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The times they are a’changin’
The famed Los Angeles recording studio The Record Plant is closing down after 55 years in business. It has a Purple connection — Stormbringer was mixed there, together with some last minute recording additions. But that’s beside the point. The reasons for closure reflect the overall state of the music business today.
Longtime studio engineer Gary Myerberg said: “There is no money in the recording music business. That’s basically like a flyer for your show. I don’t think there’s much hope for the recording industry in L.A. … If you want to go to the studio and spend $2,000 a day, just take that and buy a laptop and a sample library or tell AI what song you want to make, and it’ll make it.”
Local guitar tech Jesse McInturff added: “The need for a big room is pretty minor at this point. There are less and less rock bands and you could record Taylor Swift in a vocal booth the size of a closet.”
Thanks to the Ultimate Classic Rock for the info and quotes.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
unfortunately it’s true, the technological progress of home recording has allowed everyone to come up with more or less good, more or less sufficient sounds, and this has ruined the work of many people who were specialized to be sound engineers in the studio. …..this progress together with MTV were the downfall of the recording industry already in the mid-90s and then with Napster and piracy it became increasingly worse.
July 14th, 2024 at 21:52The end of an era. The general decline of the real music business continues.
July 14th, 2024 at 22:47A sign of the sad times indeed. Such is life eh? “[I]t was a hedonistic playland open 24 hours a day and catering to a star’s every whim,” LA Mag reported last week. “[T]he facility provided a steambath environment for Bill Withers, pinball machines for the Eagles, and expert engineers at two a.m. for Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones…[T]he studio provided hotel suites for artists, a hot tub for ‘wives, girlfriends and groupies,’ along with waterbeds, fishtanks, bondage gear and mirrored ceilings.” Also “The need for a big room is pretty minor at this point. There are less and less rock bands and you could record Taylor Swift in a vocal booth the size of a closet.” Hmmmmm, now if we could just merge the two together that would be manna wouldn’t it? Cheers.
Read More: LA’s Record Plant Studio to Close After 55 Years | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/record-plant-la-closing/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
July 15th, 2024 at 00:45@ 1- I agree & the demise of these studios has been coming for many many years. When musicians & producers & engineers could set up their own home studio back in the day & of course technology beginning to ‘replace’ the musician. Drum machines etc & the writing was on the wall. A shame indeed & as Uwe also says at the ‘so complicated’ thread, most consumers don’t seem to care these days for sound systems at home or in the car & all the appreciation for quality sound recordings & everything that goes with that. Movie soundtrack musicians & producers are looking into an abyss also with AI beginning to do all that. I Robot. Cheers.
July 15th, 2024 at 10:23I messed up lanes 😂, my initial comment is now #2 in the “So Complicated” thread which chiefly deals with Tasmanian mathematicians, a topical evergreen here.
The decline of those mega-studios also robs identity and diversity because back in the day it did make a sonic difference whether you recorded at Power Station, NYC, or Caribou Ranch, Colorado, or Abbey Road Studios or the Musicland Studios in Munich. A modeling software for room acoustics sounds the same anywhere on Earth.
July 15th, 2024 at 13:34My biggest problem with modern recordings is that they all sound the same! The drums sound the same, everything is mixed the same and no one takes any chances with sounds that sound different. I am surprised that noone has mentioned that whatever you think of the new DP songs, and Ezrin’s impact on the compositions and playing, the sound of the songs sound like a million rock albums released the last 20 years.
It seems artists are afraid to stand out these days. The worst is the “pop” artists using autotune and clicks and beat correction until everything is “perfect”. But even if you don’t do that, like DP, they at least make sure the sound of the album sound like every other record.
Remember in the old days when you could hear when someone used a different snare drum on some of the songs on the album? Maybe another guitar in another amp with different microphones in a different room?
July 15th, 2024 at 16:07But Svante, DP know all about HAVING to change the drum sound in the middle of a song, like here at, say, 01:20 as compared to how it sounds at 03:30 … 😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=512UKHYD1gk
https://www.loudersound.com/features/lucifer-isaac-asimov-and-ringo-starr-the-story-behind-deep-purples-the-mule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O58ouPdjgo0
But I’m with you, sounds have become formatted, even though I don’t think Bob Ezrin is the greatest culprit. Way back in the 70ies, five seconds into a song, a Uriah Heep album would sound radically different to a DP one to a Sabbath one to a Zeppelin one etc. You knew simply by the sonics that you were listening to something different. I never liked for instance how Zep’s albums simply SOUNDED (though they had undeniable their own sound which appealed to millions of people!), it would have been interesting to hear how Black Dog would have sounded with Martin Birch producing and Lazy with Jimmy Page responsible for the sonics.
July 15th, 2024 at 19:45@ 6 – we sort of talked a little while ago about the technology being the same & are there any producers & or artists that don’t want to go the ‘modern’ way. I agree totally, the independence of each artist is being compromised in a major way. Does anyone care or do they have any choice in attempting to avoid that. Or does everyone lie down & accept it as ‘the way it is these days’. In regards to remixing I am of the same opinion more & more each day. With Dweezil’s MH mix & now the ‘new’ Sabbath mix with Forbidden, I loath the drums sounding the way that they have been altered. And yet I read reviews & that is one the things so many reckon sound great. The mass commercialisation of music is winning in regards to altering people’s perception of what is a decent ‘true’ sound. Do record producers care at all? I noticed Bob Ezrin in that interview a few days ago & he danced around the AI comments a little. Not wanting it to ‘take over’ of course but happy that it can be used to compliment or enhance certain things. It seems to be a fine line in that regard. To go with the flow it appears to be unfortunately. Cheers.
July 15th, 2024 at 22:59I don’t think I agree wheather you like Ezrin or not, he creates some kind of distinctive sound for DP that is different from let’s say Ezrin produced Alice Copper and different to Whitesnake Uriah Heep and all others bands coming out of frontiers records….
July 15th, 2024 at 23:18Yo,
@6…
Pro-Tools & other DAW software do this to sounds…It’s been an advancing digital world for decades now, and in many ways, a “producers” role has been relegated into how well he / she knows how to operate the current software & its updates.
Because our ears have varying ability from person to person, the computer diagnosis & adjustments ensure the “perfect” result, for everyone…Which is why its funny when you you hear people complaining about a mix or its sound, as its more a home equipment problem than one from the source imo. Everything is delivered as perfect as the programme allows, & programmer wants.
And don’t underestimate this, as people are employed to watch & listen through every single track, bar-for-bar, ensuring that the maximum sound is filled-out through it, even after automatic computer adjustment. Further enhancement is done by people too.
All this to say, studios will still be needed even though incredible, & equal results are obtainable from home, but a professional setting with dedicated rooms etc etc will guarantee best performances, since it’s a work-place, & people gather there to work.
As you can see from The Record Plant’s attractions, those special-needs are indeed now a place in history, which is sad in a way. But variety is the spice-of-life, & we’ve never had more options available.
Peace !
July 16th, 2024 at 00:28Back in the good old days musicians, engineers & producers had to be inventive because of the limitations. There was plenty of experimentation going on & people were also a lot more patient & not as greedy. These days technology makes things much easier & quicker, hence many people become lazier. A quick fix & they are away. Not as much time spent with bands jamming & improvising to find ideas either I bet. Look at all the effort that went into getting something obscure down on tape. These days it is all at the push of a button & sending files online to other musicians etc. A bit like a lot of other things going on in this world today. A pity indeed. Time is money. Cheers.
July 16th, 2024 at 06:11@10: No, computers and software don’t do that, the humans operating them do that. I have been working with Pro Tools for 30 years and stuff doesn’t magically happen just because you put it through some software.
The first time I was subjected to the mainstreaming of how things sound was when I made a mix a couple of years ago. The keyboard player in the band had his own studio and he didn’t like what he heard. He reached for the mouse and changed the settings on the snare channel to “how you do a snare”. He had a formula set, no matter what the source material was. Sort of like the presets in most plugins, how can a snare be just a snare? There is material, sizes, players and mics to consider.
July 16th, 2024 at 10:19I’m not sure everything is done quicker these days. I saw a very interesting video yesterday where two young guys listen to the multi tracks of Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”. The keyboard player makes mistakes, Bruce’s guitar on his own sound ridiculous because of the anger and power he throws into the playing. The lead vocal track is full of bleeds from other instruments coming into the mic because, yes, they actually played together in the studio. A quick take, bam, done, no need to go back and correct that little keyboard mistake that noone has noticed the last 40 years.
I am sure some kids could get hold of those tracks and fix the keyboard, auto tune the vocal, clean up the guitar and quantize all life out of the drums.
The best thing in the video is these young guys asking Bob Clearmountain how he does things. He replies with basically, “I don’t know! I just listen and do what feels right for the song!” The young guys want to know exactly why he boosted 3.46 dB at 2.67 kHz. But then the irony of it all is that there of course is a Clearmountain plugin these days with a preset called “Born in the USA snare”…
If any of you are into this sort of thing, and can resist posting here how much you hate Springsteen, here is the video:
https://youtu.be/9P81_4B5yNk?si=Ejk-6oZXcM9gQ_nq
July 16th, 2024 at 10:31Yo,
@12…
Yes, you see …It all depends on the operator & what he wants to change / alter to suit his / her wants & needs. Your keyboardist has different ears to yourself, & all the other members of the band, & that’s the problem at times per-se.
What Pro-tools & DAW can reveal is graphically represented, & from there, alterations made. All I’m suggesting is that’s what happened with myself during a recording process over 6-odd months, that then had a change in engineers, & this revealed 2 x very different ways of getting the job done…eg…
The 1st engineer of notable national success preferred a miked tube Fender amp set loud but clean for guitar, & bass DI’d into the desk. All he looked for was consistent recording levels, & once complete, the add-on effects were tested & used.
The 2nd engineer, once again from a family of notable national success, allowed me to play how I wanted, & my Tube-Works amp was blasted out at rehearsal volume levels in a sealed room whilst I sat with headphones on next to the desk, which was much better, as I was playing to & with the sound I wanted…I didn’t have to wait for additions afterwards, & so the performance was enhanced.
Anyhow, one solo was recorded with the middle pick-up, & though the balance & levels were there, it was lost in the mix, & had to be re-EQ’d to be heard. A simple mouse-click was all that was needed on Pro-Tools. This was circa 2003-4…I actually asked if they wanted me to rerecord the solo on rear pick-up which was no problem at all, but the mouse-click was effective.
Lots to consider, & we all hear & work differently, & DAW like Pro-Tools can ensure everything gets heard, & can represent it graphically.
I think its best just to go in, play your part(s), & come back later to hear final results. Then you can say what you think & correct what’s needed. That said, I always asked the boss, “Are you happy with what you hear”???…And if so, remained silent, as my job was done, & the employer happy. Love & detachment yo !
*Visit the Steve Hoffman forum & read how countless people insist that their computer programme says so…LOL !
Peace !
July 16th, 2024 at 10:56@ 13 – many thanks for the Bob Clearmountain mixing video, really enjoyed it. Another old school master who just gets it done by listening to his instincts. Note the question to Bob, ‘how do you know when you have finished a mix’? Bob ‘when I stop getting up to correct things’. Classic. Have to love the old ways. So many humble genuine guys doing that back then. Cheers.
July 16th, 2024 at 11:32Is hating Springsteen as a DP fan now mandatory? 😂 I rate him more as that Steinbeck’esque lyricist/poet of everyday American heartland life than as Lennon/McCartney melted into one, his music has changed less over the decades than even DP’s, but I guess his fans don’t want to hear anything new musically with him.
Hearing his raw vocal tracks I’m actually reminded of Noddy Holder, that same untutored, no holds barred approach.
My main gripe with Herr Springsteen (who has carved his place in rock) is the nature of his mega stadium gigs and open-airs, a lot of the subtleties of his music and lyrics are lost there. I saw him at a Frankfurt stadium gig and it was like watching a three-and-a-half-hour Steven Spielberg movie, amplified grand emotions over the E-Street-Band’s merciless wall of sound as a backdrop.
And that soul covers album he last did was terrible, his voice can belt out and also do narratives, but it cannot “dance nimbly on the music” the way a soul crooner’s voice needs to. He should have taken a few singing lessons from Glenn Hughes beforehand! 😂
That Bob Clearmountain vid was nice, tack så mycket!
July 16th, 2024 at 13:28