The future of recording.

[boosh]

I did a lot of reading about the history of recording and was lucky enough to meet and get to know people who changed a lot themselves in the process of recording sound.

 

Sometimes I wonder what the future of recording will be like. Or are we at a standstill?

 

Is 32/192 enough or do we need to go higher?

 

I mean,.. there are limits on top end and low end that are hearable so do we need to record the unhearable parts also?

 

How about mixing? Will it all be in the box in 10 years?

 

Any ideas about what we can expect the next say 50 years?

 

Does every household have a fullblown recording studio in 25 years?

[MikeRivers]

Maybe people will forget about recording and start listening to live music. If enough people do that, maybe musicians can make a living.

 

But I suppose someone will come up with a good reason why we need 36.1 channels in our living room so we'll buy a new system.

[Jeff da Weasel]

The immediate future of recording is a backlash against all things artificial. Autotuned vocals and grid-mapped songs will be very dated soon. A resurgence in analog recording, vinyl mastering and live-to-2-track will happen. Pro studios will separate themselves from bedroom-based recording rooms via their lack of in-the-box focus. Technology itself will play less and less a role in the creation of popular music for awhile, and actual musicianship and talent will become trendy.

[UstadKhanAli]

A rebellion against gridpop?

[Hard Truth]

The analog backlash has already been happening in the indie scene for at least ten years, but I don't think that many more people will want to go backwards than are doing so now. To do so requires money, space and a willingness to tinker with mechanical devices.

 

A musical backlash against high tech sounding music has also been happening for at least ten years and may infiltrate the mainstream to a large extent.

 

Our culture is now too heterogeneous to ever have a "next big thing" like the Beatles ever again. Every old trend will persevere and/or mutate and new trends will continue to happen, but nothing will dominate.

 

Creating music with hi-tech tools will continue, but the tools will become more physical with their interfaces along the lines of those Guitar hero games or Wii games that respond to broader physical motion than today's mouse and keyboard. There will also be 3-D displays creating a new types of interaction with one's computer/entertainment device. I think a hybrid art form that combines dance with control of sound is inevitable with these devices.

 

Later we will see the ability to create music and control sound with thought alone. That will drive trained musicians crazy and many of them will spend a lot of time complaining about how it is ruining music on the future version of these fora.

[kurfu]

 

The immediate future of recording is a backlash against all things artificial. Autotuned vocals and grid-mapped songs will be very dated soon. A resurgence in analog recording, vinyl mastering and live-to-2-track will happen. Pro studios will separate themselves from bedroom-based recording rooms via their lack of in-the-box focus. Technology itself will play less and less a role in the creation of popular music for awhile, and actual musicianship and talent will become trendy.

 

 

In the year of the GaGa, do you honestly think that there will be a mainstream uprising to return to the days of old?

[Jeff da Weasel]

 

In the year of the GaGa, do you honestly think that there will be a mainstream uprising to return to the days of old?

 

 

Kids of the current kids will hate this sound with a passion. Just as there was an unexpected '80s resurgence recently, and a '70s resurgence in the '90s, everything old will be new again eventually. Everything is impermanent, and the one thing you can count on is that what happens tomorrow won't be what's happening today. The sure fire way to fall behind the times is to try and emulate what's happening now.

 

So... yes.

[cooterbrown]

 

Kids of the current kids will hate this sound with a passion. Just as there was an unexpected '80s resurgence recently, and a '70s resurgence in the '90s, everything old will be new again eventually. Everything is impermanent, and the one thing you can count on is that what happens tomorrow won't be what's happening today. The sure fire way to fall behind the times is to try and emulate what's happening now. So... yes.

 

 

Yup...the 20-year generation gap always eems to always assure a revival of "old music", generally in conjunction with period-films.

 

70s - American Graffiti, Happy Days, Grease, The Buddy Holly Story, etc.

80s - The Big Chill, Dirty Dancing, Full Metal Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam, etc.

90s - That 70s Show, Boogie Nights, Dazed and Confused, etc.

00s - The Wedding Singer, Hot Tub Time Machine, Rock Star, etc

 

Using that precedent, I suppose we can look for New Jack Swing and Grunge to make a huge comeback on the radio, soon, with movies set in the 90s.

[Kotch]

People returning in droves to analog tape and vinyl? Yeah, that's not going to happen. That stuff costs money, and the future's going to belong to whoever figures out how to make a living in a music industry that's basically bankrupt. And that won't be anyone deluded enough to fork out ridiculous prices for old analog crap, because they've been conned by the analog cargo cult.

 

On the other hand, I do agree that there will be a backlash against all the annoying and faddish stuff going on right now, like the loudness wars, autotune, recording on the grid, and so on. When something is as intrusive as autotune and as shallow, you pretty much know it has a limited lifespan. But to my mind, that doesn't mean anyone's going to abandon the technology. When the technology isn't new anymore people won't care about the cheap gimmicks, and they'll start using it in more subtle and sophisticated ways.

[Gus Lozada]

If you hate AutoTune, just don't use it, damn it !!

 

The same applies to people complaining about anything.

Save money and take some serious recording lessons... then buy good stuff and do good recordings, good mixes and make some money out of it.

 

{censored}.

[John Sayers]

If you hate AutoTune, just don't use it, damn it !! The same applies to people complaining about anything. Save money and take some serious recording lessons... then buy good stuff and do good recordings, good mixes and make some money out of it. {censored}.

 

 

yup -

[Kendrix]

On a somewhat related point I see the John Mellencamp just released an album tracked organically and released in MONO.

His last few albums were of this sort.

 

T Bone Burnett is very big right now. He is clearly on this wavelength.

 

Both these guys are in the "Americana" camp.

Then there are the younger indie types as previously mentioned

 

However, I question the idea that this more organic approach to recording/producing will become very widespread/mainstream and come to dominate things.

 

I think extreme fractionation and sub-genre creation is here to stay with the wide array of production approaches to go with them..

[mcmike100]

 

If you hate AutoTune, just don't use it, damn it !!

 

I do hate it and I don't use it. It's the other people using it that are annoying.

 

Mike McRoberts

[MikeRivers]

On a somewhat related point I see the John Mellencamp just released an album tracked organically and released in MONO.

He was on Morning Edition today talking about that album. A lot of it is hype, but he made a good point. He said that when he started making albums 30 years ago, they did hundreds of takes because they couldn't play very well and they had to piece it together in order to sound like they were competent musicians.

 

Mistakes that go right past you when watching a live show get to sticking in your brain every time you hear them on a recording, and eventually you'll stop playing the record. This is why records HAVE to be darn near perfect. In 1980, the only tools they had were re-takes, punch-ins and mechanical edits. If a singer consistently couldn't hit a note either they re-arranged the part to something he could sing or perhaps changed the tape speed so he could sing that note lower or higher. If a guitarist couldn't play the solo he (or the producer) wanted to hear, sometimes they'd piece it together, sometimes they'd call in another player to do that part.

 

Today is no different except that:

(a) We have different tools to do the same things

and

(b) Because the tools and the whole process of making records is so inexpensive today, so many more people now than in 1980 are making records before they're good enough to record the songs as they can play them.

 

They (as Mellencamp did) need 30 more years of experience before they can do without Autotune and AutoEQ and Automixing and snap-to-grid. And there isn't enough business for all of them. So they make impossible records into mediocre records while they're young and then get a GOOD job.

[Hard Truth]

re. Mike Rivers post

 

An under-appreciated aspect of modern DAW recording techniques is that you no longer need to do so many takes to have enough to paste together a good performance. Theoretically at least, this should allow for fresher, more inspired performances because you don't have to wear out the artist by doing 30 takes to get it right.

 

Everything else being equal, people in their twenties generally create more exciting performances and write more heartfelt songs than people in their 50s. So it is a good thing that you don't have to be around for thirty years to develop the ability make a decent record.

[Jeff da Weasel]

If you hate AutoTune, just don't use it, damn it !!

 

I do use it. I don't abuse it.

 

But Booshy asked about the future of recording, and I think the only thing you can count on is that what people are doing now, they won't be doing later. Huge gated toms? Vocals washed in hall reverb? They were once huge, and now they're a joke of a clich

[blue2blue]

Pendulums swing.

[UstadKhanAli]

People returning in droves to analog tape and vinyl? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

 

Probably not, although by now, you know that vinyl sales have increased every year since 2006, sometimes by as much as 40%. Yes, of course it's a niche market. I just felt compelled to mention it!

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Mullets will be back in style! Sure, they may be "ironic mullets", but you'll see them soon.

 

 

What kind of mullets do you envision in the future? Would it be the artful, sensitive Euro-mullet? Or the more unkempt Camaro mullet, coupled with the molester 'stache? Or something new and different?

[UstadKhanAli]

 

On a somewhat related point I see the John Mellencamp just released an album tracked organically and released in MONO. His last few albums were of this sort. T Bone Burnett is very big right now. He is clearly on this wavelength. Both these guys are in the "Americana" camp. Then there are the younger indie types as previously mentioned However, I question the idea that this more organic approach to recording/producing will become very widespread/mainstream and come to dominate things. I think extreme fractionation and sub-genre creation is here to stay with the wide array of production approaches to go with them..

 

 

Good points. And yes, more than likely to the last sentence.

 

Wow. You guys named Ken sure seem insightful.

[Ernest Buckley]

 

I did a lot of reading about the history of recording and was lucky enough to meet and get to know people who changed a lot themselves in the process of recording sound. Sometimes I wonder what the future of recording will be like. Or are we at a standstill? Is 32/192 enough or do we need to go higher? I mean,.. there are limits on top end and low end that are hearable so do we need to record the unhearable parts also? How about mixing? Will it all be in the box in 10 years? Any ideas about what we can expect the next say 50 years? Does every household have a fullblown recording studio in 25 years?

 

 

I mentioned this about 2 years ago... that technology (both hardware and software) have reached a plateau and pretty much everyone disagreed. I still feel the same way. Bits and sample rates can keep getting higher but anything more and we are chasing the tail as they say. We have reached a state of operation where whatever we can conceive from an auditory stance can now be achieved.

 

Any business/industry, no matter the size is destined to wither. Its life. Same goes for the recording industry, the live concert industry, manufacturers of all things audio, etc... We`re basically being sold salt with every conceivable flavor.

[Kendrix]

Wow. You guys named Ken sure seem insightful.

 

Back at ya.

[Philter]

I do use it. I don't abuse it.   But Booshy asked about the future of recording, and I think the only thing you can count on is that what people are doing now, they won't be doing later. Huge gated toms? Vocals washed in hall reverb? They were once huge, and now they're a joke of a clich

[Jeff da Weasel]

[sventvkg]

 

On a somewhat related point I see the John Mellencamp just released an album tracked organically and released in MONO. His last few albums were of this sort. T Bone Burnett is very big right now. He is clearly on this wavelength. Both these guys are in the "Americana" camp. Then there are the younger indie types as previously mentioned However, I question the idea that this more organic approach to recording/producing will become very widespread/mainstream and come to dominate things. I think extreme fractionation and sub-genre creation is here to stay with the wide array of production approaches to go with them..

 

 

Yea and I got the Mellencamp album..It's UNLISTENABLE! Mono and sounds so {censored}ty and distorted that it's not enjoyable to me in the least...Well at least the first few tunes that I could get through..no way this is coming back on a large scale!

 

Also Jeff, I don't see anything you are saying happening on a large scale bro. Just on a small scale like we have now.