Originally posted by Ensnareyou:
I'm going to have to disagree with you that the demise of many commercial studios is because you can now make a great sounding CD from home. The demise has to do more with people being cheap (yes cheap) and presuming they can record a World Class sound out of their home studio with little to no knowledge of audio engineering. It doesn't matter if you have the best gear money can buy at home, if you don't know how to use it then it's pointless. I've seen it happen time and time again where I am hired to record a drum or vocal track for a home studio recordist because they weren't able to achieve the sound they wanted. It wasn't for lack of gear although many times that can be the problem, it was from lack of knowledge on how to track and mix an instrument.
In my opinion the recording industry went into a downward spiral and audio quality has suffered from the proliferation of home based studios with people at the helm who lack engineering skills. Just because you own Pro Tools, an instrument or two, and a microphone does not make one an audio engineer. Far from it!
On the positive side cheaper gear has brought recording to the masses and those that could never afford to record a CD before can now do so. While many of these CD's are recorded for vanity reasons, there will always be those few that take the time to learn their craft seriously, record a CD that can compete sonically with other major label releases, and may even achieve airplay and sell well.
"Great sounding" means different things to different people. That's the rub for commercial studios. "Great Sounding" to you is different than to me and still different to others and way different form those who consume the music. The "quality" is as subjective as the very content and is tied to it. I don't care for drop D Shred Metal or Trance,Rap,Hip Hop so whether recorded using fruity loops in a home studio or Electric Ladyland, it all sounds terrible to me.
The "noise" gap between home and studio recordings has narrowed a lot over the years. I would bet David Foster could make great tracks on all Behringer gear in someone's bedroom.
I blame the record companies,producers, and engineers for the dumbing down of the population with highly compressed limited dynamic range recordings.With that and good home gear getting better and better and less expensive. That is a good thing for the home recordist. Not so good for many Commercial Recording Studios and independent producers.
Many "vanity" recordings are sold everyday on gigs and provide additional income for the act. I know a guy who plays in a Piano Bar on a cruise ship who sells an average of 50 self produced CD's a week. He records them in his cabin using a notebook computer, a keyboard and a MXL mike. That's $2000 a month unreported "extra" cash! They may be just "souvenirs" purchased by people caught up in the moment but they are money in the bank he would not have otherwise been able to do. Many local single acts sell home produced CD's at their gigs. These are what you would call "vanity CDs but they are a steady income stream for the acts and exceed tips in many cases. Even if one sold only 5, that's an extra $50.It adds up. People like them and I don't expect nor are seeking "airplay". A lot more people are getting to shares their music because of Arrangers and Home Recording gear and that's not a bad thing. I enjoy going to Soundclick and hearing other people's homegrown work. Some I like other's I don't.
A good song transcends a bad recording. The otherwise isn't always true.
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