HIT FACTORY NYC CALLS IT AN ERA......

[Zeppelin4Life]

well..people have been able to buy affordable cameras since the late 19/early 20th century right? and there are still professional photographers today..I guess my point is people will still pay you to do it right, even if they have the tools themselves.

[mike_relay]

I'd say these studios are closing _because_ of pop music today. When a big studio closes, it goes to show that a lot of mainstream music is created with keyboards, samplers and drum machines, the vocal done in some little booth at the producer's house. Who needs nice sounding rooms when you aren't recording real intruments?

[hogfish]

The reason for the closing is not for lack of work or booking, the rooms are always full and is in demand.it is a family owned business,and the lady who owns it (mrs Germano) got offered a stupid amount of money to sell the building to a developer(HF is located on prime midtown real estate on west
54th st)and also owns Criteria in Miami,so they are not out of the big studio business all together,and they wont have to directly compete with Sony Music Studios, which is right across the street........

[Cellotron]

I'm a full supporter of the home recording revolution and have done lots of stuff I'm proud of right from my apartment. And personally I hate the trash that gets churned out for the most part by the Big 4. So more power to the democritization of access to recording tools. But the fact remains that at my workplace mastering the quality of the average mix I hear is going down - not up. Stuff I got from Hit Factory was always well prepared and even came in on analog reel sometimes - I would know that when I got mixes from them my job would be pretty easy instead of having to jump through the hoops of polishing turds I get from so many "great home studios".

These types of closing have a lot to do with the real estate market here - seems like the bubble is still far from bursting in Manhattan. But when the source of your lifeblood is getting cut - i.e. fat checks from a major label - because of slashed budgets - and the "market" has shifted to music that does not require live musicians - then these huge high end facilities are going to be the first to fall because of lack of ability to quickly adapt to more difficult economic times.

I get a vibe of some playa hating with some posts here - yeah, we couldn't afford to book time there ourselves - and we really didn't want to since there are cool alternatives like places like Studio G - but with the closing of the Hit Factory and Unique recently too some talented engineers out of work and scrambling in the winter - and there is one less place to go when you really wanted to track something in a place where there was no question that you could really capture the event well.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[giganova]

I believe that its a very good trend that virtually everyone can cut albums in their home studio at a high quality. No need to shell out a large amount of money for just a few hours of studio time anymore. So why should we mourne the loss of profit in commercial facilities? Who needs them anyway?

Power to the little people (like us)!

[Spark]

When all the big studios are gone, how will record companies get pop stars into massive debt, to beholden them?

Write even worse contracts?

[andrew embassy]

That shit don't PLAY in LA, homie!

[JASIII]

That shit don't PLAY in LA, homie!

I should think not. Will this mean a boost for the porn industry? I hope so, I'm having a hard time finding that stuff..........

[SKEETER]

Noone is guaranteed a profesion in america, especially now. It is all most people can do to find a job that pays enough to have extra cash to support their hobbies.

[lichthaus-media]

The reason for the closing is not for lack of work or booking, the rooms are always full and is in demand.it is a family owned business,and the lady who owns it (mrs Germano) got offered a stupid amount of money to sell the building to a developer(HF is located on prime midtown real estate on west
54th st)and also owns Criteria in Miami,so they are not out of the big studio business all together,and they wont have to directly compete with Sony Music Studios, which is right across the street........

This is pretty common. Developers are paying insane amounts of cash these days. It would probably take 5-8 years of full booking to make what Mrs. Germano made in a handshake. I'd hope the house staff received nice severance packages.

I use commercial rooms all the time. A lot of commercial material (advertising & post-audio) is still tracked with acoustic instruments and live talent. Many Hip-Hop producers still track live drums to get orignal beats. As long as there are 9-14 year olds out there, pink-pop will have a market. Except in Utah...the age range is 6-55.

When is the garage sale?


-james

[soundguy]

wtf is with the have vs. have not attitude on this board?

you all lust over the gear in all these big studios. you lust over the architecture in these big studios, you celebrate the magazine interviewing the veterans that worked in big studios and you study some of the records that were made over the years mostly in big studios. Yet any time you can take a crack at the institution, people do. Yeah, these places are expensive, yeah the music industry is kinda fucked, get the hell over it and try to see who is being isolated by comments like this. Wouldnt you be psyched if somebody like glyn johns started posted here? I cant tell you how many engineers I have met in the last two years that after being encouraged to post here are completely uninspired to do so entirely because of this attitude Im describing. If you guys here on the board think this is just my fucked up reaction, think again, Im not the only one thinking like this and the nonsense I post here is entirely worthless compared to the real experience and wisdom that people could be sharing but chose not to because this place is so "fuck you indie". Are you trying to exchange ideas and learn about recording or what?

dave

[Stephen]

wtf is with the have vs. have not attitude on this board?

you all lust over the gear in all these big studios. you lust over the architecture in these big studios, you celebrate the magazine interviewing the veterans that worked in big studios and you study some of the records that were made over the years mostly in big studios. Yet any time you can take a crack at the institution, people do. Yeah, these places are expensive, yeah the music industry is kinda fucked, get the hell over it and try to see who is being isolated by comments like this. Wouldnt you be psyched if somebody like glyn johns started posted here? I cant tell you how many engineers I have met in the last two years that after being encouraged to post here are completely uninspired to do so entirely because of this attitude Im describing. If you guys here on the board think this is just my fucked up reaction, think again, Im not the only one thinking like this and the nonsense I post here is entirely worthless compared to the real experience and wisdom that people could be sharing but chose not to because this place is so "fuck you indie". Are you trying to exchange ideas and learn about recording or what?

dave

I sorta' wondered that as well.
Pax, Steve

[lichthaus-media]

wtf is with the have vs. have not attitude on this board?

you all lust over the gear in all these big studios. you lust over the architecture in these big studios, you celebrate the magazine interviewing the veterans that worked in big studios and you study some of the records that were made over the years mostly in big studios. Yet any time you can take a crack at the institution, people do. Yeah, these places are expensive, yeah the music industry is kinda fucked, get the hell over it and try to see who is being isolated by comments like this. Wouldnt you be psyched if somebody like glyn johns started posted here? I cant tell you how many engineers I have met in the last two years that after being encouraged to post here are completely uninspired to do so entirely because of this attitude Im describing. If you guys here on the board think this is just my fucked up reaction, think again, Im not the only one thinking like this and the nonsense I post here is entirely worthless compared to the real experience and wisdom that people could be sharing but chose not to because this place is so "fuck you indie". Are you trying to exchange ideas and learn about recording or what?

dave

Cool post.

It's amazing that, with the circulation and roster of advertisers the (TO) magazine has, many of the users here post such anti-business-tripe. I'm sure any five people who have posted to this thread would chew their thumb off to sit in a full-service studio - working with the next pop legend. I bet Johns could tell us what that knob was used for...


Getting paid to work is good fun.


How'd I get into this thread?


So, when is the garge sale?


Damn kids, get off my lawn.




-james

[AlSmith]

True. And coupled with that development is the strange fact that more and more music is produced for lower quality media like the mp3's people play with their iPods or put on their websites for streaming. A very minute portion of the music recorded today, even in commercial studios, is actually destined for a medium (e.g., DVD, CD, whatever), where fidelity actually matters.

Lets face it, people can create great music in their homes now by buying their own gear and learning to use it. I told my wife a long time ago that I thought most of the music in the future will not involve large studios, it will mostly be done in peoples spare rooms. I think that is coming true.

[spankenstein]

I don't take it so much as "anti-business" as "anti-predatory business." The music industry is screwed, we all know that but it all feeds each other if the current state is gong to be changed it's going to affect a lto of people... in positive and negative ways. That's what change is! Unfotunately there's going to be a lot more "humbling" of the industry before it gets better. Then we'll start over and build it back up... and probably break it back down again. We're human, and we're stupid!