|
|
-Additional Info-
This page is dedicated to share a little of our perspective on some of the latest trends in the industry. As for now, this page is dedicated to only a couple subjects to encourage recording artists to get the most bang for their buck in any recording studio. However, in the future, this very-well may eventually turned into a "Qs&As" page.
Pro Tools? Why Is It You Ask?
With the ever-growing popularity of inexpensive but powerful computer-based digital recording & editing systems, there is now a recording studio in some shape or form on just about every corner around the globe! While this makes true high-quality recording possible to everyone, at nearly any budget, this does not mean it is always achieved. In fact, there is plenty of material out there where it wasn't!
In the past, we have run into problems with trying to find small or indie budget full-album work to bring into our studio, due to not running Pro Tools. That in itself ousted us... We've never understood this... Unless it is a project often moving studio to studio, why should a band care what Digital Audio Workstation (or any other piece of gear, for that matter) the engineer decides to use, as long as the end product sounds good?
We’ve pondered quite often, why bands make studio choices strictly based on gear and engineer choices strictly based on how quickly he/she can create one take out of 20-takes in Pro Tools and what regionally recognized indie albums they've engineered. Anyone care what the studio and engineer outputs with the local "nobodys" they DO get, with the gear they have available at the time? Nope... It's all a matter of who you know...
Now we're sure not trying to bash Pro Tools (There are reasons it has become the standard, though "quality" has NEVER been one of them!), but we have to say, if a band can't trust the engineer to make purely an audio decision such as simply deciding which type of recording system would be best for the band (all factors considered, budget included), why is the band coming to him/her anyhow? Why not instead just spend $1200 for a Pro Tools Digi 002 with Pro Tools LE software and record it all at home themselves?
As the main engineer of a commercial studio in Berkley, CA once told me: "I don't care what the recording medium is, I'm gonna make it sound good no matter what." Still, our studio use to consistently loose business from potential-clients because they said they wanted to work in a studio with Pro Tools. Yes. A bad business move on our part, still, quality comes first with us and we knew Pro Tools was NOT going to all of a sudden improve the quality of our recordings on any level; and it hasn’t! The truth is: Any quality engineer can get a very high-quality product out of one system he/she chooses to use, just as well as another system they may choose!
You'd think what a studio outputs with the system they do have would speak for itself, and it does for one's personal projects, but when it comes to being a business, it has finally become apparent to us that it does not.
"Do you run Pro Tools?" That was the ONLY question we ever got for quite a long time. The sad thing is that so many think they're asking that question from a stand point of concern to the recording-quality!
"We want a studio with Pro Tools." That was the ONLY comment we ever got for quite a long time for reasoning as to why potential-clients would decide to go elsewhere.
We know that most people who contact us think of it as a quality issue... If it is a workflow and flexibility issue, most engineers can do whatever bands ask of them, with most systems out there now days. However, with all the digital-editing capabilities, it has become an excuse and a lot of bands have become rather sloppy. They want all this time-consuming digital-editing to fix their inability to play the song! Who knows how many times we've said it'd be easier and cheaper to just get it "right" while tracking! It's funny, how people want all the options digital-editing brings (It IS a tool that can and should be used when needed!), but so many do not have the time=money to pay for it. Time would be better spent practicing!
Now if it's a Moby-type project or something [example of your choice here], that is where we see the workflow and flexibility issue coming into play, but many times it is a straight-ahead indie rock band of some-type project.
Which brings it down to a convenient transferability issue. THAT we understand completely! Still it is not much more of a step to get from one type of system to a completely different type of system anymore.
Yes. We could have bought a Pro Tools Digi 002 system with Pro Tools LE a long time ago, except, we'd be wasting our money. It wouldn’t have provided us with more capabilities. And it certainly wouldn’t have increased our recording quality!
When all is said and done, the "REAL" Pro Tools with 24-32 Input/Output channels begins at around $20k and goes up from there. Most of the time in major studios (whether it is an indie-label, small-budget or major-label, big-budget), it is used as a stupidly insane, expensive digital recording & editing device along with an analog console of some-sort (whether an old console of choice or a brand new million dollar console) and outboard dynamic and FX proccessing, and mixed in the analog realm; just as we can do here!
We have since bought one of these expensive Pro Tools systems. The Pro Tools HD3 Accel. However, we’ve still kept our rates extremely low. The result? Well it remains the same since our doors first opened in 1997. True high-quality recording any serious musican can afford!
Please understand, the most essential element here in all this is NOT Pro Tools, or any other recording/editing system. Fellow engineers and studio owners throughout the world all stress: To be of top concern is quality of: musicianship, songwriting, instruments, room acoustics, microphones, microphone placement, microphone amplification, the engineer, the producer, etc. The great albums of yesteryear authenticate that; along with numerous currents that didn't follow today's norm of endless digital-editing.
Why Are You So Much Cheaper? Or Are You?
You know, no matter what, no matter how many different ways it’s looked at, EVERYTHING ALWAYS comes back to money & the talent the recording artist(s)...
The point being: Budgets are dwindling daily and something has to give; be it less songs, a lower hourly rate studio, less time in the studio, or AT LEAST doubling the budget. Unfortunately, what is nearly always chosen is less time spent in the studio.
So, bands and indie labels have a budget of no more than half (actually, a lot of times, as little as a tenth) of what they really need to spend (within reason) on a tiny local studio album. Still they don't ever think twice about shelling-out $50/hr.-$100/hr. so that they can use tape to get the "warmth" and/or Pro Tools for all the editing (that doesn’t get utilized because there's no time), mix in analog with automation (which doesn't get utilized because there's no time for programming and documenting all the outboard gear settings and then time to recall it all when needed), have $50k-$300k room(s) that they don't utilize because there's no time to play with the room (it's more like "Let's throw up a couple mics in the room and maybe we'll get something cool... Maybe we won't."), and so that they can get as good of a recording as the regionally-recognized band's album that the studio recorded on a budget of 2-10 Xs their budget. And then they rush absolutely everything! The result is an expensive wad of crap! It's not because the studio or engineer isn't capable of turning out quality work, it's that there's only so much the band (even from simply getting a good performance) and engineer can do given the little bit of time available!
Frankly, unless you're dealing with major labels, top indie labels, or anyone (be it local bands/artists, tiny local indie labels, small regional indie labels, or anyone else) throwing somewhat reasonable money into a project for studio time in these $50-$100/hr. studios, artists should be looking for the cheapest studio they can find that outputs quality work of the local "nobodys" the studio does get with gear they have available so that they can spend a reasonable amount of time in the studio and NOT be playing the above mentioned games!
We hope this page has been insightful.
|
|
