Predict the next trend in recording

[themagicmanmdt]

all the home based, self made people investing in and fueling all of the protools/prosumer stuff will hit a 'critical mass' of sorts, the music market will be flooded (with mostly crap, since a DAW a good engineer does not make), no one will recoup a dime from their $5k + investments, publishing wise or resale wise.

in the meantime, studios will migrate towards polarities - one, being studios that cater toward label bands, and can shell out money like there's no tomorrow. two, the budget recording spaces with creative engineers that won't break the bank. the middle ground seems to be slipping everywhere, from music to politics.

as far as RECORDING goes, i think that once the whole economy goes into this recession that's been looming over our heads, gear prices are going to to go down. get your high resale values now. musicians are only going to pinch more pennies and keep more hawkeyes on ebay and haggle with people here on the forums.

therefore, great records will start being made with different gear that's the 'norm' - trying out various mics that no one really knows too much about, and meeting them with various successes. the real high end audio equipment won't be what's heard or used - rather, experimentation with, say, a 12AY7 and a vintage shure ribbon, will be the new sound. not the default C12/U47/87.

/cynicism

it's early, i'm pissed, and i haven't had coffee yet. sorry, everyone.

but, seriously.

[vvv]

I predict an I-Pod based DAW, with Blue-tooth based miniature condensor mic's and a holo-mixer.

? '07 Vlayman Produx

[JGriffin]

I too wish micro-editing would go away. I mean, I'll move a bass or guitar or vocal around so that it hits with the drums if it's supposed to, but I hate zooming in as far as I can just to make sure something is perfectly aligned. Doesn't strike me as a very musical way to mix. Maybe it's because I'm new at this.

It's a technique, and it's not appropriate for some things, and highly appropriate for other things.

[JGriffin]

My thing with the drum tracks does not need to be local at all.

This month's EM has an article about online collaboration, and one about hiring session players online for over-the-internet overdubs.

[Gentleman Jim]

I'm gonna take my cracks at a few of the ideas here one at a time:

1) Web-based studio musicians for hire. There's esession.com and a few others. You can write parts and hire session players who send you the files, I think via FTP sites.

2) LESS compression? No way. People would blow their ears out listening to iPods.

3) Live to 2 track. I'm actually doing some mixing for a site called jamnow.com that does just that. It also has a component that allows people to play together remotely over the web and then save the results.

3a) Live to 2 track, (reprise). How about micro hard disk recorders, like the Korg MR-1 advertised in the current issue of TapeOp? Is there any simpler way to capture a performance and share it via myspace or where ever else? (I don't understand the 1 bit thing at all.)

But by and large I think there are so many options out there in the marketplace, from lo-fi indie to ultra slick hip hop, to retro rock, to minimalist ambient electronic, to 5.1 classical Blu Ray that I don't think we'll see a monolithic trend in sound ever again. You can't put all those genies back in the bottle at once. As far as a subtle trend, things will become more and more optimized for playback on earbuds and the like as portable mp3 devices become more ubiquitous in the years to come.

Maybe alternate mixes for low resolution download and high resolution download.

[robi3]

well i for one would like to see some spectral or partial based editing added to the DAWs -
so i can edit vertically instead of just linear - a couple of academic attempts out there got me really excited - but once that opens up - then we're at some really cool shit -


lots of great musician ship out there, and a&r is coming back - though not thru the big 4 -
i'm actually really excited by the stuff i'm hearing out there

on we go

[kayagum]

well i for one would like to see some spectral or partial based editing added to the DAWs -
so i can edit vertically instead of just linear - a couple of academic attempts out there got me really excited - but once that opens up - then we're at some really cool shit -

That day is already here: Adobe Audition has had spectral editing since version 1.5, and phase editing since 2.0. It's extremely useful, and for the price Audition is quite a deal. Version 3.0 is due out Nov 1.

[bewarethanatos]

2) LESS compression? No way. People would blow their ears out listening to iPods.

So then once all of those people are deaf, we have nothing to worry about. Dynamics shall rule once more!


...yeah

[bniesz]

Tends in engineering/mixing tend to follow trends in listening habbits. That is to say, engineers more and more mix to fit the way the masses will hear it. In the 90s, that was the "loudness war." when radio stations started cranking up the volume and over-compressing and limiting - mix and mastering engineer had to compete.

Nowadays, fewer people are listening to the radio and more are listening to MP3s, either purchased, stolen, or ripped. Hell, I'm one of them - all my CD are in my iTunes as AACs (which is better than MP3, but comparable). The think the next trend is going to be mimicking the audible artifacts in MP3 compression. Dipping out the high end around 16k, limiting the stereo field. That what the masses are going to become acoustomed to, and the artists will follow.

[kludge]

I see more change in music distribution than anything else. It's de rigueur for bands to put recordings online these days; you can't hardly get a gig without a Myspace page. The major labels are slipping every day, but recorded music as a whole keeps growing. It gets harder and harder to sell recordings, when so many people are giving them away. More and more big-label pop will make its money from cross-marketing, commercials, etc.

On the other hand, cheap tools are no substitute for either expertise or passion. Those who really care will still be able to make a tolerable living at music, doing live shows and selling cds. Really big studios will hurt as the major labels wind down, but smaller local studios will do just fine, as people realize that buying a Chinese mic and Pro Tools M-Powered won't make good recordings - it's about human skill and experience, not technology. Moreover, good MUSICIANS can get away with bad recordings more than bad musicians can polish their turds.

So it'll be small studios doing recordings for small bands, more and more, and music will be less and less big business and more a labor of love. Which ain't necessarily a bad thing.

[TheForgotten]

I see more change in music distribution than anything else. It's de rigueur for bands to put recordings online these days; you can't hardly get a gig without a Myspace page. The major labels are slipping every day, but recorded music as a whole keeps growing. It gets harder and harder to sell recordings, when so many people are giving them away. More and more big-label pop will make its money from cross-marketing, commercials, etc.

On the other hand, cheap tools are no substitute for either expertise or passion. Those who really care will still be able to make a tolerable living at music, doing live shows and selling cds. Really big studios will hurt as the major labels wind down, but smaller local studios will do just fine, as people realize that buying a Chinese mic and Pro Tools M-Powered won't make good recordings - it's about human skill and experience, not technology. Moreover, good MUSICIANS can get away with bad recordings more than bad musicians can polish their turds.

So it'll be small studios doing recordings for small bands, more and more, and music will be less and less big business and more a labor of love. Which ain't necessarily a bad thing.

Nailed it.
Agree in full on all points.

[dsw]

I wonder if it won't get to the point where no one sells their recordings. All given away online for sharing to promote the live performances and that's where you get paid.
CD's themselves are pretty much useless for my sons generation....they all use an Ipod or laptop and the CD itself just gets tossed, if ever purchased in the first place.

[JGriffin]

I wonder if it won't get to the point where no one sells their recordings. All given away online for sharing to promote the live performances and that's where you get paid.

Problematic for artists whose music is difficult to reproduce live, or for artists that are physically incapable of performing. It's been 40 years since Sergeant Pepper's (not to mention decades longer since musique concrete and tape music); can't we get away from this antiquated notion that recorded music has to be only a representation of a live performance?

[Professor T]

releasing individual tracks and letting people mix & arrange their own songs.

[firby]

I watched a PBS special about Stax about a month ago. I've been thinking about if that (and/or Motown) type business model would work. I'd love to do it.

I have decided to start offering drum tracks on a per song basis. if that works out I may try to start adding rhythm section tracks as well.

It seems like for it to work steadily, you'd need to be hooked up with a community of local musicians playing in a genre that needs a good live rhythm section.

Why does it have to be local?

It won't be local. Why pay 40 bucks to some guy when you can pay 4 dollars to some guy in ghana, africa. He's happy with 4 bucks and you are happy with the track.