A moment if you will...

It's been a little while since I've given my blog some attention.  Lately, I've been in the middle of a huge boost in all sorts of things.  Positive attitude will take you very far when you have the means and direction to do so!  I thought I'd take a moment to stop, think, and reflect on all that's been going on and all that i've been building up to come in the near (and distant) future.  Most of this being business related of course.

I've really shifted gears this past month and started to take command of my career from a different angle.  A much fresher approach that would be far more likely to survive and lead to success in this age than traditional modes of business might fair. 

Let met first start off by just recounting what's been keeping me so busy.  Realizing that teetering on the edge of debt and "joblessness" isn't as black and white as it sounds, I've been for lack of better terms "unemployed" for a while now.  This time has given me much room for creative re-envisioning myself as well as my "business".  I've believed for a long time now that what I do is not easy, and that as I deal more and more with others who are either new to the industry or trying to find their own niche that it's not so much about "raw talent", "incredible skill" or any craft or creative notion that creates a stigmatic view on the multimedia and entertainment industries...  It's knowledge and education.

I've grown almost hyper-aware of the fact that as we cruise ever faster into this era, reality has taught us some hard lessons (whether you're aware of them or not).  One being customer centricity. It's a word, really.  There's a serious stigma in the world of music production and that is the vagueness and misconceptions that float around because of the sheer multitude of things that go on within it.

I've talked about the industry view before, mentioning the huge change in the landscape away from the big recording studio models that have now all but completely disappeared in the face of the home/project studios.  Technoloy has made it so affordable and accessible to people that it's simply more economical to go this route than to shell out massive amounts of cash to doing a full scale recording studio production with top-end gear and get that legacy sound that's so "sought after".  It's also put a lot of the power directly in the hands of those who many not understand or grasp the fundamentals these technologies are based on.

Today, the stigma is about identity.  Who does what, what things do, how things work (with regards to the music industry).  I had an up-and-coming rap artist approach me who's excited to make his passion a sustainable career.  Admittedly, the problem is he knows nothing about the music industry. 

So here's where I reveal what I've been "re-envisioning", I'm no longer just approaching my business as a tool and service for creating a product; I must play the role an educator.  I want my clients to be able to walk away from a project / session / consultation enriched with new knowledge; knowledge I am happy and eager to share with them.  I'm finding this approach to my business already immediately more rewarding to everyone than just simply treating them like my best bud who happens to be interested in a service being rendered.

Today, I met someone who used to run their own studio and actually composed some music for E-40.  A ghost-writer if you will.  Not lyrically of course, but compositional.  He admitted that a lot of people don't understand what a ghost writer is.  He seemed pretty amazed that I even knew what he was talking about, as I was discussing with him that I run my own studio as well.  I, however, was surprised when he asked me about how I approach my artists.  He was more interested in knowing just what I do for my clients beyond JUST being a facility someone can come to record. 

This is very smart for two reasons, one being that clearly he knows the difference between someone calling themselves a studio with minimal gear and minimal knowledge versus someone who may have a small setup but knows how to get quality recordings (of which the latter are few and far in between). 

Second, it's not just the quality that's in question, but it really comes down to the "bang for your buck" factor.  We all expect our dollar to work for us more; whether it's longer warranties, better customer service from the company that provided us the product; as a studio engineer I'm more involved with my clients than one would expect especially when I'm "contract-based".

Here's a scenario.  I charge $100 for a 4 hour session for simple vocal recording.  My clients come in, they have provided a mixed track ready to for them to perform to.  What I do is not only act as an operator for all the gear making sure things are set and working correctly and being able to press record stop and playback for them...  I offer my critique and opinion.  It's established that i'm only human and my personal tastes will obviously affect my judgement of their performance.  The bigger picture here is that they understand that my critique is meant to be constructive as i only care about helping them achieve the best possible end result just as surely as they do.  I'm not offended if they don't take my advice, and likewise would be happy to "be schooled" when I'm dealing with a musical genre subject they might know way better than me.  In other words, I'm as open to being educated, as I am about educating them.

In some circles or schools of thought, everything should come with a price tag.  An engineer should just manage the session, if the client can afford a producer, the producer is the one with the opinions, and marketing should be left to the labels.  You can see why this doesn't work if you simply look around the internet, especially with indie labels and kickstarter projects everywhere.  A budding artist will dream of being signed by a label, a signed artist will dream of independence and creative freedom.

We have to get smarter about our dreams, passions, and goals.  Education and knowledge are the best tools to achieving any of those. 

I'm in the middle of a huge push to get all the underpinnings of this business solidified and established.  I've started pre-production on a new instructional video series I plan to launch in the near future on my youtube channel.  I'm reaching out to several companies right now as well (including Gobbler, Rode Mics, and more) and connecting with some HUGE communities who are all thirsty for knowledge I can share with them (including Film Riot, IndyMogul, etc..). 

To give you an idea of the range of topics I'm covering, here's a list of the open scripts I have in development right now.

1. Studio essentials monitor setup and critical listening
2. QUICKTIPS Audio Fundamentals 1 - Frequency versus wavelength
3. QUICKTIPS Audio Fundamentals 2 - Domains
4. Tips for online collaborative workflows
5. Recording Audio for Video - Low-no budget Mic solutions
6. QUICKTIPS Audio for Video - Bass Management
 So here's where you come in.  In the comments section below, please tell me what you would be interested in learning about, share your passions, and even feel free to share your experiences to answer another person's question if you wish.  Then, share this article with your friends and find out what they're interested in learning!

Something's been on my mind...

A dragging economy, sluggish and self-serving government, broken political system; the list goes on.  Today there’s more wrong with this society than there were good intentions founding it some 200+ years ago.  We’re no longer in the era of fear of alienation.  What some would consider the “Era of information communication” is under constant political attack with bills that want to sway for control over the freedom of the internet.  Gone are the days of specialization and “profession”, this Era is something totally new.  It’s beyond just the DIY era; technology is so affordable and easy to access that even without much education someone is able to put together a small plan and call themselves a professional in whatever industry they like, with or without license or background.  That’s only half the problem, the government (and the special interest groups looking out for themselves) continually make it unscrupulous to enter into business, do business, or get out of business than ever before. 

During a report on CBS earlier this week I learned that currently in Stockton the city charges $52,000 in fees and anywhere from six to nine months to approve a single home building project.  A bit high considering the estimated median household income sits at around $45,000 (Stockton CityProfile).  In Washington DC, Interior Designers managed to get laws fabricated to secure their market for themselves by introducing legislation that requires strict and expensive entry as a newcomer.  Not only does this allow the current Interior Designers to be grandfathered in, it’s a win-win for the local and state governments.




The recording industry has experienced a complete change in landscape over the last 2 decades which in the last quarter of that span has completely shifted.  In 2009 the estimation was that half of LA’s commercial music business was up for grabs due to the economic climate change (Recordingstudios are being left out of the mix).  It used to be the kind of landscape where bands focused on writing and creating the musical and creative material that connected with an audience, the labels focused on how to market the act, and studios and producers practiced the obscure art of marrying the ideas the act created – the art; to a finished and polished product the label could sell.  Today, the major label studio is succeeded by the home studio; often powered by a single computer and software (which one could easily question how some of the software was acquired).  Now, a single person can pick up an instrument, hit record, and release a song or an album without so much as a single course supporting any skill in the various trades they’re covering.

The Film and TV industries have just started feeling similar effects over the years as the technology changes the landscape and it’s only going to make leaps in the harder direction (ThePost-recession model:  Fewer Jobs inDigital Hollywood).  In my opinion, they haven’t yet felt the turbulence the music industry has, but that’s only because the video technology shifts have not yet happened; not completely at least.  HDSLR revolution has only just begun to remold the landscape.  HDTV is being met with 3d stereo imagery; which will get superseded very soon as resolution wars continue to shoot into the 2k and 4k consumer devices. 

Even big industry moguls are trying to adapt to the quickly changing landscape, adopting digital distribution and copyright licensing methods to keep the business alive.  But my guess is that not too far from now the film and TV industry will be replaced with the ubiquity of the internet, the revolution of HDSLR empowering a single person the ability to create from the comfort of his or her own home; as our major news and Television network outlets are already trying to shift to an internet-centric medium.  The big hustle then will be proof of intellectual property.

Copyright law is severely outdated and special interest groups are kicking into overdrive to try to gain some control of the marketplace and protect what they can of their precious life’s work.  Due to the freedom of the internet and affordable technology combined the music industry has crashed down on itself.  Most of the market relies on impulse buys of singles on iTunes and digital distribution while music departments of brick and mortar stores sit with nearly full racks of physical cd’s which sales have plummeted further than ever before. (AlbumSales Hit Record Lows. Again.).

Meanwhile, [special interest groups] bankrolled by corporations with an agenda for self-preservation fight to pass bill after bill for control of the internet effectively “blacklisting” sites from U.S. Citizens by gaining unprecedented access to ISP’s and internet gateways (PROTECTIP Renamed E-PARASITE Act). This would force users to be unable to access a particular site because of copyright infringing material residing on it without so much as a notice to the site administration to allow them the chance to take down the offending material (House Hearing on SOPA).  What’s next? I can easily imagine not being able to publish anything to an online website without FIRST getting a copyright claim number to show proof your original material was indeed created by you.  Youtube, Twitter, instaGram and numerous other social media networks and services would effectively get shut down, at least in the U.S.  (Congressto Make Streaming A Felony).

So that’s not so bad right?  Finally making people take accountability for what they publish!  Maybe this turn could lead to better context of the internet instead of the sea of half-truths and unfounded opinion and personal trash; we could ideally separate from the flood of social newscasters.  Except in order to submit a copyright claim currently in the U.S. there is a global charge of $45.  Not bad… but every time you want to publish something you need to submit it before you can publish.  Government would make a killing off this, especially if you “tweet” every 10 minutes, or post up a picture from your iPhone on Facebook frequently just to share with the world whatever it was you wanted to share.

Here’s the downside, social media and the internet in general has been the final frontier in free speech and one of the few freedoms Americans and the world proudly defend.  Being required to show proof of ownership to publish a post on a social media site or upload that photo of your darling adorable kid could be considered a gross invasion of privacy and profiling.  Your entire life being categorized processed and stored for records at government facilities and databases on file no matter how innocent or suspicious it looks.  Suddenly, wanting to share your opinions behind the veil of the internet doesn’t feel so empowering anymore.

What’s this all mean?  Honestly… I have no clue.  I’m a big proponent in the words spoken by a very famousCharlie Chaplin, “we have developed speed, machinery that gives us abundance has left us in want.”  I believe it is true, that we have lost humanity to the cold and isolation of technology.  Technology itself has become our avatar.  Nowadays audiences are so floored and captured not by intriguing tales with great morals, but to the intricate and believably photorealistic special effects and every ounce of adrenaline-fueled action packed onto the screen.  Of course, the film and TV industry is not all action.  Each genre has an idiom but most are self-serving, shallow, or pedantic.

We concern ourselves more with the “feel good now” and the aesthetic than we do on the purpose, and true nature.  Even more sinister at the heart of general social culture is the disinterest in global good.  Make no mistake, I do not point a finger at any individual and say that he or she is unwilling to learn at all; most are just so concerned with only the individual goal, that anything beyond in science or nature that does not directly relate to that goal is usually not worth learning about.

All throughout grade school and high school I shared that sentiment.  Something changed though; as I reached adulthood I found myself curious about every facet of life, nature, and the world.  I jump at the chance to absorb new knowledge about something when I am introduced to it.  Now, I yearn for deeper understanding, even philosophical; I don’t just question what, but why.  Especially with these kinds of issues our society currently faces, I ask why about politics, laws, even new technological emergence. 

I have a deep passion for audio, an affinity for learning, and an equal passion for film making and the dying art of telling stories.  So naturally, when I see a film, play a videogame, or read a book, I tend to experience it differently than most.  The first time when I watched Jurassic Park and the T-Rex pounded its way onto the screen and roared a majestic roar, the sound evoked a visceral feeling in my gut that resonated with some undefined emotion; it makes me smile and drop my jaw in awe, and instantly wonder how the creators made that sound.  What sources natural or synthesized did it take to get it to sound that way, and how did they make it sound so believable.  In fact, what was it about that particular sound and sight on screen that made it so believable?  I’ll bet when most people watch a TV show or film (at least for the very first time) they probably don’t wonder these things.  I know, some of you will; we apparently have something in common: we’re not the majority.

Today, in a world where the line between what’s real and what’s fabricated is so hard to distinguish, it forces us to scrutinize and become all the more skeptical.  Suddenly, everyone’s a critic.  People have such potent and distasteful opinions of our own media, yet we consume it still like it’s quite the opposite.  We all focus on the negative and explain how we would have done it differently (if not better).  We all aspire, we all have ideas, but in the wake of technology advancing beyond our capacity for compassion and kindness, have we lost touch with humanity, or is humanity evolving into this beast?

What industry are you in or aspire to get into?  What challenges have you faced in it, and what ideas can you think of to creatively troubleshoot the issues at hand?

Figuratively speaking...

I've been perplexed by the plethora of music "wannabes" that are claiming fame to their names and have no following and no exposure (like myself, except I don't carry that delusional ego).  I've also noticed a growing number of self-titled critics of music and the industry and noticed they have no experience in music whatsoever other than they listen to it (not even avidly at that).  These days that old saying really seems to ring true that "everyone's a critic".  Simultaneously, "they" criticize with no respect.

The superfluous wave of criticism got me stirred up.  I've been avidly participating in this industry for the better half of a decade semi-professionally at the very least.  With 2 published albums  (1, 2) I know the game well enough to have some say.  I bet I've worked harder at honing my craft and building my business than most of those self-claimed critics do at their day jobs (no offense).  Not to say that anyone working right now isn't working their butts off, but let's face it, a multitude of the work out there is a whole lot easier (at least mentally) than trying to build a brand and identity in music.  It's time consuming, relentless, and extremely iffy at best.  Music has a notorious reputation for being the "bad choice" as a career.  That reason is the primary reason why most musicians never move past hobby-stage.

I'm sure at some point in life everyone's at least touched a musical instrument - or if not, at least seen a band or someone perform live.  Any serious musician can attest to the classic case of parental annoyance if they were lucky enough to start at a young age: "Stop playing that and do your homework," education is more important, is it not?  In today's economic climate this might sound something more like "put down that instrument and get a real job already".   The musically talented will surely tell you it's still taken them years to develop any sort of sound.

But we all know this already, don't we?  we know some distant relative or friend of a friend; or perhaps a coworker's dorm-room mate's boyfriend's uncle's cat who was owned by a complete stranger that by day works at a local retail chain or some conglomerate fast food resturaunt (because let's face it, fast food chains are the last American business model still standing proud) and then leads a 2nd life by night playing shows whenever they can scrounge any sort of time free to find a place willing to let them go up in front of any audience to play.

Truthfully, how often do we go to shows? I'm willing to bet a majority of us out there have only been to maybe 2 or 3 concerts in a lifetime, 2-6 small coffee-house shows with a small-time band playing small-time songs wanting to sound as big and amazing as possible, in front of maybe 10+ crowd who's really just there for the friends who invited friends to come check out "Hey, it's that one band" and then pointing "look, it's (insert random acquaintance)" as the crowd just kind of lackadaisically sits there half-interested in wanting to get up and dance and half-daydreaming of being somewhere else. My guess is that somewhere else is with their other "cool" friends who went off to the bay area to go club-hopping and chugging alcoholic beverages like it's a last-man-standing contest.

Anyone who's attempted to do so has faced the multitude of obstacles: mental, emotional, physical, and financial, that come with trying to create a successful music career.  Let's start with Billy (completely random name for my hypothetical situation) here.  Billy's 23, fresh out of college with a degree in guess what?... Business Communications!  Sounds great, but his passion is music.  He's been playing guitar self-taught since he was 12.  Awesome!  Motivated guy...  He learned a few chops from playing along to Van Halen and got sucked into the hardcore scene before Emo kids took it over and trashed the place before leaving like it was someone else's house party and the neighbors just called the cops.

Billy Found a few friends who decided to pick up drums, bass guitar, and started jamming together on regular occasion.  They spend a few months learning a couple cover songs and decide to be bold and write a few of their own.  Already 4 months in and they're all feeling confident, and Billy wants to take it to the next level.  Before they can go anywhere, the band needs a frontman (also commonly known as a singer).  Everyone else is too afraid to step up so Billy takes the limelight and grabs a mic.  The first sounds of this band with vocals are... less than pleasant.

Alright, Billy's hopes are a little rattled but he can shake it off; so singing isn't as easy as belting it out into the microphone.  He spends more time practicing vocals and guitar together and memorizing their new material whenever the band can't get together to practice. Which is usually 1-2 times a week for a few hours a day at most, since everyone has part time jobs and that awful jazz called bills.  After another month (that makes 5 in total) they are playing confidently in their garage for the neighbors to hear (with the occasional call to the cops about the noise of course).  Billy and the band's lucky day just happens to be now because there's a battle of the bands at the new local music shop that just opened up in town.  Things are looking great, opportunity's-a-knockin'!  Billy signs up the band and has one more month to get everything dialed in.

Their first time on stage at 6 months in, and everyone's got jitters and they rush through their material with anything but finesse.  It's alright though, people in the audience liked them enough to want to hear more.  Billy has the idea that the band should get serious, see's the audience reaction and wants to make the next step...  I bet you all right now Billy is only thinking one thing in his head... "How cool is this!?"

Folks, this might seem easy, but it's tough.  You know why? We haven't even started yet.  Billy doesn't have the first clue about building a business.  Business?!?!  What am I talking about?  This is music!  This is going on stage and performing killer tunes and getting noticed and signing to huge labels and making tons of money and making awesome records that sell like Ihop's pancakes on Sunday after church!  To everyone who just agreed with that sentence, close this page, go back to looking up porn (guys) or oogling at the latest pictures of Channing Tatum (girls) and get some rest, you've got a long day of work ahead of you at your day job tomorrow, which I highly suggest you keep.

So, having just offended everyone out there by now, you can guess that jaded view of the music industry is pretty old, but it's still true to a lot of people.  Because they don't know what exactly goes on behind those closed doors they assume it's magic.  So, just what goes into the business of music?  We all think we know the answer, and it should be simple enough right?  You're a band/artist and you perform in front of people, make money, produce cd's and gain lots of exposure... right?  That sentence is such a gross underestimation of just how complex the whole process can be.

First off, just how does a band go from local garage band to being a professional band?  That's easy to answer, not so easy to do.  Billy's band got lucky, and started gaining exposure the moment they played at a battle of the bands contest.  Most bands out there don't start that way.  In fact, most of them started in high school playing gigs at festivals, markets; wherever they could get a PA system and someone willing and desperate enough to put an act in front of any audience (usually for free for both).  After all, Billy and the band only make enough money at their jobs to save up for the occassional new set of strings, drum-heads, and a couple cables.  Billy took the extra effort to save up for a small practice PA system to get the vocals into the practice sessions.  Now that's taking initiative.  But let's add up just how much would be spent to create this band so far:

• Starter Bass: $180
• Bass Amp for practice and gigs: $650
• An instrument cable: $15
• Sturdy strap: $25
• Extra set of Bass strings for backup: $8
• A Bassist needs some picks for certain songs right?:  $4
• Bassist needs a care kit: $23
• Gig bag for instrument as well: $30
• Total for the bassist = Roughly about $1,030 after tax

___

• Decent quality guitar for the frontman: $700
• Guitar amp with all the cool bells and whistles: $665
• Instrument cable: $15
• Guitarist needs some picks too:  $4
• Definitely needs a stylish strap: $20
• That amp needs a speaker cable: $5
• Definitely needs some good guitar strings for shredding: $12
• Guitarist needs an instrument care kit: $23
• Gig bag for the instrument of course: $15
• Total for the guitarist = roughly $1,610 after tax

___

• A decent drum kit:  $650
• Snare stand: $47
• A cymbal pack: $570
• Hihat stand: $40
• A crash stand: $32
• A ride stand: $48
• A few sets of drumsticks (includes a drum key): $20
• Kick drum pedal: $100
• Extra heads for snare and toms:  $45
• Extra head for the kick: $36
• Some padding to soften the kick: $21
• and a drum throne: $30
• Total for the Drummer = roughly $1,810 after tax

___ 

• Frontman's heavy duty wireless mic setup, because we're hip nowadays: $640
• Small practice PA system: $340
• Long Speaker cables x2: $30 ($15 each)
• Mic cable for the wireless setup to the PA system: $5
• Mic stand, so the frontman can play his guitar and sing: $20
• Frontman equipment total =  roughly $1,140 after tax

So, while many of them have built up this collection of gear of a number of years playing and practicing.  Collectively,  they've invested around $5,600 into their gear.  Now, on top of that, there's things that need replacing and care regularly for these active "cool-cats" of rock.  The consumables the band needs to upkeep their gear are equally as important, so lets say they stay on top of everything really well, and actually have to go through these on a monthly basis:

• Set of Bass strings: $8
• Bassist might need new picks, he and the guitarist share:  $4
• Good guitar strings for shredding: $12
• New heads for snare and toms:  $45
• New head for the kick: $36
• New sticks as the old ones break and wear down: $8
• Total cost per month = $125, collectively

That's some serious cash right there already.  I bet none of you were expecting this huge of a list, were you.  Well, it's definitely a whole heck of a lot cheaper than what it used to be!  Compare this to the massive collection of guitars Eric Clapton just has to have, or the huge concerts being put on by the chart topping bands and you can imagine how that price quickly escalates;  drummers buy new gear to get different sounds, guitarists upgrade their "rig" and expand their sounds, Bassists get bigger and punchier stacks to get that "kick your chest in the balls" low-end.  It doesn't end there either!  What about capturing that sound?  After all we're talking about the music industry right? Then we must be talking about CD's and albums.
 
Alright boys and girls, time to get out your wayback machine (yeah I said it, i'm lame).  Let's head back to Abbey Road Studios in London where that famous old band of the 60's recorded most of their albums: The Beatles.  Why the Beatles?  Because.  There, I figured that got your attention.  Let's take a look at how a typical breakdown of all the pieces in play here.

First off, there's all the band members, 3 guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer.  Vocals would be carried out by various members, a couple more prominently than others.  There's the band's manager, and then there's the label, (referencing their most known album Abbey Road)Apple, and then the entity of the recording studio and it's engineers and producers etc...  Right away you can tell the number of people involved in this endeavor of recording their album is pretty numerous.  That's a lot of mouths to feed, all expecting to get paid for their work.  Next up, the facilities, location, and the equipment, the spaces aren't tiny or cheap on rent, and I'm sure you can't even imagine for that time the equipment is outrageously expensive to get and maintain / operate.  This takes a serious amount of money to make something as simple as an album that someone can pick up at a store and listen to.

Just take a look at some of the preview page over at The Beatles' Book site.  The book is an invaluable resource for any producer, recording engineer, musician, agent, or any other job in the music business model as it has real-world documentary insight into every aspect of it.  Just look at the breakdown of the equipment categories they cover:

• Mixers
• Outboard gear
• Microphones
• Tape Machines
• Speakers & Amplifiers\
• Effects
• Studio Instruments

The multitude of technology (including the musical instruments) takes a lot of know-how to run, and a lot of money to acquire, and maintain.  Those recording engineers wore lab coats; geeky electronics geniuses with electrical engineering chops at the very most.  Couple that with the era and that technology in general was still very young and not commonplace.  Imagine how outrageously expensive that kind of equipment must have been.  This is the peak of the Major Label Studio era as I like to call it.

This stuff is so enormous in cost and skill to use that it's reserved for only the highest caliber businesses and specialists (cough - recording studios - cough) because most laymen wouldn't have the first clue how to operate any of it.  This sort of specialization was key to the success of the music industry then, and possibly why music was so different compared to today's music.  Songwriters focused on writing songs, performers focused on practicing and performing them, and the recording studios with engineers and music producers focused on recording and producing records.

Pretty simple right?  If only it had stopped there.  Technology kept advancing and getting more and more affordable.  Not just that, it kept getting better!  Fast forward to the mid 70's with the introduction of digital domain making it's debut in the audio industry via Tape storage.  Soon, in the mid 80's the revolution of the compact disc fueld by the new era of digital recording blows the doors to the music scene wide open.  Let's take U2 for example, Pretty big name and even bigger studios abroad with their Joshua Tree album.

Digital technology is beginning to sweep across the industry making it more affordable, but the Analog domain technology is still the mainstay as it's been a proven and reliable way of recording; and bands like U2 are doing some pretty amazing things with the technology at more cost-effective prices than before.  Things continue to get cheaper, but again, still reserved for big budget studios.  For this album, they had the funding and actually set up a studio in a house outside Dublin, Ireland.  Had technology not improved it wouldn't have been possible for them to do this.  Simultaneously, a new home-based technology was sprouting alongside computers - Pro Tools.

When Pro Tools hit the mass market and peaked as computers were gaining momentum in the consumer marketplace, It would slowly consume the music world from the bottom up.  This was the first DAW to come around and catered to home musicians wanting to record but couldn't afford access to big time studios.  As we progress through the 90's and now, technology picked up at such an amazing pace, that recording technology is more affordable, and ubiquitous than ever.  In fact, it's actually 10x cheaper to start a home "recording studio" than it is to buy a car!  This is the part where I get tricky with numbers.   Want to see just how it breaks down?

Let's consider all the equipment that's really necessary for a single musician to start recording his or herself at home, absolute barebones basics:

• First off, you'll need one of these: A typical desktop nowadays can easily handle audio recording tasks, so with a screen, keyboard, mouse and tower (full package) expect around $1,000 U.S.D.
• 2nd off, you're going to need a DAW: The industry standard Pro Tools is usually a safe bet though there are plenty of others out there just as good to choose from, as well as the plethora of equipment it can take to get audio recorded.. but for now, this nice little package will be more than enough to get you started: Guitar Center's awesome package sets you back a cool $680 roughly, covers a recording interface, software, microphone, stand, cables, and studio reference speakers, pretty sweet eh?
• So, this is where it starts to get unique according to the individual, so I'm going to say that in this hip, digital-heavy lifestyle we've all adopted in this day and age that computer saavy folk will probably have no issues with me referencing virtual instruments instead of physical ones.  My first guess is at this point you'll probably need some type of input device: a USB keyboard should do fine at roughly $170, we're already starting to push beyond barebones basics here.
• Seeing as how the pop culture right now centers around hip-hop, pop-dance, electronic stuff I won't spend any money on actual music gear here because that's actually pretty expensive nowadays when you add up all the instruments one could collect.  For now, let's round up some virtual instruments instead that would more than cover what's needed to make "hit tunes". Reason does a fairly good job; there are literally a ton of specialist and high-quality professional Virtual Instruments from around the globe that can do better, but Reason has a very eclectic library of sounds to choose from that are all production quality-ready for any composer / artist to produce complete songs in.  That's going to be another $300.  Learning curves aside, the internet has infinite educational value nowadays: First google search result brought me Free Reason tutorial videos

Assuming you've already got creative ideas and the experience in crafting music know-how to pull off what you want to achieve, all that's left is to start recording right?  So, at a minimal budget of somewhere around $2,500 U.S.D. we've got a home-based recording studio that actually is extremely powerful.  Did I come in under my mark? I believe I did.  In fact, It's actually cheaper than starting a real band.  Remember Billy's band?  That was a collective $5,600 just for the instruments and gear to perform the music.  To top that off, they'd have to spend weeks writing the songs and practicing them to near-perfection.

So, here we are in this long-ass blog about the music industry and you're probably thinking "wow he's totally lost his argument".  It really couldn't be any easier now to make music than ever before, and this is totally 100% true.  Well, Let's bring Billy in.  Gone is his band, he just wants to write the music on his own without all the fuss of the politics that go on; the drummer can't keep it straight with the scheduling, and the bassist can't focus long enough in between the phone calls from all the hot chicks wanting to get with the sexy bass-player (because he plays bass, right?). Now, with all that noise out of the picture Billy can get in control of the creative license for a moment and actually make something.

The virtual instruments give him a good sound for the bass and the drums, and with Pro Tools and his microphone he can record his live guitar sounds and his voice and viola, instant song!  Wow, that's easy!  Why aren't you all doing it too?!  Except recording is only 1 tiny phase, and usually it happens way later in the process.

What Billy just did was a Demo.  Sorry Billy, but you're guitar skills are better than your audio engineering chops.  You've got a ton of "bleed" sound coming from your speakers into your microphone while you were recording guitar and vocals; Not just that, but the recording just doesn't sound right.  The virtual instruments sound fine aside from some things being somewhat louder than others should be.  What's the problem?  Why doesn't it sound like a cd?

Here's the secret the recording studios don't want anyone to know.  This is super secret because once the word is out... it won't change a thing.  Those recording studios have tons of expensive gear, we know this; Billy knows this.  Well that recording software Pro Tools must not be good enough, right?  Except Pro Tools is actually in over 80% of all studios (big budget and project alike) as even studios are centered around the DAW and Computer now.  In fact, they tend to use the same effects you get with the software that Billy and we all get with our version we buy from the local music shop.

It must be the mic, crappy low-end technology showing its true colors it seems!  Also not true,  read any of the plethora of recording trade magazines like EQ (go ahead, take a look at the $100 SM57 credited), Mix, Computer Music, and they'll quote famous engineers giving away their dirty studio secrets recording the latest chart topping-band and you'll find the microphone lockers have a surprising number of "cheap", or "lowend" mics.

Then perhaps it's just your room, sorry Billy; that's it - it's the room man.  While the room really does make all the difference in a recording, Billy was recording pretty "dry" sounds where the sound of the room wasn't majorly affecting the sound.  So what is it then?  First off, I can tell you Billy doesn't know the first thing about what happens after recording.  It turns out there's actually some more steps involved.  While I show Billy here where the Compressors, limiters, EQ,'s and other effects plugins are in Pro Tools and Reason; he's only going to get more and more confused and the "allure" of making music easy is going up in smoke with his temper.  Calm down there bro, your recordings aren't half-bad.

What sets apart those huge sounding professional cd's coming from big bands?  Go grab your favorite cd and take a look at the names on there.  I can guarantee you'll find way more than just the band members.  It takes engineers, assistant engineers, mixing engineers, assistant mixing engineers, mastering engineers, assistant mastering engineers, digital editors, producers, A&R personnel, A&R Coordinators, Marketing Directors, photographers, album design artists, guitar technicians, Drum Technicians, studio or session musicians for backing parts, lackies, and sometimes even outside influences (composers, lyricists, etc..) that have their spot in the project.  Those engineers spent their time learning about compressors and E.Q. and microphone polar patterns , the producers learned how to manage the project and coordinate and budget the stages of production for the artist and record label; everyone has their place and something they've specialized in.

Did you know there's actually 3 stages of making an album?  Billy didn't.  Billy's still stuck in the recording phase, and already there's a lot to manage and consider at that point.  The final stage that comes next is actually even more tedious and time consuming, and that's the art and craft of mixing, and mastering.  In fact, these two processes are so in-depth that you can find studios that only specialize in one particular process.

Even with the revolution of the digital era and virtual processing on the computer bringing down costs, Billy could easily take a few years just to learn how himself, or even just barely start using the equipment he already has for all these functions.  After all, the the stuff he bought is certainly capable of it.  The labor involved is so intensive, because there is so much to control and so much to be aware of that Billy here can just take his recording to one of those studios and spend a fraction of the tuition it would cost him to go to school and try to learn how to do it himself.  Or at the very least, save him countless hours toiling away trying to achieve that "cd" sound when a professional can do it promptly and with precision.

I know Billy personally, he started music at the same time I did when I was a kid.  I went down the recording path and Billy took the performer path.  While we are at similar levels of skill we are worlds apart in our experiences in our craft.  Billy would have to spend years catching up to me as a recording artist and engineer.  Likewise, I would have to put in countless hours a day practicing an instrument or the like to catch up to Billy's finesse with his guitar solos.  That said, there is a hefty amount of respect to be had for any particular function in the industry as we witness the power of making music shift from the hands of the big budget studio to the hands of the individual.

There's an endless sea of music being put out from just about everyone on the planet it seems nowadays.  Some of it is amazing, but it's rarer now to find great compositions or beautiful masterpieces as we've entered the era of digital consumerism.  The landscape of the music industry has changed from creative war reserved for those with the specialists of their craft, to that of the DIY music house.  We've witnessed the fall of rock and the live band being the main attraction to the perfect auto-tuned electronic pop and dance tunes played until they're played out at clubs; those same songs get recycled in an endless wave of remixes by the DJ-gone-producer.