The most musically important 'invention' of the century

The rise of the 'who needs a studio when you've got a laptop' MySpace generation. This might not be the most musically satisfying invention so far this century, but it's the most important.

In fact, you could pin this right down to Miami, in 1999/2000. Miami was the place for to record at that time and everyone was moving from big, expensive studios to DAWs and back room recording. Big studios can't survive that kind of competition now.

 

The move away from big studios to the bedroom laptop lash-up worries me.
On the one hand it has been truly enabling in the way it allows talent to transcend financial and space constraints. My concern is with the output quality. Ok, you can argue that production standards have ben falling over the years ( I probably would) but as people who care about sound I fear we can only expect things to get worse.

 

How would you record a Brahms symphony on such a set-up?

 

Never mind a symphony - what about massed military bands!

 

Big bedroom.........

But no, don't take bedroom literally.
Perhaps low budget, small scale production outfit is a better description.

Your Brahms example still escapes safely.

 

I suppose you could get them to march up & down outside and stick the mic out the window?

 

Recording it is only part of the issue.
Wrecking it afterwards it the other part.

 

You go to the concert hall. They don't come to you. In fairness, unless you were heading toward Studio One at Abbey Road, you'd struggle to fit an orchestra into most studios anyway.

A bigger concern is with the record companies no longer seeing huge profits from pop recordings, they cannot afford to fund less commercial ventures like classical recordings. Naxos does well by having roving tonmeisters with estate cars full of gear pitching up at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky State Orchestral Municipal Enjoyments Arena or the Ngoc Tran Mountain Assembly Halls. But the old star system is fast eroding.

Without the larger companies promoting classical events and recordings, classical is in something of a nosedive, sales-wise. Especially in the US; earlier this year, Hilary Hahn's Bach: Violin and Voice CD hit the top of the Billboard classical chart with a mighty 1,000 recorded sales. Less than 200 sales of a classical CD will put you in the Billboard Top Ten these days.

Orchestras are starting to taking hold of their own destiny by self-publishing. This works for the LSO and the Hallé in the UK and similarly top rank orchestras around the world, but a second-tier orchestra will struggle to keep afloat. Especially if it only sells 50 discs.

 

Not sure about budget but Ken Christianson of Promusica here in the USA has produced several excellent recordings using basically a small remote setup.

http://www.truestereo.net/

 

Thats what i call making music in a natural way...from a realistic perspective.

 

Live Orchestra

"Live Orchestra "or was it actually miked and amped as so many err so called "live " classical venues are?

Oh, no, you mean most people, possibly even most hifi designers probably haven't even heard a reference live orchestra and are trying to design or put together a hifi to sound like what, exactly - a miked and amped venue etc. etc.? :MILD:

dear, oh dear

 

Multi-track recording (probably mentioned already)

 

were racist even in the love of music why not leave it out Spanish and foreign music does`nt have such a popular place because we cant understand the lyrics and such hence the apeal is not thier although I have to admit I love Spanish guitar