Studio: How Science Serves Art

It was an historic moment. For the first time, the 45th Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden were broadcast Feb. 23 in 5.1-channel sound. It was a watershed event in the recording sciences' evolutionary crawl toward sonic perfection: science serving art, to convey and reproduce musical performance.

With high-resolution, 5.1-channel music available on the eminently successful DVD-Video format, in ever-increasing numbers of DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD titles and now proliferating in the broadcast realm, recording arts are better served by science than ever before.

For the music industry, the Grammy Awards are the apex, and Effanel Music, the location recording specialist frequently in service on such occasions, had multiple trucks on the premises. But Effanel president Randy Ezratty offered an assessment at odds with the upbeat mood of the evening.

"The need for conventional remote-recording trucks has waned," Ezratty said, "by virtue of technology putting a good deal of what have traditionally been 'remote -recording specialist' projects in the hands of the artists. The same analogy is happening in the studios."

The twin forces of technology's irreversible advance and a dramatically volatile music business environment—currently reeling from declining sales, continued piracy and downsizing—are more visibly manifested across the professional audio industry than ever before, from recording studios to equipment manufacturers and producers to artists.

Even as high-resolution, multichannel audio expands, many observers contend that the age of the grand, elite recording studio is fading. Shrinking recording budgets no longer support the model, the reasoning goes, while the digital audio workstation (DAW)-based studio, affordable to almost anyone, can provide higher-than-ever quality.

Engineers, producers and, significantly, artists have embraced the DAW, equipping personal and home environments with fast, flexible, powerful and even portable studios.

The recording industry's top facilities have already felt the shift.

Record Plant Studios in Hollywood, Calif., for example, has announced a new focus on the DAW, while the Plant Studios in Sausalito, Calif., has extended its hand to unsigned and indie artists, welcoming them—with certain conditions attached—to work in professional recording and mastering rooms at greatly reduced rates.

"We're as state-of-the-art as any studio in the world," says Plant owner Arne Frager, who took on a partner to reduce overhead and add new equipment, including an SSL 9000 console. "Until recently, the Plant has only been available to those who could afford $2,000-a-day budgets, and we don't think that's in keeping with the tone of the time."

dominant platform

Digidesign's Pro Tools platform continues its march to dominance as both a recording format and hardware interface. It is found in countless private studios, dedicated DAW suites within commercial studios and in the traditional control room itself. New studios are opening in which a Pro Tools HD rig with hardware interface and a full complement of processing plug-ins has supplanted console, tape recorder and outboard devices.

And Apple Computer's PowerPC G5 desktop, developed with IBM and shipping since August, will only improve DAW performance.

Aspiring recordists, in a media-frenzied atmosphere of ever-expanding content demand, are taking to Pro Tools and competing DAW platforms like Steinberg's Nuendo, Emagic's Logic and Mark of the Unicorn's Digital Performer. Classroom and online education dedicated to digital audio and video production has exploded, as seen at the Mindlab Learning Center in Menlo Park, Calif., or Boston's Berklee College of Music.

More than ever, the means of production, duplication and distribution are in the hands of the individual, or "prosumer."

"We're in an exciting time," says David Malekpour of Professional Audio Design, a Rockland, Mass.-based firm offering equipment sales, design and technical services. "But the traditional framework is growing and changing, and it's uncomfortable. There's a lot of people who can't see beyond the current paradigm into the future."

While no one knows precisely what tomorrow's recording studio will look like, a facility reflecting today's environment is emerging.

Bruce Maddocks, a 30-year veteran of top studios, has equipped his Cups 'n Strings Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., to answer contemporary client demands, such as archival transfers and restoration, surround mixing and extraction, mastering and ISDN transmission.

Essentially a one-man operation, Maddocks' choice of a Sony DMX-R100 small-format digital console suits his cramped surroundings. "I'm in a physically space-challenged room," Maddocks says. "For any small operation that needs very high throughput, the ability to have a console that does many things quickly and can recall it quickly is really an asset. It's something I use every day, and I use every aspect of it."

At nearby Threshold Sound + Vision, a similar-type facility is proving successful. Partners Stephen Marsh, Peter Barker and Marc Schrobilgen were staffers at Sony Studios in Santa Monica until its closing in 2001.They now provide a wide range of services in part of an 11,000-square-foot building in West Los Angeles.

"I see a pickup in business because of independent studios," Marsh says. "There are so many people doing stuff at home now. I can't imagine doing a project without some form of help if you've never done it before, as far as what equipment to get, how to set your room up, and the standards and practices that used to be built into the system.

Professionalism more critical

With production done by individuals of varying skill on their own digital equipment increasing, professional mastering has become even more critical.

Cups 'n Strings, Threshold and others have responded to the demand for quality mastering by offering such services. Alex Abrash, formerly studio manager at the multi-room Kampo Studios in New York, now operates Tremendos Music from his home, specializing in mastering DAW-created mixes with analog gear.

"A lot of people are recording independent projects," Abrash says. "I'm more impressed than not with what people are capable of, but I frequently find that they [the projects] don't have any loudness; there's no bass, no kick. I'm on to something; I've got a niche here."

Also in New York, Sony Music Studios remains a hub of activity, serving all aspects of audio and video production in multiple configurations.

While overhead is inestimably higher than that of Threshold Sound + Vision, the depth of Sony's equipment offerings, professionally designed and maintained studios and experienced staff keeps the facility in high gear.

Variety is the rule here, not unlike Cups 'n Strings or Threshold, albeit on a larger scale. "The model for Sony Music Studios was to create a resource under one roof where an artist or record company could do a lot of different things," says senior VP Andy Kadison. "One of the saving graces for Sony Studios has been its diverse business units."

Like other studios of its size and stature, Sony has been affected by the music business recession and the popularity of DAWs and has elected to reach out to lower-budget projects and clients. At Sony, where a dedicated team maintains and updates the facility's 16 Pro Tools rigs, a number of DAW-based writers' rooms have been added, enabling clients to take advantage of the facility's professional services and infrastructure at a lower rate. These clients, it is inferred, will also funnel more work into Sony's state-of-the-art mixing and mastering studios.

At Battery Studios in New York, diverse services including mastering and DVD production have evened out an unpredictable schedule. "We can do complete DVDs," studio manager Tamara Miller says. "We can do [surround] extractions or mix for 5.1. We can get any format transferred to any format. We can really do anything, and that seems to be what's holding us together."

Offering options to artists is more fundamental than ever before, given the environment. Threshold Sound + Vision's Marsh observes: "Five or six years ago, artists were looking for name people to do their stuff; now a lot of people are looking for a deal, and that includes the major labels. The bottom line is, if you're in the business right now, it's a hustle, and everybody's out there hustling."

As Effanel's Ezratty observed at the Grammy broadcast, even top studios and professionals aren't immune to the demands of economics and technology. "I don't think this is unhealthy; it's just evolutionary. You've got to stretch out."