The History of Home Recording
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Posted on May 04, 2003 06:23 am
danny Woodward
Member Since: May 04, 2003
Hello everybody, im writing a piece on home recording and its affects on professional studios.
I was wondering if anybody has any comments on how they see the future of pro recording studios
And PLEASE somebody give me a site name which tells me the history of home recording
Thankyou so much
Dan
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May 04, 2003 07:01 am I dunno what you are going to find about the history of home recording, as opposed to recording as a whole. As I am guessing in the truest sense of the word, "Home Recording" existed long before professional recording...
Anyway, I personally see pro studios are indeed affected, but not necessarily at the high-end arena. Top artists that are heavily funded still would rather hire the best in the field to do their job, or the people that the label tells them too. Many times, it is far more productive, when hiring a specific producer or engineer to go to their facilities to do the job.
At the smaller, more localized studio, however, I would think they will be affected for more by the home recording boom than anyone.
I also wonder how much the final products will suffer due to the increase in home recording. Everybody thinks they can do it themselves, which they can, but it is any good? Are they, in fact, capable of doing the many roles that are required for a decent recording? Engineering, producing, mastering and more?
Really, the consumer could be the one getting hurt the most...of course, there are also those artists that are capable, and actually put out a better, more honest recording without the constraints and bais of an un-associated producer or engineer.
It's a tough call...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 05, 2003 10:22 pm Danny, I dont know of any site that has that specific topic, but maybe try a seach on Google and see what comes up. And as far as the effect on studios as they are, I agree with dB on the fact it probably will not effect the higher end studios much, but will surely have an effect on the smaller pro level studios. To what degree I cant really say but I have seen several of the smaller studios I know of either close or parnter with another small studio and just become one.
glynbMember
Since: Dec 16, 2002
May 06, 2003 06:55 am "Really, the consumer could be the one getting hurt the most..." - I'm not sure about that. For home recordings to get to the level where the consumer was hearing and buying them in large numbers they would have to first get radio/media play. QED the recording would have to be of top quality in order to get any media play. So crappy poor quality recordings are not going to adversely affect the consumer, cos they won't get exposed to them - in any case they have a choice to buy or not - if they don't like the quality of sound they won't have to buy it. On the other hand look how nmany people buy poor quality boot-leg recordings because its about the music not just quality of recording.
I agree with the view that the lower end local studios are going to be the ones going out of business. Just do the maths. To record my band and end up with a 3 song demo using a local studio (I'm based in the UK). Let's say a day to record and a day to mix (not including any re-mixing). Let's say £25 an hour @ 16 hours = £400 - now this is assuming a VERY tight band who know exactly what to do. Allow for a cock up and a remix (£100+) and you're up to £500. No possibility of remixing 6 months later because he's wiped the master. No possibility of redoing that guitar part three weeks later without it costing more. Etc, etc.
Now then, what I actualy did was buy a fostex multitracker and a compressor - cost £900. The amount of good quality demos I can now produce is only limited by the amount of time I have to invest in learning the craft of recording. That's the down side - I have to learn to be my own engineer, but it's not rocket science to learn the basics. And in any case even some of these 'engineers' in local studios can assist you to produce crap demos. Now the only cost from now on will be the cost of blank CDs and my free time to learn.
Will my band be using a small local studio to do a demo any more? Well what do you think? And it was all made possible by the growth of affordable home recording equipment.
May 06, 2003 07:17 am Good point glynb, you are correct, they would need to get airplay first. That's true, but in regards to the bootlegging deal, I don't know if I entirely agree, since when people buy bootlegs, they generally know that it's going to be a lesser-quality recording. If they buy a CD at a gig, or in a small local record shop that accepts indie solicitation (I dunno about your area, but we have a couple in the Twin Cities, MN) they may be expecting higher quality than they get.
So really, there are a few ways to look at it I guess...but I do see your point(s).
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 06, 2003 12:22 pm Danny,
I took a peek at your profile and from it I am gathering that you are in college. Obviously I am have no idea of the level of study you are doing or just what the prof is looking for. I doubt that you will gather a lot of "hard" data from this site in terms of market analysis to substantiate any claims. Mostly there will be opinion from here. Very possible the opinions expressed will be very insitefull, but I doubt you find much colobrative information for validation.
Obviously the entire industry is struggling right now from a mariad of effects. Obviously some established musicians have broken off and started distribution via a "home" studio. I have no idea what the impact on the "Professional" studio is exactly. To a large degree, I would imagine the "professional" ( I am having personal difficulty with that term as I find many home studios more professional) studio would embrace the "home" studio as a large segment of the market for the "home" studio are musicians working toward that pivital point of getting a label. The big "lables" still control the established mechanisms to mass market music. Obviously the big lables are concerned per their attack of MP3 etc., but I highly doubt even they have any hard numbers to work with. Their public claims are almost certainly inflated as a means of applying political pressure to support their interest. The small and mid sized studios are shurely feeling the impact first as their market segment is no doubt being tapped by the home studio, however at that point the home studio also becomes "professional" in strict terms of being a business, so we are down to symantics.
Probably the biggest hurtle for the "home" studio is physical space. The home studio has two pieces of the picture, affordable equipment, and a means to learn the craft. There is still the mega expensive problem of suitable sonic space to do recording.
Anyway, it is obvious that all of this is highly subjective. Best of luck with the paper. I hope your prof. has resonable expectations!
Mar 02, 2005 05:58 am hi danny. i am studyin a BSC in creative music and sound rechnology and like you did a few years back i am writing my dissertation on the affect trhat home recording is having on the commercial studios.
i was wondering if you have any information that may be of use to me.
thanks for your time.
Chris Higson. cheers
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 02, 2005 10:50 am Wow, I hope he finished his project in the 2 years since this thread was started! I also hope that he included Les Paul and his home recording innovation: the multitrack recorder. That's kind of a significant advance in home recording, just maybe.
Here's the complete history of home recording as told by thread topics in this forum:
- should I use a hard disk recorder or a computer?
- help! i cant get my computer to record sound!
- playback is behind recording on my soundblaster
- help me choose a microphone!
- help me choose a new sound card because my soundblaster sucks!
- help me choose multitrack software!
- what's a preamp?
- i love my new sound card1
- i love my new microphone!
- my first recording, please listen
...and then, at least in my case, from there it digresses into a bunch of assertions of knowledge about facets of home recording that I don't actually know anything about. I think that pretty much covers it.
Mar 29, 2005 10:54 am Hey danny if you got any info regarding the subject will you send it to me at [email protected]. cheers man im doin a similar dissertation
