A friend popped in for a chat today.
Bob is amongst the best studio maintenance techs in the business. For years he kept one of the top facilities in Europe running day and night, churning out hits with hardly a technical blip. He can strip down an SSL and rebuild it blindfolded but prefers to do the job with his eyes open to make sure that he fits the right parts. Now a freelance, his clients rely upon him to maintain gear that originally cost millions of pounds. In other words, he has the kind of skills that can’t be learnt in class or bluffed from books.
These days he’s lucky to earn as much in a week as a cowboy plumber nets in a day, swapping washers on a two-quid tap.
One of Bob’s regular clients recently demanded that he drop his hourly rate to the same as I pay my cleaner, cash in hand. Apparently the studio wasn’t pulling in much work. Savings had to be made. Of course, the studio owner (Mister Big) could have called London Electricity or British Telecom and demanded a price reduction. ‘Cut your costs or I’ll go elsewhere – install a windmill and buy a couple of carrier pigeons’, – or, he could have asked his landlord to slash the rent and requested the local council to reduce their charges. Alternatively, he could increase the studio rates.
Fat chance.
When times get tough, it’s the little guys who get squeezed between monopoly suppliers and penny-pinching customers. If something has to give, it’s invariably the staff. So what if maintenance becomes an afterthought, investment goes on the backburner and the services of a skilled recording engineer are passed over in favour of a college intern prepared to do sessions for half a peanut and a glass of water?
The constant excuse is that nobody buys records any more.
Ever wondered why? Have you listened to the dross being churned out by the industry these days? I wouldn’t give most of it the time of day so I’m not surprised that nobody else does. Remember, if it sounds like a turkey, squawks like a turkey and minges like a turkey, it probably is a turkey.
Meanwhile, we inhabit an industry where skilled recording engineers are being asked to provide their services for love, not money. But as far as the mainstream industry is concerned, there’s less and less left for them to love.
We can only fight declining record sales by investing in our art, and that means maintaining production values by investing in facilities and talent. Key to the future are the recording engineers and technicians who oil the wheels behind the desk.
Or in Bob’s case, under it.
Eccentric
Follow Eccentric every week here on the RP/Blog
