The DOWNFALL OF Home Recording
Summary
TLDRIn this reflective video, the creator discusses the stagnation of home recording quality despite technological advancements. He theorizes that the constant pursuit of new plugins, overemphasis on mixing, lack of editing, and conflicting information contribute to this issue. The video also touches on the loss of collaborative spirit in music production and the laziness induced by technology. The creator offers a free training to help improve home recordings, emphasizing the importance of knowledge and experience over tools.
Takeaways
- 🎙️ Home recording technology has improved significantly over the past 20 years, yet many home recordings still sound amateurish.
- 🔄 The constant pursuit of new plugins and tools can lead to inefficiency, as professionals of the past became masters of their limited toolsets.
- 🔧 An overemphasis on mixing can detract from the importance of proper recording and arrangement, which are foundational to professional sound quality.
- ✂️ Neglecting the editing process in home recording can lead to unpolished tracks, whereas professional producers prioritize editing for track perfection.
- 🤔 The abundance of conflicting information online about audio production techniques can confuse home recordists and hinder their progress.
- 🏭 The isolation that comes with modern home recording technology has diminished the collaborative aspect of music production, which is historically beneficial.
- 📱 Technology and instant gratification may be making musicians lazy, with a decline in pre-production activities like demo recording and tempo mapping.
- 📚 The speaker believes that knowledge, education, and experience are more critical than tools in achieving professional-sounding home recordings.
- 👥 A lack of community and collaboration in home recording might be impacting the quality of final productions.
- 🎁 The speaker offers free training to improve home recording and mixing techniques, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's tools.
- 🎤 For those interested in improving vocal recording quality, the speaker has a video tutorial on producing professional vocals with inexpensive equipment.
Q & A
What is the main concern expressed in the video script about home recording?
-The main concern is that despite advancements in technology, home recordings still sound amateurish and, in some cases, have gotten worse over the years.
What was the expectation during the mid-2000s regarding the future of home recording?
-The expectation was that all musicians would be recording themselves professionally at home due to the availability of affordable interfaces and DAWs with plugins.
Why does the script suggest that home recordings have stagnated or worsened over time?
-The script suggests that the constant pursuit of new plugins, an overemphasis on mixing, lack of proper recording and arranging skills, and the absence of editing are contributing factors to the stagnation.
What is the issue with constantly buying new plugins as mentioned in the script?
-The issue is that people are not becoming proficient with any single tool, leading to inefficiency and a lack of development in their sound quality.
Why is the mixing process becoming an obsession for many home recordists according to the script?
-The script implies that the focus on mixing is due to the abundance of educational content on the subject, while other crucial aspects like recording and arranging are often neglected.
What is the importance of editing tracks in the context of the script?
-Editing tracks is crucial because it helps to ensure that the source material is as professional as possible before mixing and mastering, which is often overlooked in home recording.
How does the script describe the impact of conflicting information on home recording?
-The script describes it as a problem that leads to confusion and indecision, as there is an overabundance of differing opinions on best practices in audio production.
What role does collaboration play in the context of the script's discussion on home recording?
-Collaboration is presented as a historically important aspect of audio production that has been lost with the rise of technology, potentially leading to less polished and professional sounding recordings.
How does the script suggest technology has affected the work ethic of musicians?
-The script suggests that technology has made many musicians lazy, as they rely on instant gratification and are less inclined to put in the effort required for pre-production and demo recording.
What is the script's final stance on the potential improvement of home recording quality?
-The script concludes that there is hope for improvement if musicians prioritize education, knowledge, experience, and community over the constant pursuit of new tools and technology.
What exclusive training is offered in the script to help improve home recording and mixing?
-The script offers an exclusive training that shares techniques for prepping guitar tracks, creating clarity in mixes, controlling mix levels, and crafting radio-ready vocal mixes using stock plugins.
Outlines
🎙️ The Stagnation of Home Recording Quality
The speaker reflects on the evolution of home recording technology over the past 20 years, noting that despite advancements, many home recordings still lack professional quality. They express concern that while tools like DAWs, plugins, and USB interfaces have improved and become more affordable, the overall sound quality of home recordings has not significantly progressed. The speaker intends to explore theories behind this phenomenon, recalling their audio production education in the mid-2000s when the potential of home recording was a topic of discussion. The expectation was that technology would enable musicians to produce professional-level recordings at home, but this has not been the universal outcome.
🔄 The Pitfalls of Constantly Upgrading Plugins
The speaker identifies the first reason for the stagnation in home recording quality as the continuous pursuit of new plugins. While acknowledging the impressive capabilities and increased accessibility of modern plugins, they argue that this abundance has led to a lack of mastery over any single tool. Home studio owners, often hobbyists rather than professionals, frequently swap out plugins, which hinders the development of an intimate understanding and proficiency with any particular tool. This behavior contrasts with the practices of renowned engineers and producers of the past who became highly efficient with their consistent use of the same tools over time.
🎚️ The Overemphasis on Mixing and the Neglect of Fundamentals
The second reason discussed for the lack of progress in home recordings is an overemphasis on the mixing process. The speaker points out that while mixing is crucial, it is only one aspect of music production. A professional mix cannot compensate for poorly recorded tracks or a flawed arrangement. The focus on mixing has overshadowed the importance of recording techniques, arrangement, and songwriting. Professional producers spend significant time perfecting these elements before even considering mixing. The speaker laments that the current trend neglects these foundational aspects, leading to a reliance on mixing to salvage inadequate recordings.
✂️ The Importance of Track Editing in Professional Recordings
The speaker highlights the critical role of track editing in achieving professional-sounding recordings, a practice often overlooked in home studios. They argue that professional producers always edit tracks to ensure the highest quality before mixing and mastering. The lack of editing in home recordings contributes to their amateurish sound. The speaker admits to refusing to mix tracks from home studios that have not been properly edited, emphasizing that patience and thoroughness in editing are essential for high-quality results, something that many home producers seem to lack in the age of instant gratification.
🤔 The Confusion Caused by Conflicting Information
The fourth theory presented by the speaker is the overabundance of conflicting information available to home producers. They share their personal experience of being overwhelmed by differing opinions on soundproofing methods, which led them to hire a professional designer. This confusion extends to production techniques, with varied advice on mixing approaches and vocal compression, leaving home producers unsure of best practices. The speaker empathizes with the difficulty of navigating this sea of advice, especially for those working in isolation without guidance.
🏭 The Loss of Collaborative Spirit in Music Production
The speaker discusses the historical collaborative nature of audio production and how it has been eroded by technology, leading to more musicians working in isolation. The advent of MIDI drum software and amp simulators has reduced the need for live collaboration, which the speaker believes is problematic. They argue that the lack of interaction can result in imbalanced mixes, such as overly loud guitars or poorly mixed vocals, as musicians without the benefit of diverse perspectives may not achieve the same level of production quality as a team effort.
📚 The Solution: Education, Experience, and Community
Concluding the video script, the speaker expresses optimism that the situation can improve. They believe that as musicians and home studio owners recognize the importance of education, they will focus less on tools and more on knowledge and experience. The speaker offers a free training to help producers improve their recordings and mixes, emphasizing that the key to overcoming the plateau in home recording quality lies in better understanding and applying audio production techniques. They invite viewers to engage with the community and share their thoughts on the topic.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Home Recording
💡DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)
💡Plugins
💡USB Interfaces
💡Mixing
💡Arranging
💡Editing
💡Conflicting Information
💡Collaboration
💡Isolation
💡Education
Highlights
Home recording technology has improved significantly over the past 20 years, yet many home recordings still sound amateurish.
The abundance of DAWs, plugins, and USB interfaces has not necessarily translated to better-sounding home recordings.
The speaker shares their theory on why home recordings have stagnated or even deteriorated in quality.
During the mid-2000s, there was a belief that all musicians would soon be recording professionally at home.
Despite technological advancements, the actual improvement in home recording quality has been limited.
People constantly buying new plugins may hinder the development of proficiency with any single tool.
The pursuit of new tools and plugins can lead to inefficiency and a lack of deep understanding of the tools being used.
An overemphasis on mixing can detract from the importance of proper recording and song arrangement.
Professional producers spend significant time on song arrangement before recording or mixing.
Lack of editing in home recordings is a common issue, as editing is crucial for professional sound.
Pro producers always edit tracks to ensure they sound professional before mixing and mastering.
An overabundance of conflicting information online can confuse home studio owners.
Isolation in home recording can lead to a lack of collaboration and diverse perspectives.
Technology may be making musicians lazy, with less focus on the collaborative and creative process.
The speaker offers a free training to improve home recording and mixing techniques.
The belief that home studio gear is the key to professional sound is challenged, emphasizing the importance of knowledge and experience.
The speaker invites viewers to share their thoughts on the stagnation of home recording quality over the past 20 years.
Transcripts
hello Bobby tours of fright box
recording here now over the last few
years there's really been something
that's been on my mind a lot it's
weighing heavy on my mind and that's the
fact that home recording as we know it
Daws plugins and USB interfaces have
been around for a long time now well
over 20 years but if you've been paying
attention maybe you've noticed that home
recordings still are sounding like home
recordings even though technology has
gotten better and these tools that we
purchase for our home Studios have
gotten better more efficient and less
expensive most home recordings don't
sound that great they're not really
getting much better and in some cases I
found they're getting worse now this is
a video I've been thinking about making
for a long time and I'm going to dive
into my theories on why this might be
happening let's
[Music]
discuss I remember when I was earning my
degree in audio production back in the
mid 2000s this was sort of at the
beginning of the modern-day home
recording boom and I remember having a
lot of different conversations with my
classmates and even some of my
professors and the main concern back
then was that in the near future all
musicians would be recording themselves
I mean even back then interfaces existed
Daws with inexpensive plugins existed so
you know it would make sense that if the
technology was that good back then
before you know it everyone would be
recording Pro level records in their
houses well here we are almost 20 years
later and that didn't happen now yes of
course there are people recording and
producing great sounding stuff in their
home Studios but I'm going to be honest
in my experience that's more the
exception and not the rule as a matter
of fact I found that home recordings
have really stagnated and in some cases
they've actually gotten worse so the
question is why is this happening I mean
clearly the tools have gotten better and
better the software has gotten better
and better the interfaces the
microphones everything has gotten better
and better so why haven't the results
gotten better and better well I have a
few different theories and that's what I
want to talk about in this video all
right so the first reason why I think
home recordings have actually stagnated
and even gotten worse is that people are
constantly buying new plugins now the
truth is plugins are more amazing than
ever they're also more in expensive than
ever which as a whole is actually a
really good thing we all have access to
amazing tools now there are no excuses
but the flip side is that because these
tools are so readily available and
accessible is that we're constantly
swapping them out trying new plugins
trying new drum software trying new
guitar Sim software and we have to
remember and think back to the old days
the all-time great engineers and
producers and mixers were not swapping
out their consoles all the time they
were not not buying new analog outboard
gear all the time back then that's all
that existed there were no plugins but
the thing is because they used the same
tools for years and maybe even decades
they would end up becoming very
efficient and very good at using these
tools and the problem is most home
studio owners they're just hobbyists
they're not pros and then throw in the
issue of constantly chasing new tools
and plugins and you're never going to
get used to and develop an ear for the
tool that you're using I see this all of
the time I've gone into people's mixes
where they have hundreds hundreds of
different plugins on their tracks and
they don't even know what the plugins
are doing that's a problem it's very
difficult to make progress with your
recordings and mixes if you don't know
your tools inside and out and it's
blatantly obvious that this has become
more and more of a problem as time has
progressed okay reason number two why I
think home recordings are not
progressing is that more and more people
are becoming more and more obsessed with
the mixing process obviously ing is
extremely important but it's only one
part of the production process as a
whole it is impossible to produce a
prole mix if your tracks were not
recorded properly in the first place and
to go even deeper it's impossible to
produce a pro level song If your
Arrangement is jacked up now as much as
I love YouTube and I love education
there's such a heavy focus on mixing but
no one seems to care about recording no
one talks about microphone placement or
arranging or the craft of songwriting
well in reality in Pro Studios Pro
producers spend a ton of time working on
the song before they even think about
recording let alone mixing and I've
noticed as time has moved on more and
more people seem to only care about
mixing and this isn't good you can't mix
your way out of a bad Arrangement or
poorly recorded tracks and this is a
nice segue into reason number three why
home recording usually don't sound good
and this is a simple one I found that
nobody edits their tracks I know editing
is boring honestly editing kind of sucks
but here's the thing Pro producers
always edit their tracks and more
importantly they do whatever it takes to
make the source tracks sound as
professional as possible before they
even think about mixing and mastering
now this has gotten so bad that I
actually won't even bother mixing
someone's track that they produced out
of their home studio now there are
exceptions shout out to Dennis from
inventure he did an amazing job
recording his band's record and I had a
great time mixing that album but again
that's more the exception and not the
rule most people do not want to edit but
they want a pro sounding track well I
have news for you in all the big studios
all the pro producers are editing their
tracks and we live in a day and age
where people just don't have the
patience for things I found and they
want to kind of short shortcut their way
to results it ain't going to happen you
have to edit your tracks okay well this
leads me into Theory number four on why
I believe home recording has plateaued
and that is that there is an
overabundance of conflicting information
out there now before hiring a designer
for my new studio I was stuck in this
trap myself I was diving more in depth
on soundproofing methods for my new
studio and I was confused one person was
saying this another person was saying
this it was driving me insane to the
point where I just decided to hire a
designer and not even worry about it
myself and this is definitely happening
in the world of production one guy is
telling you you have to use top- down
mixing the other person is saying top
down mixing is a myth one person is
saying to not compress your vocals too
much it's going to damage your recording
another person is saying compress the
living crap out of your vocals that's
how Pros do it well how are you supposed
to know what to do this is a problem and
I totally get it because I've
experienced it myself especially when
you have no one to talk to and maybe
you're working on your music completely
on your own and that's another problem
is that so many of us are working in
complete isolation with the Advent of
midi drum software and amp Sims I've
noticed that a lot of musicians don't
even bother playing with other musicians
anymore they just produce their own
music in complete isolation on their own
which could be cool but it can also be
very problematic audio production
throughout history in general has been a
collaborative process and we've really
really been losing that over the last
few days decades and I don't know I'm
starting to think it's not a good thing
people send me a lot of songs where I
can clearly hear it's a guitar player
programming the drums or it's a guitar
player that mixes the track because the
vocals are non-existent and it's you
know the guitars are super loud or maybe
the kick drums are Extremely Loud
because a drum mix the track and they
Outsource the guitar parts or something
like that and of course I have heard
amazing music that was produced this way
don't get me wrong but again more often
than not I don't know I think it holds a
lot of people back unfortunately I think
the technology is both a blessing and a
curse the other thing as far as
technolog is concerned that I found is
that it is making so many of us
extremely lazy funny story for you so
after I graduated college and I earned
my degree in audio I was recording a ton
of bands and I noticed around 2010 2011
2012 2013 more and more bands were
recording demos out of their home
Studios which is great it made producing
so much easier when bands would come in
prepared they'd come in with their
tempos mapped with guitar profiles I
loved it it was awesome but here's the
funny thing as I've gotten older and the
bands have stayed the same age so
there's more of a generation gap so I'm
in my you know late 30s 40 and the bands
are 20 21 what I've been finding in
general not always but in general is
that a lot of the younger bands don't
bother with technology as much I know
this sounds crazy because so many of us
are glued to our phones and we're
constantly on social media but it's it's
crazy in the past few years a lot of the
younger bands I've worked with don't
record demos anymore the Guitar Pro
thing seems to be a thing of the past
it's almost like we've gone back to the
old days where bands just jamming a room
again which is cool in one way I don't
know I'm starting to maybe think that
all these apps that we use and all of
the instant gratification is making us
lazy and Tempo mapping and recording
Demos in your home studio is just too
much work now of course I'm generalizing
I have worked with younger bands that do
do pre-production but the truth is I've
noticed it's become less and less common
at least in my experience and I think a
lot of this has to do with the fact that
technology is distracting us it's just
making us lazy like I said so it's true
I think that home studio recordings
really have plateaued and in many cases
like I said have gotten worse but I
believe there's hope I think as time
goes on more and more musicians and home
studio owners will realize how important
education is and hopefully people will
realize just how little the tools
actually matter and that the attention
will be diverted to what really matters
which is knowledge and of course
education and experience and also
Community I'm willing to bet that you
already own all of the gear necessary to
produce the results that you have in
your mind the only barrier is your
knowledge now I want you producing
amazing sounding results for your music
right now because of this I'm offering
you access to my exclusive training four
dead simple ways to massively improve
your recordings and mixes in this
training I share my number one technique
for prepping guitar tracks that
virtually mixed themselves I also show
you firsthand how you can create
instantaneous Clarity within your mix
using any old stock EQ plugin you'll
also learn how to finally take control
over the levels in your mix so that
instruments stop fighting each other and
then finally I'll show you how to craft
Radio Ready vocal mixes using only stock
plugins now full disclosure if you're
one of these people that's constantly
scrolling through Tik Tok and you have
the attention span of a squirrel please
don't waste your time this training is
indepth it's almost an hour long and
it's meant for people are serious like I
was about audio production the training
is absolutely free right now and you can
have direct access by clicking the link
below in this video description so I'm
curious to know have you experienced
this yourself have you noticed that home
recordings really haven't gotten much
better in the past 20 years leave a
comment below this video and let me know
your thoughts I'm curious to know what
you think and also if you're interested
in recording prole vocals regardless of
the quality of the vocal mic that you
currently own check out this video in
the video I share with you how I
produced prle vocal tracks using a cheap
dynamic microphone until next time drink
that spin drift
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