Lincoln Recording Studios: Part IV

By Joshua Hoyer

The following is the fourth and final article in the “Lincoln Recording Studios” series begun on August 24th.

Links to Part I, Part II, and Part III.

THE CONVERSATION PART IV

How do you see the future of recorded music? And do you think downloads and other technology are helpful, harmful, or both? In what way?
Brendan McGinn:  Coming from the non-traditional studio setting, I think downloads, etc. are helpful. Maybe not if a band's full album can be found online and the band didn't give permission for that. But MP3 blogs are the wave of the future--anyone can find a few songs from new bands and can go from there if they want to find out more about a band. I think we will begin to see .zip files as digital albums with a little picture for cover art, and it can all be put on the MP3 player, totally reducing production costs on packaging for underground bands.

Brett Holihan:  I believe large and small studios will co-exist. There is place for Neves and tall ceilings, as well as small, cost-efficient project studios. More and more artists will become better musicians and recording engineers through the same creative process. I believe smaller scale producers will contribute more and more to final production and mastering.

The subject of hard copy, such as LPs, CDs and CDRs and downloads is a double edged sword.  It's cool to go to a site and download one's favorite band’s songs to your desktop or iPod.  However, if we can no longer get cassettes, LPs, CDs CD-Rs and music distribution is offered only through downloading and is controlled by a few at the top…then we have a negative environment for the artist.

Eric Medley:  The future of music is, as it has always been, tied up in publishing.  He who controls the publishing, controls everything.  Right now, there’s a small select few who control the distribution of music.  If your goal is to record music and ‘make it big,’ you’ll be working for Buena Vista (Disney), Sony or Warner Communications. You’ll probably not make the mainstream without at some point signing a contract with one of the big three.  The big players will always fish from the pond of the people like us and take what they find appealing and throw the rest back.

Chris Bowling:  I'm very torn on it. On one hand, you've got great recordings coming out all the time. On the other hand, you have recordings that are using fake guitar amps (Pro Tools has a plug-in called Eleven and Logic now has Amp Designer) that sound just as good at if I actually mic'd up a Marshall JCM 900 with a Royer R121.

And recording engineers and producers are always talking about how important drum sounds are and now there's drum replacing software like Drumagog that makes it so you can throw up some 57s haphazardly and replace the sound with stuff that Steve Albini recorded. I think that is terrible and a disservice to music.

Mark Wolberg:  I think the immediate trend for recorded music lies within the ability for  people to get their hands on some recording gear and make good use of it.  The artists are taking back the aesthetic of production values and they are making more music because they can do it at their leisure. The reason artists are doing this is to fill the void created by the record labels and their affiliated professional studios’ commercial greed. 

Bands are doing it for themselves because they want to be heard by people who enjoy music and are tired of waiting for the industry to love music again rather than exploit it for advertising. Download technology has obliterated the old industry business model.  As a result, the old industry is quickly dying.  Who can say whether that is good or bad?  However, I do believe that download technology can be helpful to a band who is trying to create some word of mouth excitement about their music.

Kechley/Johnson:  To start with, the industry has had a big change and downloading may well be at the forefront of it. With CD sales dropping and iTunes becoming one of the largest distributors of music today, the playing field for all artists has leveled off a bit. This is both good and bad for the independent.

It's great for the future of artists who are willing to network and work MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the websites they now have in place. You will also see new websites like www.nomosa.com, which is geared up for all independent artists, run by starving artists. It was started by a friend of mine who has found it hard to network his award-winning film. Check it out, that's the future--more networking and more visibility online.

Sean Beste:  For the most part, the method of music sales will continually gravitate toward download.  Personally, the only thing that I see as harmful is the loss of artwork and credits.  Basically, I like to know who did what. Even as a kid, I loved to open a new album and see the names of the players, producers, engineers and so on.

Ian Aeillo:  Downloads suck, but it's what we have to deal with. Big studios won't disappear, there will just be less of them. Sadly, I do believe that more and more people will think that a shitty home recording will pass. True recording greats like Martin, Albini, Spector and Rubin will be replaced by people who are just looking to record the fad of the moment. And sadly, that's what people will think sounds good.

Kellison/Saddler:  We're all for information and the ability for any person to get their hands on it--we think it levels the playing field a lot.  However, because of the worldwide ability to do so, music is slowly going to risk becoming homogenized because American culture (or the imitation of it) is so prominent world-wide.

What will probably start happening is that the real trend-setting musicians are going to have to lock up their recordings at home, in a vault, covered by snakes or something.  If it's the "next" thing, it absolutely cannot see the light of day before it's time to sell or the whole world will snag it, copy it, and spread around dumbed-down, bizarro versions of it before the original album sees the light of day. The future of recorded music is both bright and dark, but that's always been the case for whatever reason.

Chris Steffen:  At this point, I don't think there's really any point to worrying about whether or not downloading is helpful or harmful. Obviously, downloading is here to stay. The great thing about downloading and the Internet in general is that the opportunities for exposure are almost limitless. Of course, the downside is that trying to stop people from trading your songs for free is like holding water in a Kleenex.  

A lot of artists will come in planning to sell a lot of copies of their recordings in order to pay for the studio time. Some of them do, but I know that the mindset of most music consumers has changed. They just don't expect to have to pay for music anymore. I really try to keep that in mind when I'm working out a price on a band's project.

I know someone who was selling CDs at a show. A group of three or four girls came up and pooled their money to buy one disc. They were discussing right in front of her how they were going to buy the disc together and then make copies of it when they got home. Apart from the fact that it showed a complete lack of class, it just goes to show that people don't even think about it anymore.

On the upside, there are websites like E-Music and others where a lot of bands can get exposure and get paid and they don't have to have a huge bank roll to promote themselves. I think the best thing a band can do is to get their tunes out there and then hope to get some of those listeners to their shows.

Mitch Cady:  I think the future of recorded music is really up in the air right now. Downloads and all the technological advances that have occurred have been both helpful and harmful. It has become harder in some ways for artists to make money on their art, but it has also made it easier to distribute music and make it available for people to hear.

This in itself can sometimes be harmful though, because it becomes harder to get people's attention when there are millions of other artists trying to do the same thing. Sometimes great artists get drowned out in all the white noise. Other times, artists who would have little chance of a major label signing, blow up on an economically recorded single or album and gain a lot of exposure and fans (Flobots from Denver are an example that comes to mind).
 
How important are local and affordable studios to the music scene in a city the size of Lincoln?
Brendan McGinn:  Very important. They have always been and always will.  There has always been at least one person, possibly also in bands, who had the hardware to record local bands.

Brett Holihan:  Extremely important! First, these are hard times.  For many artists there is not much left after paying the bills. Local and affordable studios are critical in avoiding the tragedy of great music becoming bound and fading away within an artist’s lone imagination.

Eric Medley:  Very.  When I was really active in Lincoln, there weren’t too many people recording.  Some might think that I’d think this was good. However, I didn’t.  I knew that Lincoln was special. That’s why I stayed. It needed an active, vibrant recording scene to make it better as a whole. I’m not the right guy to record everyone. There needed to be a mix. Eventually, the number of places started to grow. I think it really helped overall.

Chris Bowling:  It's very important. There are a lot of bands and there are a lot of people engineering in town too, but I think we all have a different niche. That is important. 

Mark Wolberg:  Well, Lincoln has one of the best music scenes I’ve ever been witness to.  Per capita, there is a sizable wealth of talent here and rent is cheap, so musicians can easily afford to put in time creating. Since many musicians do live on the cheap side, it is very important to have affordable studios here.

Kechley/Johnson:  Lincoln or any city! Studios bring to the table their own unique environment and people to work with the artists to get the best, or even more from the recording. We like to personalize our approach so quality and budget meet expectation.

Sean Beste:  Musicians in a city the size of Lincoln obviously deserve a quality recording as much as anywhere else.  Now irrelevant to most because of the quickly increasing number of smaller 'home' studios, I think one would find that average studio rates are fairly consistent across the country. Unless a city's 'music scene' is gauged by the number of market-successful artists, it would be nearly impossible to compare it to any other.  Every city, regardless of size, will always have musicians making music in some capacity.

Ian Aeillo:  Extremely important. Well, as long as those affordable studios are quality. It's important to have quality studios available. Again, anyone can cut you, but it doesn't make them a doctor.

Kellison/Saddler:  We think having great sounding albums can make Lincoln a musical hub and completely change the artistry of the city.  That's why we've made our product so affordable and easy to budget.  One of the biggest components to having a great album is time, and when the artist doesn't know how long their album will take, it will come out rushed 99% of the time.

Chris Steffen:  I think affordable studios are indispensable in maintaining a vibrant scene. If a band doesn’t record their tunes, the only people to hear them are the ones who happen to be at the bar when you play. You've got to get your songs out there in order to make yourself known. There will always be people who come to live shows because that's what they do. For the rest of them you've got to convince them that it's worth their time. Without great recordings, that isn't going to happen.

Mitch Cady:  I think that they are indispensable. When I was growing up, it cost $3,000 to $5,000 to get a recording done in a studio and most of the recordings came back sounding thin and tinny. We still had many good bands here, but it was almost always a disappointment to listen to their album after seeing a live show because the sound quality was so much different.

Now, with the way it is possible to record, you can get a quality sounding album for much cheaper and (still get) the feeling when you listen to a great representation of a great band, which to me, is something that makes me want to keep seeing and hearing them. We have a lot of great talent in and around Lincoln and Omaha and I'm glad that there are a number of studios around that can produce music that sounds good when recorded.