I want to Know how and where you record your demos

[MichaelM]

I just realized I could have ranted here instead of over in equipment reviews
Am I far off the mark in saying that most of us are here (as in at this site) because recording stemmed from playing music? Or did you just wake up one morning and decide to buy a microphone? Anyway what was I going to say? I know I'm not making money from tinkering with recording. I wanted to record my band. Thats it. I wanted to do it. Now I'm gradually building up gear for the same reason. I know I will probably never get a true pro sound out of what I have, but I'm doing it to push the boundry of what I can get out of it. This is not just gear, but knowledge too. If I knew back in year 10 what I know now I would have made far better recordings, but I didn't think they were bad back then. I will hopefully be able to say the same thing in ten years time about what I know today - and my recordings still might be far from pro. Is this making any sense because it's late and I seem to be in a mood to rant.....

 

[Treeline]

Am I far off the mark in saying that most of us are here (as in at this site) because recording stemmed from playing music? .....

Bingo.

I'm in my mid forties and it occurred to me one day that life wasn't a rehearsal and if I was going to do anything interesting, I'd best get right to it. So I went back to the guitar, my wife talked me into buying that Taylor, I started gigging, and the rest emerged from that one stumble at a time.

 

[Lance135]

I never was excited about home recording until recently. I thought that four track cassette decks were hokey, noisy, and just plain sucked.

Of course that's all true, but am quite excited about computer technology, and low priced hardware that can make amateur engineers sound pretty decent. I'll be that most home recording artists are musicians, and maybe a few are guys recording their musician friends to help them out or just for kicks, and then were bit by the recording bug, and started buying gear.

Now, I've upgraded my PC to a 3 GHz Pentium running Windows XP, Sonar 4, Cool Edit Pro, and Gigastudio, with an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/06, and a couple of cheap microphones. I've done some stuff that I'm very proud of, but still doesn't sound as good as what the pros are doing. I think it's more a limitation of my knowledge and skill than the equipment, though.

This home recording thing is only going to get crazier, and the lines between home recording, project studio, and professional studios will get blurrier all the time.

I've enjoyed reading all the contributions. Keeping recording and, above all, have fun.

 

[BruceAMiller]

Many great commercial studios have already closed the doors. Rental companies too. What used to be considered a "demo" room is now "Studio A". In many of the "real" rooms that are still open, there are big gaps in knowledge that should have been passed down.

Digital is nice in that it has democratized the whole process. Unfortunately, it has given the capabilities without any of the training (actually, experiences) that would have come with "working your way up". As a result of this, there is a flood of good music that has been badly produced or recorded.

I seem to spend as much time "fixing" as "mixing", but you cannot deny that a lot of great music would not even exist without the technology that has done away with the need for an expensive studio in order to put down musical ideas.

Visit http://BruceAMiller.us for more opinions about this particular topic, recording tips, and a "Starving Artist Mix Special".

-Bruce Miller
Gold/Platinum/Grammy Mixer and reluctant digital convert

 

[xfinsterx]

are the roles of "engineer" and "producer" dead?

well...TRUE audio engineers of the analog era (like Walter Sear for example) are dying out in the commercial levels.
the majority of us (including myself) are what i like to call "recordists".

as for the producer?
well, i think that role will be around a long time.
Im living proof, im a young man in the digi era, living off of production work, in a fairly small city.

thats all i know, and i dont claim nothin else jack.

 

[xfinsterx]

What I'm finding is that the explosion of the do-it-yourselfer home recordist has created quite an exciting niche for the Project Studio like myself.

You see, the more people there are trying to do it themselves . . . the more people there are who begin to understand just how difficult it is to do a good job with it.

What happens is about 75% will get frustrated within a year, realizing they can't get the kind of quality they were hoping for, and that they just don't have the time, money and energy to spend in order to get themselves up to speed on it. Maybe they'd rather focus on music or their families or whatever. So within a decent amount of time, they wind up selling their stuff . . . which opens up a whole new avenue of cheaper gear for guys like me (or us).

Then when it comes time to get serious about their recordings, they'll come to me with a greater appreciation for what I do, and for what I can bring to the table. These are the guys who, when you suggest things, will listen to you -- because they know they're kind of clueless themselves. And they actually take an active interest in what you say sometimes, which is kind of nice.

Guys who have never had that experience of trial and failure don't have much of a concept of what they don't know -- and they expect me to be able to do everything really easy for them . . . and have no idea why I might suggest doing certain things differently.

It's a win-win for everyone in my view.

thats what i do for a living is mix and produce for these type a folk, and yes it is an exciting little niche indeed, especially in the hip hop world.

 

[NL5]

Shakuan - No, it wasn't a worthless post. You brought up a good point about it being too expensive to experiment in a pro studio. A lot of great sounds have come out of experimentation.
The rest of your post is an interesting blend of both acknowledging and denying reality, or being unaware of reality. There are so many people that actually have the "it" that you speak of, that we'll never hear on the radio. There simply aren't enough slots in rotation to accomodate anywhere near all the people who really do have "it". There are lots of people you've heard on the radio that you think have "made it", that are broke, and not because they partied away their millions. Because of a thing called recoupment, which basically means you don't earn a dime till all the costs of making, distributing, promoting, etc. a record, you can have a "hit" record and not see a dime of it. Happens all the time. Most recording artists make their real mony from touring, not from record sales, and believe me, touring all the time IS work, really hard work.
When I'm not playing around with music, I work at what you just dropped out of. I love it, and let me tell you what I tell my daughter. The people who make the least money have to work the hardest for it. The education you've turned up your nose at is the key to making good money with your feet kicked up, vs sweating your ass off for a measly minimum wage check. I'm sorry, I'm coming off as a total jerk lecturing you like this, but I see guys all the time that I used to play the circuit with, who had "it", and said back then that if they pursued a career they wouldn't be hungry enough to make it. They didn't make it, and they're paying dearly for it now with nowhere jobs and nowhere lives. There is no reason you can't pursue parralell tracks, music and a career. Betting your future on making it in music, even if you have "it", is like quitting school to buy lottery tickets.
Ok, I'm done sticking my nose into your business where it doesn't belong, and I apologize.

Best of luck with whatever you do,
RD

Very good points.......