Digital's Narrow Mindedness
Author: Ockshun Jockson
I posted this link on a record trading board I visit and someone replied by saying something along the lines of, "anyone with a good ear could totally do this by themselves". The name of my post was, "Why it's worth mastering your shit with a pro".
I think one of the after-effects of powerful digital media production software and "DIY-Ness" is this self-assertion that you as the user can do anything: Grab some plug-ins, buy a pair of $200 studio monitors, and you're big time baby. Never mind having a trained studio engineer at the helm, with all his/her years of experience under their belt. Never mind all the hardware gear and various monitors in a sound-controlled room that the normal person can not afford to store or even purchase. I guess the proof is in the pudding.
This is cyclical to Desktop publishing in the early ninties- and some to some extent, the early macintosh marketing. It's it's third wave in Audio production DAWs and second wave in Video editing NLEs. Yeah, I know some magical stuff can come out of this DIY world... but there is no relpacement for experience and even the most basic of properly calibrated tools. I will post more on this in the coming days, as it's something I'm really struggling with right now in keeping employed. There are lot's of kids with cameras and laptops out there, for better or worse.
Damn, I loved those fucking Pudding Pops!
although i feel i do a pretty good job myself with my digits, i agree. there's no replacing a pro.
since there is no money in music really, however, doing it yourself is the cost effective option nowadays. i can't blame folks. mastering is generally priced at points that labels can handle, not individuals.
another thing to point out, is as long as it's not horrible, it seems like no one even notices or cares. i don't think this was always the case.
i think there's money in music. maybe not in manufacturing and selling it. but artists have opportunity. these hiero dudes just started a line of jeans. it's an extension of the music. if you tour extensively, you can make bank. ringtones, publishing, itunes, licensing. you can make money in music.
Damn those kids and their computers. shits puttin me outta buisness.....PSYK!!
Its funny cause most of my clients when I was in Philly working 24/7 in studios, came to me BECAUSE of the software boom. Just having the tools does not an artist make.
As far as making records goes, before computer based DAWs and internet forums, if someone wanted to be a recording engineer, there was a very long path to take. A path that usually started getting an electrical engineering degree followed by a dozen + years as a studio lackey...
I think also its kinda backward to work on music by looking at it...
In a similar vein, WIRED magazine publishes a dumb, wrongheaded editorial inspired by the new book The Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing Our Culture:
The Luddite @ WIRED
Comically, the author uses the example of journalism... a profession that has arguably had many of its flaws exposed by the recent proliferation of journalism's "tools" and one-touch publishing. Transformers screenwriter / stand-up comic / bon vivant John Rogers takes them to task over at Kung-Fu Monkey.