6 Comments

1. cole

   Recording can be cheap-several albums I love were recorded in homes (including the Dear Sister album I sent Dubber). Recording with consistently high quality is quite difficult to do cheaply, however. Money doesn’t go very far when it comes to acoustics and microphones, unfortunately. I’m not saying it can be done or shouldn’t be tried, I feel quite the opposite, I just think people have a tendency to romanticize the idea of everyone being able to record “pro” quality sound in their bedroom and don’t consider all the challenges you’d face.

   Good podcast though, cheers.

   Posted January 5, 2012 at 6:02 pm | Permalink
2. Steve Lawson

   @cole:

   I think the fact that people don’t draw a straight sloping line with a million points along it from ‘bedroom’ to ‘studio’ is a huge hindrance to creative thinking here.

   What is a studio? A great sounding room with great equipment. A purpose built one has various modifications to make things easier but they aren’t crucial to the recording process. What matters is gear and room sound.

   It may well be that there are bits of a recording that need to be done in a purpose built studio. But there are loads of options if that’s not possible. The best drum sound I’ve ever recorded wasn’t in one of the many studios I’ve worked in – it was in a stone 14th century farmhouse in italy, using a crossed pair of Octava mics, that cost about £160 on eBay. incredible sound.

   Studios do a thing, they do it well, but it’s not a thing that stands in between musical ideas and great recordings.

   And, even if you do decide to go with a studio, there are lots of ways of getting studio time and space for cheap or free that benefits everyone. Leave the expensive studio time and space to those who can make a reasonable assumption of their ability to recoup.

   I wouldn’t be averse to spending 50K on making a record, as I said in the podcast, it would make certain things possible, but with portable studio tech and some smart thinking about acoustics, you can make world-beatingly amazing records on a 1/10th of the budget it would’ve cost for an equivalent quality recording 20 years ago.

   Posted January 5, 2012 at 6:59 pm | Permalink
3. Brian Thompson

   Great stuff you guys, please keep the podcasts coming! Love hearing your thoughts and opinions.

   Posted January 14, 2012 at 4:38 pm | Permalink
4. Mike R

   Hi Guys

   Trying to listen to this, but it doesn’t appear to be working? Is it jsut me? Chrome can’t find a file to download, and the player won’t click.

   Is it still there?

   Posted January 15, 2012 at 11:38 am | Permalink
5. Dubber

   Thanks Mike – not sure what happened there. Something weird with the archive.org file. Re-embedded it from the site and should work again now.

   Posted January 15, 2012 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
6. Mike R

   @Dubber: Cool. Thanks! Working now from my end. :-)

   Posted January 15, 2012 at 5:55 pm | Permalink