Please read my other blog if you are interested in my opinions about pro recording VS. indie culture. There are pros and cons to both sides of this question. Obviously, I'm in favor of doing as much as possible yourself. I've spent many years in the trenches recording bands on everything from 4-track cassette to Pro tools HD. Does the equipment matter? To an extent, yes. Can a good song survive a bad recording? Maybe. Can you record a hit at home? Sometimes.

But there are limits to what you can do alone, and that's the catch. There is a certain lack of objectivity when you are the artist and AND the producer, and with consumer recording equipment or bad acoustics there's often a 'sameness' that creeps into things. It can make even a good song sound mushy or boring. Eventually you will need to work with people whose skills and equipment are more developed than your own, or you won't progress to a higher level. But only you can decide when that will be.

Money's usually the big problem. I've worked with the biggest budgets and the smallest. Ironically, there's always too little money. And I've run an indie studio for long enough to know that my LOWEST price is still a lot for working musicians to come up with. So the only way I can make that sacrifice meaningful is to make it WORTHWHILE. We give really good quality and a lot of other perks so people walk away happy. After all, I can't run a studio like this for free but at least I can give a lot of bang for the buck. That's been my strategy for years, and it's worked so well that some people actually walked away SUPERSTARS!

Digital Vs Analog? Well, computers are good for a lot of things. In recording, they can speed certain things up. One thing they are really good for is setups. So many things about Basic Tracking and overdubs are similar from session to session. It used to take a day, sometimes more, to get a band, mikes, eq, etc, properly setup for a record. So we installed a Euphonics board that recalls every knob, every fader, even every patch on the patchbay! It's unbelievably efficient. We can set up for Basic Tracks and be recording in five hours or so. Not for a demo, but a RECORD!

Also, I've standardized certain procedures and taught them to my engineers. Everyone here uses the Satellite Park production system. I can open Paul's files and continue working seamlessly with them and vice-versa. Another big timesaver. Efficiency-oriented things like that add up. Plus, of course, we're musicians so we know what it takes to make things sound right.

The sum of all these tricks we've learned? Lower prices. Better sounds. A relaxed working environment. More time to work with artists on their musical performances and give free advice about their career development...and more fun doing it.