1.- Dear Dalama, how has the live sound and studio industry fared over the last few years?
The industry, both live sound and studio, has undergone an abrupt change in recent years, just like the economy. Although there have been some recovery figures for vinyl (which is nothing more than a passing fad), the rest has been deteriorating little by little, because even though some people insist on telling us that things are picking up, the truth is that there are fewer concert bookings and also fewer recordings in the traditional sense. That is, complete recordings where the whole process takes place in the studio.
All this is due to the proliferation of very high-quality home gear and studios that allow many of the processes that used to be exclusive to studios to become part of the "home," which cuts into the margins of professional studios. I remember when the first synthesizers and the first string emulators like the Solina appeared. Drum machines and the world of keyboards, then 4-track cassette recorders, 8, 16... I've always been, and still am, a fervent advocate of technology. But along the way I've seen that where musicians used to be musicians and engineers just engineers... now it's such a mix and a jumble that it's hard to tell the difference between them. Let me explain: musicians spend more and more time with machines (which takes time away from their own work), and engineers now do the work of producers, musicians, arrangers, composers, and I could go on forever.
What I don't understand is the shamelessness of more and more people whose introductions list titles as grandiose as: Producer, Engineer, Arranger, Composer, Musician, Manager, Record Label, Publisher and so on and so forth... and all that in the space of a business card?!?! I've been on the circuit for a while... and the little free time I have, I focus on trying to learn something about technique. To this day I still have many gaps and doubts, because learning the technique of "twisting knobs" is never-ending. I'd need several lifetimes to do all those jobs and careers. We should do some serious soul-searching and think carefully about what we're qualified for and what we're NOT. That way we can focus on going deeper into what we can really develop. I'm not against being multidisciplinary, quite the opposite, because it's enriching, but between wanting to pursue many careers and being able to hold your own in them, there's a long way to go.
In other countries people focus much more on trying to be the best in their specialty, and sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don't. But we're the big shots who do everything, and better than anyone, and in reality we waste a lot of energy and are very scattered. It's true that there are many musicians and engineers (sorry, Engineers) who do make a real effort to learn, develop and improve in their respective fields, and I know quite a few... But there's a large majority who lurch from one side to the other and never quite settle on which team they play for. I think that makes us waste a lot of energy, talent (and there's plenty of it) and time that we could be using to build a much more solid music industry. Almost everyone is looking for Fame and Glory, but that has always been reserved for a few and will remain so. Knowing this, you have to fight to do what you love without looking at what, how or when. You have to do it because it comes from within, and not because the goal is to be FAMOUS... although I'm not against people who want that and nothing else, either. I'm simply not on that path. To sum up, because this could fill an encyclopedia: We're not all GENIUSES!
2.- Economically, have you noticed any change or direction lately?
Economically, we're at a difficult moment because money isn't flowing, and I see that it's hard for people to carry out their projects. Fortunately, new ideas are emerging to deal with the lack of liquidity. There's crowdfunding, which allows many people to get financing to carry out their projects. (In Spain it's catching on little by little, but in the US it's a model that has been well established for some time.)
But I, at least, don't see any economic revival; quite the contrary, both in live sound and in the studio. Of course there are and always will be exceptions, but that's what they are: exceptions.
3.- It's obvious that the number and type of gigs has changed, nationally and internationally. To what extent do you think this affects the type of gear used?
Yes, there's a substantial change as far as concerts are concerned. It affects the type of gear in that the greatest effort goes into the "shop window," that is, the visuals, and the audio side comes second (generally speaking). The packaging has taken on more importance than what was originally the initial purpose, namely: the music (the audio side). There's more and more emphasis on the visuals. Often that's because what's being offered is so weak that, live, you either wrap it in lots of paraphernalia or there's nothing to hold on to. Especially with new "Product Artists" created solely to generate money, with no musical foundation. Both audio and visual gear have undergone major and important changes, for the better, in recent years. Although I have to admit that visuals have grown spectacularly. While the new audience demands ever stronger sensations, it's in the field of video and lighting that efforts are concentrated. Remember U2's productions, for example... Honestly, I preferred Pink Floyd, because the visuals were at the service of the music and not the other way around. For some time now, the industry has been putting a lot of effort into the packaging to the detriment of what's really important: THE MUSIC. The way it's consumed has also changed, because new generations have been brought up that way. People are given things and they absorb them, but they forget what's really important... the delight of the soul. Consumption is faster and faster and the product is disposable. Although of course! some gems always come along to delight our inner sensors. The terrible thing is that the vast majority accept everything they're given, and if it's free... By this I don't mean that audio gear isn't important or hasn't advanced substantially; it has, and how! But not in the same proportion. "The Times They Are a-Changin'," Bob Dylan said many years ago (and they were changing). And now we're facing a new change, but there's no need to be afraid: we started a new era some time ago, and we're part of it.
4.- On the studio side: besides the need to sharpen your wits to save money, "home" systems have been evolving steadily. To what extent does this affect the work of the professional studio? How do they complement each other? Is there a division of labor where work starts in one place and is mixed and finished in another?
Yes, that's exactly how it is. Home studios have evolved amazingly thanks to cheaper equipment, which allows creative people to get a lot of work done without going through a more professional studio with professionals at the helm. Often the tracks they bring in are perfect, since they depend solely on sound-generating machines such as samplers with various (and very good) libraries, on which no substantial changes are made. But when it comes to instruments played by real musicians, in my opinion it's always advisable to go through a studio that has the ability to capture the subtleties of both the performer and the musician, with the right equipment and space to capture the performing magic of the moment. Right now, home and pro studios complement each other, and a lot of euros are saved, since the whole pre-production process is no longer done in expensive hours (although "expensive" is a joke by now and a thing of the past).
At home you can devote all the time in the world to it; it's your time and it costs you nothing. But at this stage people often work with sounds that, once the mixing process begins, start to overlap, clash and cancel each other out, so that the choice made at the time, individually, of this or that sound... doesn't work as soon as other tracks appear that need to coexist in the mix, and that's where the problems start. The widespread idea of adding tracks and more tracks, thinking it will sound better, is in my opinion a serious mistake. All you achieve is moving hours and hours of work to the studio, trying to sort out so many sounds, tracks and so on. So what was supposed to be cheap at first turns out not to be in the end. All of it thanks to the "one-man band." But that's something everyone has to judge for themselves, and I'm nobody to contradict what others think.
5.- Do 100% professional recordings necessarily start out in a properly equipped studio?
No. As I said before, today's technology lets people bring in a lot of advanced, very high-quality work, and if there's a PRODUCER involved in that process (a figure so maligned lately), the result won't suffer when they go to a professional studio to complete other tasks. What you need are good songs with good arrangements and good performances.
6.- As for studio technology, software, hybrid consoles that blur the line between live and studio more every day, etc.: any significant evolution in the product lines coming to market?
Certainly there are more and more products on the market that combine various aspects of both live and studio work. I think there have never really been live consoles or studio consoles, but there have been consoles or brands introduced for the recording sector and others that were instead dedicated to live sound. Let me explain: what are the differences between a studio console and a live console? Practically none, except for achieving the best preamp to get the lowest noise floor in the case of studios. If we look at a channel on each console, apart from the assignments to recording tracks on studio consoles and the same function with a different name for live (assignment to subgroups or matrices, etc.), it's exactly the same: preamp, dynamics, EQ and assignment. Yes, I know, the track returns... But it's basically the same. Could we take a studio console out to do live shows? Well, yes! But be prepared to have problems every day, because they're not built to withstand the jostling of loading and unloading, knocks, transport, rain, sun, etc... And that's another marked difference between them. Could we take a live console into a studio? Well, yes! But you'd have to bridge the structural differences and remember that, as you add channels, the hiss would most likely be greater than on one designed for that purpose (this is going to ruffle some feathers). I'd like to mention the fantastic Midas XL4. I think Avid's idea with the S3L is great, since it gives you a portable surface for doing both live and studio work anywhere, and best of all... in the trunk of your car!
7.- What kind of artists are you currently working with in the studio? Fortunately, some artists come back, but there's no longer any exclusivity, because people are often looking for price more than "savoir faire." Besides, they're more concerned with adding this or that name to their production (for prestige and status, too).
The current situation (in which money matters have taken over the whole industry) has meant that there are actually more new artists doing their own productions, with their own budgets, than established artists. It's also normal for our longtime artists to seek other horizons and new prospects. But there's a lot of drive among these new artists, and I hope crowdfunding becomes more and more popular, because the trend is that we'll have to make our own bets with the help of our circle of friends and acquaintances, without waiting for the big names and big companies to do it for us. Technology is cheaper than ever, and we can reach any part of the planet through the web.
8.- What are crowdfunding platforms, and what are they for?
CROWDFUNDING, or participatory patronage, is the fastest, most agile and most effective way for an artist to get financing to move their project forward. It's based on receiving small contributions from individuals (fans) in exchange for some kind of reward. This way, fans become active participants in a project that motivates them enough to contribute. And the artist finds recognition for their project and the chance to make it happen. We see crowdfunding as the most direct way to launch an artist on the road to success, also helped by the promotion and publicity that every crowdfunding campaign implicitly carries.
Because at DALAMIX we realized some time ago what obstacles musicians face when they try to get their songs to the public with the quality they deserve! And we thought about how to help them achieve their dream of recording their album. YES, because let's not kid ourselves: every self-respecting musician knows it's impossible to achieve in their home studio the results they hear on their favorite records. That's why, if they need financing, we offer them our platform, with many advantages in their favor if the project is done at DalaMiX: they pay no management fees on the money budgeted for the campaign, and they'll always get a special price suited to their project. On the other hand, our crowdfunding platform is also open to all groups/bands/solo artists who are only interested in crowdfunding, without opting for the Dalamix studio's services. All the information is on the website wwww.quenoparelamusica.com. We believe that if there's a good project to stand behind, if there's work and determination, and if you're willing to take risks and step out of your comfort zone... there's always the possibility of doing a crowdfunding campaign. And all with the sole aim of... KEEPING THE MUSIC PLAYING
10.- Where is this new wave of music headed?
There's a new direction, since the parameters and rules of the game have changed because of the web. Better, worse? Neither better nor worse, but DIFFERENT. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it only changes form. Music too! I don't want to be "politically correct." I just want to be myself, and these are my opinions.
