Home Recording Studios: Darwinist Extinction and Historical Charm

An increasing number of musicians are recording, creating and producing their own tracks in home-based studios, and traditional recording studios all across the country (such as New York's famous Hit Factory) are shutting down. What's behind this sea change? Computers are increasingly powerful (and portable), and a PC or Mac sufficiently beefy to handle audio tasks (even high-resolution and surround-sound ones) is now within wallet reach of the masses. Audio capture, creation, editing and production software, too, is more and more affordable and easy-to-use; witness, for example, Apple's GarageBand, part of the iLife suite bundled with Macs, and open-source programs like Ardour and Audacity. Cost-effective, high-capacity HDDs and optical storage are behind the transformation, as well, as is the burgeoning bandwidth of LANs and WANs. And you can't ignore the impact of the plethora of high-quality, low-to-no cost pre-recorded audio samples, which give folks who don't know how to play an instrument (or don't have the desire to assemble an entire band) the ability to make music, too.

As many of you who've read my past print and online musings probably already know, recording musicians and editing the captured results is one of my hobbies. Music creation isn't something I've tackled yet, but there's an M-Audio MIDI keyboard and an acoustic guitar in my closet patiently waiting for me to make the time to learn them. For those of you interested in assembling your own home-based music studio, here's a few introductory links courtesy of Make: Magazine: Bownie's DIY Guide to Recording and the Ultimate Portable Studio. And for a whimsical glance back a few decades at the origins of home-based music development, take a look at a charming 10-minute film called Multiple Sidosis (thanks again to Make: Magazine's RSS feed for the link). It's well worth the download, and the soundtrack will stay with you for the rest of the day (along with the smile on your face).