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Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow—Where We've Been and Where We're Going
In this book we feature new ways in which you can use your present facilities to increase cash flow, boost promotion, invigorate personnel, and refine financial planning. The idea is to give you additional motivation and new insights that can help you remain profitable through the experiences of your peers. It is my contention that virtually every problem a professional audio services provider faces has been faced before. To paraphrase Timothy Leary: “Things change so rapidly in this industry that nothing stays the same except change itself.” The best solution, to me, is to be able to communicate with other sophisticated professional audio studio owners to learn how they fixed any given situation that you find yourself faced with and perplexed by. One does not have to reinvent the wheel with each new crisis that appears. That said, let's get on with it.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY—THE PAST: 1934–1983
This is not a book about the history of audio or about the development of microphones, tape machines, or recording consoles. I shall only briefly touch upon some salient issues, regarding these subjects, that you should be aware of because of their impact on the development of modern recording techniques.
In August of 1934, the first AEG magnetic recorder (think “tape machine”) was exhibited at the German Radio Exhibition. It could record on iron-oxide-coated plastic audio tape, which was basically much the same as recording tape today. In 1944 when the Allies captured Radio Luxembourg in Europe, they found a tape recorder that had a sonic performance superior to that of any of the finest recorded acetate discs available at that time. Within 3 years, discs had been abandoned as a mastering medium by most record labels because of this increase in sonic quality.
By 1950, tape machines as we know them were available primarily for this sonically superior mastering at the high end of the market, which allowed the significant development of the LP (long-playing) phonograph record. During that same time period, the primitive method of what we call “overdubbing” on our 48-track digital machines of today was to “bounce” from an existing acetate phonograph record played through a simple console, adding an additional instrument by connecting a microphone into the same console, and playing along with the music while recording all the sounds on an additional acetate. This discovery motivated the music makers to demand more and more tracks on a tape machine, which caused tape width to go from ¼ inch to 2 inches. This, coupled with the development of modern recording head manufacturing technology, allowed the simultaneous recording of from 1 to 24 tracks of sound in sync, with almost infinite overdubbing capabilities. As these machines were developed, the industry went from mono to 2-track, 3-track, 4-track, 8-track, 12-track, 16-track, and 24-track analog, and then to 24-track, 32-track, and finally 48-track digital multitrack tape machines. The next step is computer hard disc recording that requires no tape at all and allows totally electronic editing.
Along with this development of a more flexible storage medium with an increasing number of recording tracks, the recording console manufacturers had to expand the number of outputs available to match the new tape machines. This in turn gave the record producer and the artist the ability to use more inputs for instruments and microphones (sometimes as many as 25 on the drum kit alone), until today, when over 100 console inputs have become common in the high-end studios. This large number of inputs stimulated the development of the sophisticated console automation systems that have become a necessity in recording today.
During this same time period of 1950 to 1982, we went from the LP to the CD, and from exclusively analog to the new option of digital multitrack recording machines, which, as previously noted, were introduced commercially by the 3M company in 1979, with its 32-track. The digital multitrack became reliable in 1982 with the introduction of the Sony 3324 24-track, which very soon became the standard at the high end of the industry, even though Mitsubishi and Otari attempted to compete with their 32-track digital machines for a short period of time.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY—THE SECOND DIGITAL REVOLUTION IS UPON US
In October of 1983, when everyone was wondering about the future of recording studios, given the impact of digital recording and the emergence of the CD, I was asked to go to London and speak at an APRS (Association of Professional Recording Services) conference about the state of the industry. They wanted to know what we Yanks thought was going on in “the business.”
It was a rude awakening for them when I informed them of the realities that we were confronting in the States. After a wonderfully profitable period of rock and roll fantasies, a few of us realized that studios had to start becoming serious about the fact that we were operating a business, and therefore had to make a reasonable profit to survive in what had become the professional audio recording jungle.
Many of the challenges we faced in 1983 are repeating themselves today. We have entered the era of the DVD, which is likely to revitalize the industry more than the CD did, because now we are talking about replacing VHS as well. Along with considerations of new audio standards, the DVD promises a true marriage of audio and video. Like the new Digital TV standard, DVD will contribute to the projected future obsolescence of existing consumer audio and video hardware. How quickly will the DVD take hold with the consumer masses, and how will it affect our professional audio livelihoods? We are currently in the process of finding out how far this medium can go.
The global audio industry is tackling the new variations to multichannel mixing and the placement of each channel for 5.1 multichannel sound. The battle rages over compression and resolution. The WG-4 standard for DVD (much like the Redbook Standard for CD) is now in place, but how long before it will change? How far beyond a sampling rate of 44.1 can we expect to go? Will 96K/24-bit become a widespread reality? Is the CD-ROM dying? What is the true impact of the Digital TV standard? What about the Internet's impact on music distribution, and what are the limitations of the accepted formats for streaming audio? How do we best utilize the increasingly lower cost of highspeed Internet routing and satellite digital transfer? How will this second revolution affect our hourly rates? How do we prepare for this revolution, and what are the new format services we must offer?
From the recording studio and postproduction facility point of view, the question is: “What do we invest in now so that we aren't left behind?” In the late seventies, some of us bet on a premature 32-track digital tape machine from a major manufacturer. Believe me, we suffered for it, and with a floundering format, we got into lots of trouble. The solution, now as then, is K.I.S.S.—Keep It Simple, Stupid! Learn from the past, or you will repeat the mistakes of your predecessors. The pioneers invariably get arrows shot at them, and the heroes have scars. But if you don't bet, you can't win. How do we resolve this dilemma?
For starters, consider renting before you buy. Let the rental companies take the gamble on which manufacturer and specifications/ standards will be the ones to win. The rental boys regularly bet upon the hope that they will be right, and everyone will need to rent their gear at very expensive rates. I know about that. I had a large pro audio rental company and made a bundle renting the Sony PCM-3324 24-track digital tape recorder after I lost my shorts with that early 32-track machine. My second time at the table was profitable, and it was good for the studios, which were not yet ready to plunk down $140,000 (in 1983 dollars) to own one of those babies. The clients could justify paying the daily rental price for the new digital technology because of the CD era, and the studios were wise enough not to invest in the new technology until it had proven itself.
In the marketing/financial consulting game, there is a simple graph called the “2 × 2 Growth Strategies Quadrant.” Simply stated, it says that if you are in the ice cream business and your customers want pancakes, start making pancakes. It does not matter if you do it well at first, because your clients know and trust you. They will give it a try because they know you want to furnish them with the latest technology. If you successfully move your client base toward the next set of formats and standards, you will attract new clients and be a hero. Those new clients will provide the revenue to pay for the new hardware you must have to lead them toward their future.
Your creativity as a professional audio provider is to guess right about where the industry is going. The audio studio or post-production facility is a middleman between the creative force of the video and/or audio artist and the commercial acceptance of the new technology that justifies the expense. You must be willing to take the leap—but move ahead cautiously, because your company's life is at stake. Read the available trade publications. Go to the seminars and conferences that are offered. Listen to everyone (your clients first, then your peers, friends, and suppliers) who thinks they know the truth, and test every piece of hardware that shouts “I am the one” before you even think of purchasing it. This is the best way to increase your odds of being a survivor, instead of “whatever happened to good ol’ what's his name?”
We are entering a very exciting time with the media vehicles of DVD, digital TV, and the new abilities to communicate and transmit via the Internet and satellite. Those who get it right will profit. Those who don't will suffer. This familiar scenario of the survival of the fittest generates the ever-changing business opportunities in our magical musical industry.