What have they done to my art?

[sign]

A must read for anybody who didn't yet! http://members.aol.com/searsound/articles2.html Wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy 2003! Let's give peace a chance :thu:

[Rog]

That's a great read and I couldn't agree more with much of what he's saying. I've been a full-time radio producer for 5 years now and I was a keen amateur for 5 years before that. I've been writing and recording music for more than those 10 years and I'm only now starting to feel confident that I can call myself a true professional. It takes time and a huge amount of effort to be in a position where you trust your ears more than what you read in magazines on a day to day basis :)

[DJDM]

Its interesting reading but it leaves out some very important factors. First: The Consumer. The Consumer was told in the sixties that the standard for hi-fi frequency response was all the way up to 14 or 15 K. The consumer was told that vinyl was the highest standard of audio reproduction and that it conveyed the highest level of audio quality on earth. But you could not play it for long without engaging in complicated cleaning routines. The consumer was told that the songs that they loved would sound better on CD. They did not but the consumer waited until the quality improved and then started to buy them whole heartedly because on 99% of the sound systems out there they sounded as good or better than the crapped out records that they had been playing all along. Then the consumer wanted more music cheaper and because the record industry decided that this was silly they price fixed the rates until you could not find a CD for less than $14 anywhere in the USA. The consumer rebelled. They turned to a source for audio that was cheaper and quicker and on 99% of the crappy home stereos out there it sounded about as good as a CD or better and far better and faster to use than those awful records that popped and clicked like crazy! The consumer was being mistreated by the people who stand between people like Walter Sear and themselves. He can blame the industry and other engineers but it is that very arrogance that has given rise to me. I work on a desktop DAW and record my material strait to HD for computer based programs. I am fairly popular in various circles so I must be the “blind squirrel that found the acorn”. I work in a creative world that Walter helped pioneered and doubtlessly profited from on his Moog with his tape recorder but now despises. Why is that? Good grist for the mill? Mad because he knows there is an audience for this? Walter has some good points but he is a pompous ass who has spent so much time in his ivory tower that he is getting a little thick about the true nature of his business. I have unprecedented access to equipment that most if not all of the world did not have access to 10 years ago and I am not alone. If I had lived forty years ago there would have been no place on earth for me. I would have wandered though life as a failed musician because the truth is that I am not a very good player but I love music with a rare passion. Perhaps a composer I would have been? Probably not as I am painfully dyslexic. Painfully. So the same people who made the studio a playground for the very rich or the very lucky also took away the quality of the product that Walter glorifies here. Do the math. Why? Was it on purpose? I think it is because they are idiots first and businessmen second. Stooopid enough to screw up one of the most profitable and controllable of the entertainment industries ever created but smart enough to try to profit from that same burning wreck as it is falling to earth. Do you think that Walter sat by and stopped this process from occurring? Nope he befriended Bob Moog. It is like the apostle that introduced Jesus to Judas pretending that he had no role in the eventual slaying of the creator. Nice work there Walter. Walter is the second factor that he is leaving out. Walter and other engineers like himself that cast stones at the house that they built and has put their kids through college look kind of funny as they pluck up their own pavers for ammunition. Walter Sear would do well to read the article posted earlier about Zappa. He would also do well to properly quote Walt Kelly: "We have seen the enemy and [b]he[/b] is us". Just my opinion, - DJDM

[Jotown]

[quote]What have they done to my art? 'They' didn't do it. We did, but I refuse to go along with the trend. [/quote]It seems that Mr. Sears is owning some of the blame here, and at least has the wisdom to see the error in his ways. My hope is that it is not too late. If people keep getting muscic for free on the internet it won't be long before recorded music itself becomes; [b]"an undifferentiated product"[/b], because something you can get for free will ultimately lose any value that it previously had.

[alcohol]

As recorded music becomes cheaper and more available live music becomes more valuable. This is how it should be. The order of demand for music will shift from superstar recordings, superstar performances, DJ nightclubs and cover bands - to local musicians of diverse musical genres playing live in local venues. The demise of the recording industry is the best thing for the restoration of real music. God bless the demise of Sears' house.

[KHAN]

Most of the recordings from the 50's or 60's sound like crap to me. So there. The [b]"Golden age of recording"[/b] for ME is now. For a tiny fraction of the price of a 'real' studio, I'm doing some [i]cool shit[/i]. But I'm sure the author would just focus ont the [i]shit[/i] part. To each his own.

[sign]

[quote]Originally posted by no-self-KHAN-troll: [b]Most of the recordings from the 50's or 60's sound like crap to me. [/b][/quote]Mmmmmmmm........but some sound brilliant, magnificent, awesome, great, and I'm afraid Walter Sear did some. :idea: :)

[sign]

[quote]Originally posted by alcohol: [b] The demise of the recording industry is the best thing for the restoration of real music. God bless the demise of Sears' house.[/b][/quote]I'm afraid you didn't read any of it now did you? Actually Walter is selling the place, with more than 235 great (classic) mics and it's custom built Avalon board. I wish I had the money to buy it! :eek:

[alcohol]

When it comes right down to it, the most important factor in recording is how well the musicians perform. Even a mediocre engineer will sound good with good musicians. So I missed the part where he was selling his soul, but I couldn't afford that stuff anyway. You get a good deal see me at the Midway. I'll buy you a beer.

[Jotown]

[quote]Originally posted by alcohol: [b]When it comes right down to it, the most important factor in recording is how well the musicians perform. Even a mediocre engineer will sound good with good musicians. [/b][/quote]That is not entirely true. A great recording requires a great performance, of a great song, captured by at least a very competent engineer. I think that the main reason that so much of todays music sounds bad,(technically) is that anyone with a DAW, or a workstation now call's themselves and engineer, even when they in fact, have no idea what they are doing. Great equipment, great artists, great engineers in great rooms. Most of the time, those great recordings were a collaborative process of highly skilled technicians and musicians. Only a rare few will achieve such results in their spare bedroom, and those that do will have to have their musical, as well as their engineering chops together. People like Mr. Sears did not conspire to keep the studios out of the hands of musicians. Until recently, it took alot of capital and knowhow to run a studio. I do not blame Mr. Sears and his peers for the demise of the music industry. At least they had a love of music, which is why they got into the biz in the first place. It remains to be seen if the digital revolution that is displacing the old AAA studio system will result in better music being made. If the current state of music is any indication of where we are heading, I am only very, very cautiously optimistic for the future of our industry.