With the record business in shambles, 360 deals leaching the last bit of income out of musicians wallets, and media downloading at an all time high, there has never been a better time to take this bitch of an industry by the neck and forge our destinies as DIY musicians.
Because of all time low profits in the music biz, there will likely never be another super band like Metallica or Led Zeppelin, this means that us indie bands face a bleak future. One without the glowing hope of a million dollar record deal that will one day shower us in riches beyond our wildest dreams.
However, while the internet taketh away, it also giveth back.
We now have, at our fingertips, access to the latest and greatest tools for making a band successful. Gone are the days of needing to pay thousands to web designers, throw something up and push everyone to our social media pages, or take 20 minutes to customize a decent template and toss it on a hosting service. Need to get the music out? Fuck having to pay for huge amounts of inventory to have our albums collect dust at HMV, we have itunes, bandcamp, soundcloud, etc etc.
And best of all? Recording. No more $20k LPs for bands who can barely afford their rent. We all have access to some of the greatest recording gear EVER, and you could literally load up on enough to run a pro level studio for under $2k. Cubase, Steven Slate drums, Line 6, Revalver, Guitar Rig, Amplitube. Thats enough to do more than most mid level studios can, and you can run it on a laptop. Add another $2500 to toss an Axe-Fx II in the mix, and you will be set for years.
But there is a catch (two actually). Spending some cash on gear doesn’t mean that you will be able to unpack it, install it, and start recording your shiny new album tomorrow. There is a serious learning curve to this, recording is an art in and of itself. But take a little bit of time to record some tests, listen to what others are doing online, and in a year or so, you could crank out an album that would make any studio from ten years ago weep. And you should, having an awesome demo is the most powerful tool a band can wield. But make sure it’s done right. My band made the mistake of coasting on a half-assed demo for the first two years of our career, and as a result, for two more years after, we had given people a clear view of what we weren’t. First impressions and all… Since then I have made a point of doing our albums in house, and our most recent “The Oracle”, has been garnering rave reviews across the globe (check that out here:All Else Fails Press ). Pretty good for something I recorded in my basement.
I said there was a second catch though right? With the ease of programs like Superior drummer and drumgog, many “real” studios have lost the ability to properly record drums. Eventually every band who has been recording themselves and using such programs, will get to the point where their drummer wants to actually be playing on the album. Guess what? They are shit out of luck. Most studios, even with a fancy and time intensive (read: expensive) drum setup will still end up augmenting, or even outright replacing said drums by resampling or programming anyway. Sucks right? Yes and no, thats the trade off we face.
So get out there, research gear, take the time to understand how to track your instruments properly, learn what works best for you, and then take a shot at it. And once you have it down, help other musicians. I recently opened up my personal studio “FadeBack Studios United” to the public in order to help young bands get a kick-ass recording on a tiny budget. I charge just enough to get new recording gear out of it, so that I can make the next project I work on better, and I get to put my name on some really great Indie music, win-win!
In the meantime, here are some test tracks I have been working on as I get used to tracking with my new Line 6 Pod HD 500. All I used here was said Pod into Cubase 5, and added some beats with Superior Drummer 2.0. Thats a total cost of $1200, and I could do a whole album with this setup, vocals included.
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