I was chatting with some colleagues lately about studio upgrades, premises, costs, and what is the newest Magic Bullet, Holy Grail bit of kit that will Fix Everything. There’s a gear geek in all of us, and if you’re not careful, ‘DOOM’ written on your forehead. In big letters.
All of us have preferences on the type of equipment we gravitate towards, based on the kind of records we enjoy making. There are basically two directions – to follow your own niche entirely, which means you’ll largely attract clients who favour the same ethos, or go for whatever the most popular formats and up to date gizmos happen to be, so you have the widest client base – but more competition. The space between those two places is the hole where the money falls through.
No matter how hardcore you may feel about being totally state of the art or completely old school, it’s necessary to accomodate both worlds to some extent, or you’ll paint yourself into a corner. Are you totally digital and never mic’d up a kit or used real outboard? Better start now, kid. Protools phobic? At least get an intern with Cool Edit…
Like it or not, this has always been a technology driven industry and we have to adapt to the changes or go to the wall. But before you buy anything new, remember – overheads are not just microphones!
2 Responses to “Upgrade Me – Fran Ashcroft”
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I agree Fran, I have mined the 2″ tape route for 13 years, EMT, springs, large formant analogue desk etc, but have Logic too and most of the work I do involves that.
Ultimately if you’re doing this as a job, you have to follow what your customers ask for. And so much music is created via editing these days. I decided many years ago that whilst tape sounds great, it’s more valuable to be able to do 5 takes of each song and be able to keep them all than that keep or erase dilemma we all used to be faced with.
What really gets me is the pressure to get Pro Tools which is only because the uninitiated believe that it is somehow special. And on that I refuse to budge!
can’t say I ever had any keep/erase dilemmas…for me it’s either on the money or dump it! Spot on regarding protools pressure. They have relentless and very skilled marketing for a somewhat flawed product.