Does anybody know anyone who records as a VERY casual hobby?

[Navigator]

Hi folks,

This is related to the academic study that I'm conducting for my Ph.D. research at New York University. And a huge thank you by the way to the Tape Op community for participating so far. I've had more than a dozen fantastic interviews with Tape Op'rs and I thank you all so much. More about the study can be found in my earlier post:

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=61485

While I've spoken with a number of professional, semi-professional, and serious hobbyist producers and engineers, there is a another category of recordist that I'm having difficulty in reaching. As the subject heading suggests, these are the very casual recordists. As Joel H. and others have pointed out, recording software is so common (Garageband comes standard on Macs for instance) that there are people who "record" without much thought about it. It can just be something engaged in very casually.

While there are people on the TOMB who might categorize themselves as "hobbyists," it's clear from my interviews with them that they are nonetheless very well informed, skilled, and committed to their recording activities. The mere fact that they are on the TOMB is an indication of that commitment. But what about those who are not quite so committed, those who are the very casual "hobby" recordists? Do you know any? Someone who records and truly seems to just dabble in the activity? Since I'm trying to sociologically study the impact of digital recording on the larger culture (as well as the field of music production), I need to speak to some of these more casually recording folks.

If you know of anyone who records in this very offhand and casual way, please let me know, or point them in my direction, since their experience is sociologically significant and should be documented. Sorry to be so longwinded, and thanks again for all of your help!

Bill
bill.phillips@nyu.edu

[Nick Sevilla]

You might try some podcasting communities... they are not so interested in the nuts n' bolts of the process, just more in the capturing of ideas, etc...

Cheers

[timcoalman]

sent you pm

[saint360]

I have a friend in San Francisco who records prolifically, but has very little understanding or interest in the nuts and bolts. In early 2006 he bought an imac and started recording songs using garage band and the built in mic. A few months later he bought a Studio Projects B-1, an SM57 and an MBox, and his recordings improved. He recently traded the MBox in on GarageBand and a simple single-channel interface. He is happier with the simpler Garage Band workflow. He just wants to get his songs down, and spends a minimum of time moving mics around and adusting things, doing the minimum it takes to get it to the point where it sounds pretty good to him. He recorded around 50 songs in a very short period of time early on (like 2 or 3 months) when he first got PT. He has slowed down since then, but continues to send me a few songs every few months. Many of them are really good.