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Week 10 - Modern Recording.

The modern landscape of recording and mixing music is almost a battlefield of different opinions and perspectives. You have the old school dudes who grew up using tape and actually know how to get good sounds out of it, telling us young ones that digital is too clinical, has no sould. You have the digital dudes making arguments of the extreme flexibility of digital. Theres the loudness wars, and people saying that the time of studios is dead. Every single faction in this battlefield, has good points, but none are solely correct, in my opinion.

The first argument, Analog versus Digital, should be well and truely put to bed. At the end of the day it's all music, the digital plugin emulators of old outboard gear are so spot on you can't tell the difference. One of the best points made for Analog against Digital, is that when you use a desk and outboard gear, you really are using your ears instead of your eyes, its almost like playing an instrument along with a band when your mixing a desk. Which can result and a more musical recording and mix. However that doesn't discredit digital, you can achieve the same results, only use plugins with desk parameters, and no parametric graph based eqs. A while ago in my studies, i was watching some mixing videos, and i can't remember exactly which one, but one gave me some advice which i still follow to this day. Firstly when you put a plugin on a track, make sure the gain is exactly matched, so you're not tricking your ears into louder is better, then close your eyes and spam the bypass button until you don't know whether its on or off. Then, really listen to the difference in tone as you click the bypass button, find the sound you like better, then open your eyes. So many times i've put a compressor on something and thought that it sounded better, however it was just LOUDER. To me it shouldn't be a fight between digital and analog, but a collaboration, because at the end of the day, isn't that what music is?

Now that brings me to the current shape of studios. In my studies i've heard from people in the industry a few times that Studio work is pretty much dead. I find myself questioning that because, last i checked theres still bands right? More then ever in reality, Digital has made making music more accessible to the masses, which is good and bad but thats a argument for another blog. So why would studio work be dead? are all these bands recording everything in their bedroom? Yes and no. Studios in my opinion are sort of in a transitional period. The days of million dollar studios, with so much gear it makes your eyes bleed is definitely done. Musicians shouldn't have to pay $1000 dollars a song anymore. But that doesn't negate the need for studios. With all the technology available to us these days, people can open much cheaper studios, and still deliver the same quality of these million dollar studios. I don't think studios will be dead, just smaller and more easily accessed to the masses. Not everyone can track, mix and master professional work, no matter how much time they spend in the bedroom. However, soon, i think everyone will be able to afford someone who can.


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