7.19.07

it's been like 8 months. whatev.

home recording.

what i think is that people get hung up on the fact that they're at home and don't think it's a legit way to make a record. I think it's usually because they're using the mic pre's in their 002 and some crappy ass mic to make the whole record. Naturally, it won't end up sounding like your favorite record, even after some amount of mixing triage (if you decide to take it to a studio to mix). I kind of believe that someone can get really good at recording with crappy equipment on their own time, but i don't believe a person can make amazing records that way. There was a time when home recording equipment had character because it was actually shitty. Or actually strangely made or had restricted bandwidth or whatever. Now, most home recording equipment is computer-based or one of those standalone hard disk recorders, which all sound pretty good. They're supposed to use modern technology to reproduce sounds with somewhat realistic fidelity. But they aren't quite there in terms of ACTUALLY sounding good, or sounding anywhere close (with a few exceptions) to what the higher-quality stuff does. For me, i'd rather hear old "shitty" home recordings than new more modern "good-sounding" home recordings. Because in my mind there are kind of three categories of quality, in terms of fidelity from objectively "worst" to objectively "best" (my own personal order is a little different). Well, four. There is total garbage. Then, there's the old GBV-esque character that is indicative of 4 or 8-track cassette and 1/4" reel to reel recorders. Then, there's what you hear on like every modern local band's demo, which is contemporary low-cost home recording gear. Then there's "studio quality", whatever that means.

Now, what i'm trying to get to is if people invested in similar quality but more minimalist examples from what is found in studios, not only would their records SOUND better (because most nice pieces of gear are about eliminating problems more than holding some sort of magic or "vibe"), but they'd be able to build their chops a lot more.

There's been too much going on since i last posted to go through all of that now. Contact me if you actually want to know.