound City closed it's doors. A documentary by the same name was released this year. Some of the most influential rock n' roll albums in history were recorded at this studio. The move away from analog recording to digital technology made it impossible for them to compete. The film chronicles the story of how the business went from state of the art to antiquated and no longer financially viable in the music industry It also tells the story of the people who worked there that no longer have a job. -J.Ishman
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/08/173823162/dave-grohl-finds-musics-human-element-in-a-machine
http://www.billboard.com/articles/photos/features/1507485/sound-city-review-dave-grohl-shines-his-light-on-a-dumpy-mecca
It's always bittersweet when you see how technology changes the way we do things. I really liked this example. In one way you feel like it should stay the same, but you also want to see new innovations and easier faster ways to get music. The music industry has been hit tremendously by technology. With the addition to itunes, cheaper software products, file sharing..etc, they had to form other ways and switch the way they do business. Even now, a lot of artists are discovered when they used youtube, and example would be: karmin or justin bieber. I wonder what the next change will be.
ReplyDeleteThose programs like: Pandora and Spotify are getting really popular, maybe something will emerge that will change the way music is played.
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ReplyDeleteThis blog is right up my alley! As a musician, from the past and present, recording music has never been more convenient. About 20 years ago, I use to go into the recording studio with the rest of the musicians and actually lay tracks down - all of us together. Today, we can all record at different times and at different places. I currently work with a high school friend of mine who lives in NJ, so he would record his parts in NJ and would record my parts here in NC. Tracks are laid and sent back and forth using either email or a Dropbox account if the file is too large. How technology has changed the recording process for us musicians!
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