DO BRAIN SURGERY AT HOME

[joelkriske]

um...
write good music, record it as best you can?
anyone?

a good song will always carry the day, this is a rant thread.

[r0ck1r0ck2]

fine...i agree....
The Mountain Goats...still better than Palace....

[mjau]

Again, like I said before. He never said anything about people recording in general. I think his rant was more based on people charging for their services when they are not qualified to be doing so.

Well, there's a difference in being qualified to "charge for services" and being qualified to deliver those services on a "professional" level. I am wholly qualified to ask $10, $100, or $1,000 per day for my services as a recordist, as an historian, as a furniture designer, or as a brain surgeon. That someone would pay me a grand per day to design their furniture is a different thing altogether. The market in general, and individual decisions in particular, will dictate how and when my services are utilized at my costs.
I think what really gets to Sear is that the market for what he does has been thrown open with the introduction, in part, of ultra low-cost production and materials.

His analogy is not very creative. As one who prides himself on my supreme ability to deliver the utmost in analogy goodness, I find his usage uninspiring and offensive. Analogies, and sarcasm, should be left in the hands of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde. I'd really like him to pursue an advanced degree in creative writing before utilizing any more analogies. What has he done to my art?!

[chris harris]

Again, like I said before. He never said anything about people recording in general. I think his rant was more based on people charging for their services when they are not qualified to be doing so.

Well, there's a difference in being qualified to "charge for services" and being qualified to deliver those services on a "professional" level. I am wholly qualified to ask $10, $100, or $1,000 per day for my services as a recordist, as an historian, as a furniture designer, or as a brian surgeon. That someone would pay me a grand per day to design their furniture is a different thing altogether. The market in general, and individual decisions in particular, will dictate how and when my services are utilized at my costs.
I think what really gets to Sear is that the market for what he does has been thrown open with the introduction, in part, of ultra low-cost production and materials.

His analogy is not very creative. As one who prides himself on my supreme ability to deliver the utmost in analogy goodness, I find his usage uninspiring and offensive. Analogies, and sarcasm, should be left in the hands of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde. I'd really like him to pursue an advanced degree in creative writing before utilizing any more analogies. What has he done to my art?!

genius.

[heylow]

His analogy is not very creative. As one who prides himself on my supreme ability to deliver the utmost in analogy goodness, I find his usage uninspiring and offensive. Analogies, and sarcasm, should be left in the hands of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde. I'd really like him to pursue an advanced degree in creative writing before utilizing any more analogies. What has he done to my art?!

Fucking awesome! In short....leave the writitng to those who are qualified to do the job....fucking HACK!


heylow

[Dingo]

Would anyone argue that when he knocks his rotten tooth out with a ice skate that it's sanitary or precise? Of course not. But it's the only option he had so he went with it.

This sums up my recording and music career.

[blade70]

Delayed again, why now? V

[Brian]

There are many people trying to pass themselves off as comercial studio's that have no right to.

so, how exactly do you earn this "right"??? who bestows the "right" on you???

I KNOW that Walter Sear is a genius. And, I know that some people on this board will always remember him for that after he's long gone. But, it's really sad to me to see a guy tarnish his legacy by spending his golden years playing the curmudgeon.

When I see the name "Walter Sears" now, I don't think, "ooh cool, we're gonna talk about another classic record from a legend"... My first thought is, "great, another essay about how the sky is falling."

Recording funds have dropped from $250k -$500k to $10k if you're lucky.
Still think Walter is Sassy, eh?

[Brian]

if you charge people and don't deliver to meet or exceed their expectations, they won't be back. period.

again, whose "right" is it to decide who gets to charge and who doesn't?!?!
should their be a panel that issues licenses to charge for recording work?

this is just nonsense.

if you've got the gear and you're confident that you can make clients happy, then charge them what you think that you're worth. If you're not worth that, you'll figure it out pretty quick.

unless you're the only guy in town and the band can't afford to or is legally bound not to cross state lines.
I'll take a bottle in front of me over a frontal lobotomy everytime!

[penelec]

How much for a frontal Lobotomy?

I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy.

But really -- either way? -- I'm good.

[workshed]

Just to put this all in perspective a little, it's really not much different than any other modern industry or profession where the gap between knowledge and technology becomes much smaller. The recording industry is just feeling it later, as it has taken technology longer to become affordable and accessible to joe garage band.

I've been doing graphic design since pre-computer days and web design and development since before Front Page reared its ugly head. It was the same thing with the "desktop publishing" revolution when computers gained the capability to do things very quickly and professionally that would take a skilled designer much longer to do with traditional methods. Often with much cleaner and more "pro" results. Think about it -- how many of you have opted to do your own CD design simply because it saved you money? Sure, it may not have looked great, but you had the technology to do it yourself. I still see the results of this thinking and it rarely fails to make me cringe as a designer. But you know what? Next album, that band will probably be paying someone like me to do the job. At least I can hope.

How about your studio web site? Did you have a professional do it, or did you do it yourself to save some money? Is it an effective web site? Do you have the ability to tell whether its effective or not? Do you have any idea how shitty the HTML code is that Front Page generates? Even digital photography has created a whole new segment of photographers who should or should not be taking photos.

I don't mean to discredit the argument that the hacks are making it harder for real engineers to make a living, I agree with it. Hell, I am one of those home recording DIY hacks. I admit it. However, as with these other industries, once the initial wonder wears off, people will sell their gear off, the hacks will be weeded out, and the serious musicians will hire pros again.

The sky is not falling, this is the natural, if not discomforting, reality of techology. Rather than hole up in your control room with a scant supply of bottled water and canned food until the geiger counter stops making clicking noises, use it as an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the hacks. Heck you see people like Larry and Tony doing recording workshops -- this is brilliant! You have the knowledge, the hacks want some, make some money off of it. Most of them will come out of it realizing that they are ill-equipped to make a living at this profession yet, but they also might just come out of it with more of a desire to improve their skills (and a little more knowledge with which to do it), as I did with Larry's workshop.

If it were me, I'd rather choose to inspire than to discourage. But that's just me.

-Bret

[;ivlunsdystf]

There's the old masters way of painting, with much craft and training and very respectable results, and then there's Picasso or Matisse or Van Gogh way. Those who were loyal to the ways of the old masters probably didn't take kindly to the newer, more intuitive ways of painting.

Walter Sear is the old master. Maybe Yo La Tengo in the early years was akin to Matisse. Maybe Naked City was akin to Van Gogh. I don't think we need to match artists from old times to musicians/recordists from recent times, but the point is that things change, methods evolve, life goes on.

Has anybody tried to read Harold Bloom? Like Walter Sears, he is very noble and awe-inspiring in his commitment to craft. But too large of a dose of that mentality wears me down. I feel like the new son-in-law in "Meet The Parents" around these "old masters". I guess that makes me a punk ass.

[bobbydj]

Well whatever. I for one would rather have a bruntal infrottamy than a lental butamol.

[Brian]

Except that graphic desdigners rarely become famous or ever have and rarely command salaries past $60k. Are you talking about your "varityper" skills, or your waxer skills or your typesetting skill? In the days following that kind of work not many people could afford the $3k for a Mac 512, Plus, SE or Mac II. Ram cost over $500 for 16 megs. Mostly biz converted over. Some went out of Biz, but not due to amateurs, mostly lack of interest and in-house designers, not hacks.
Big companies used to pay us to set up templates for them and we took their largest projects.
My website? I used to own a company in NYC called Knight Graphic Design across the street from the Emp State Bldg. So, yeah, I did it myself, but, I 've seen the work of others around. I didn't want a cookie cutter.
Ever read this book, "Service America"(Albrecht and Zemke)? I dare you to read it all the way through, cover to cover, every single letter in six weeks! You'll hate it and you'll thank me for it.
We are suffereing from unfair ignorant competition, that doesn't mean the competition should quit, just get more familiar with quality standards so its an apples to apples comparison on the open market. Once that happens they'll see why the old guys recordings cost so much. It makes the whole community step up to quality rather than bring it down like what is happening a lot now.
Graphic design is an art though, it can be a very complex thing for just the simplest design, so is recording a great artist with a great song and not F ing it up. There are a lot of paralells and I could go on for days about it, but, the most important is the artists/producer/engineer relationship and being on the same page clearly as much as possible. That doesn't happen as much with inexperienced engineers. Projects suffer, time and money wasted, substandard product and service.
I'm sure most people, beginners included don't plunk down $10k-$40k for the new gear thinking "it's all going down the toilet before I pay off the gear". They have the entepreneurial spirit and are looking to a profitable future turning out a quality product or service. Well, they can't until they learn how, and that takes admitting that you don't know how to yerself. Most don't do that, they just keep hacking.
They should be forced to watch a film about how to screw up a hard earned business and watch people qualified get caught off guard when the upstart arrives and watch him try to compete and lose everything including his house, car, kids, wife, and go homeless. Then a film about how to get a good internship with a great pro and become an icon.
You're dead on with encouiragement but as with all things it must be focused and guided toward a goal that hopefully is productive and not destructive to those who do use standards of excellence.
But nobody is perfect.
Bobby, you've already had a bruntal infrottamy, now its time for your lental butamol.

[Brian]

There's the old masters way of painting, with much craft and training and very respectable results, and then there's Picasso or Matisse or Van Gogh way. Those who were loyal to the ways of the old masters probably didn't take kindly to the newer, more intuitive ways of painting.

Walter Sear is the old master. Maybe Yo La Tengo in the early years was akin to Matisse. Maybe Naked City was akin to Van Gogh. I don't think we need to match artists from old times to musicians/recordists from recent times, but the point is that things change, methods evolve, life goes on.

Has anybody tried to read Harold Bloom? Like Walter Sears, he is very noble and awe-inspiring in his commitment to craft. But too large of a dose of that mentality wears me down. I feel like the new son-in-law in "Meet The Parents" around these "old masters". I guess that makes me a punk ass.

A better comparison would be Van Gogh and a photocopy of VanGogh selling for the same price.
You should feel like a son in law around them, you're younger aren't you? Even if you are a punk ass doesn't mean you can't learn your shit. If you don't want to and just want to justify yourself then your just lazy and not really committed to excellence in your craft. You should not compete with those who are. Destroying whatr is good for the sake of justifying what is lazy doesn't feed the kids. And guess what, your here which means you were a kid and had to be fed. What if someone had put your dad out of work with a bulllshit product? I bet you'de feel different.