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knadles knadles is offline
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Default Will home recording kill commercial studios?

Seems to me the typewriter repair comment derailed things (although it probably shouldn't have)...

When I studied recording in the early '90s, there were a dozen studios around downtown Chicago that allowed us in for classes. There were probably two dozen more in the same area that didn't. Of all those, the only one still standing is Chicago Recording Company. Places like Zenith dB, Paragon, Streeterville and a bunch more I don't remember the names of are just gone, and not much has taken their place. Some in-house studios at the ad agencies and maybe a couple of commercial ventures, but nothing like "the olde days."

Out in the burbs, there were a half dozen small (8-16 track, as we called them back then) studios within about a 15 minute drive from where I live. Now there are zero. Based on a Google search I just did, the closest commercial studio is about 30 minutes from me.

The Mackie 8-bus and Alesis ADAT lit the fire and DAWs collapsed the roof. The good news is the cost of entry is way cheaper than it used to be. You don't need a $100K console with Flying Faders and a 24-track machine with Dolby SR and a half dozen Neumanns anymore. The bad news is that few people are interested in paying you a living sum to operate a recording studio when they can buy their own DAW for 60 bucks and some Chinese LDCs for 75 bucks each.

Record stores may be a better analogy.

Pete