Turtlerock Forum

When I started this forum before the 2000 olympics lots of things where on the cards that are extinct now .. Adats Mackies dats cdrs
& No affordable automation that worked there were f@#$ all daws and the mystery called eBay was just upon us .
We all still used tape , I was buying neve consoles for $1000and vintage tube Neumanns for under 2 k
So much has changed, lots of the names I am seeing In The reboot log where absolute beginners back then
And now are well established studio legends .

Maybe we can’t talk and discover old gear and hidden gems anymore maybe that’s all covered out there

But tell me ( outside of the unnamed reason the world has shut down )

What trends have developed in your work practice that you never did 10 years back ?
What do your clients expect you to do that can’t pay the bills
What does pay the bills
Did you walk off to get a “ real job “

I do so many different things to get through , I can’t imagine anybody else is still a one hat only audio type ?

Thoughts ?

Geeze 2000.....

Was getting more money then for performing live than now...... not adjusted for inflation either....

I think I had gotten my first digital recording gear, AW4416 and seriously started getting into recording...had the Ta@#$% port studio since 87

I imagined that I would end up taking on clients for money... which I did for years.... and then realised I really didn't like clients very much. The amount of work vs dollars was just not worth the headaches....I got sick of being everything to them, singing coach, nose wiper, guitar teacher.... so over the next 20 years, I basically vacillated between having clients and not....played golf for a while, got pretty good....came back to the studio.....

Ended up recording at Sun in Memphis, played the Bluebird in Nashville... never would have thought those things would happen

Here we are 20 years later, I know I know less about recording than I THOUGHT I KNEW back then....

But I produce a pretty good end result.

Still playing live, though thats getting scaled down, out of desire not need...

Oh did the whole accumulate a ton of outboard gear, and console...and eight miles of wiring... and just recently went back ITB......

In the last two years I wanted to do something that wasn't music.... and went along to a League Texas Holdem Poker tournament with my brother, knew nothing, knew no one, no one knew me... was great...

Got hooked... loved the game... ended up in Vegas Last year playing in the biggest tournament ever at the World Series Of Poker...won 3 regional championships up here..... and just recently came second in a prestigious event called The Grind, where I won 30K.....

Who woulda thunk it... poker....

Anyways now the studio is just for me (in some ways it always was...I just had delusions of grandeur) and I am having the most fun in years being ITB with an Apollo X8 and some UA plugs, that capitol chambers plug in is incredible....

Funny thing is...at 55 I think I am most comfortable in my skin than I have been at any other period in my life...now If I could just borrow the T Rock Time Machine and go back and tell my 21 year old self.....

a decade ago I expected contemporary music to become more beautifully produced and complex given the explosion of virtual instrument and software emulations of the great hardware devices of modern musical history available to everyone on their laptops. Instead we got AutoTuned Autism. I have found myself moving away from contemporary music to classical recordings just to be able to listen to music with harmonic complexity. I would not have picked 10 years ago that I would pretty much give up on contemporary music.

On a more positive note over the last decade a lot of pretty decent microphones and outboard gear has become available at very reasonable prices. Even cheap gear now is often surprisingly good and it's hard to find a bad sounding set of converters now even in the low price category.

And finally 10 years ago I never expected the first decade of the 21st century to bring in the golden age of the modular synthesiser!

10 years ago Rick used to pay me 500 bucks a week to do gaps and fades and to clean the kitchen.

Now to pay HIM 500 bucks a week in rent and I still clean the kitchen.

Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
“It takes ten years to find out it takes ten years ! “

In 2000 I was earning big bucks working for a defence electronics company and dreaming about being a recording engineer. That continued until 2011, when I retired and started building a small studio in what was originally the car port of the house. In 2013, she who must be obeyed became a marriage celebrant and needed an office so I was evicted but told I could build a studio, fortunately we live on 3 acres. So, a one year project commenced to do just that and I had a steel shed 12x8 metres built and set about constructing my studio, all the sound insulation, the isolated rooms, the wiring, the AC,and so the list goes on. It was probably 4 or 5 years before I could even begin to install any equipment, but here it is, 7 years later I have almost finished.

I always liked tape, so I have a 24 track, and 8 track and 2 track, plus the original TEAC 3340 that is now my museum piece. However, I realised the advantages of digital, so I also have a 24 digital system with a MOTU 24 IO into a PC running Reaper. Each of these is connected via two Ta@#$% M3500 24 track desks, one with an additional 8 stereo inputs, that are joined together. For the tape machines there is a rack of outboard gear. I should also say that, after 40 odd years as an electronics technician, it has all been refurbished.

The studio comprises a small office, a drum room, vocal booth and main studio area, plus the control room and two small storage spaces.

So, here we are in 2020 in lockdown with my own space, lots of instruments, beer in the fridge, wine on the rack. I can now be in isolation for as many months as it takes and still not exhaust all the possibilities. I sit back with a glass of wine, contemplating the meaning of life and dreaming about being a recording engineer.

https://imgur.com/d9ONWgV

Twenty years ago I was just getting started as a live sound guy, after pushing boxes and flashing lights for other people for several years.

I was the in-house guy at the infamous "Rockape" bar in Canberra for a few years, then did The Basement in Belconnen for 7 years. When that fell apart with a change of ownership, I took a few years off. Last year I did most of the gigs at Transit Bar in the city, that's obviously off the boil right now...

After The Basement, I had to get a "real job", which I have just been stood down from. Things are, literally, very quiet for me right now!

Over that whole time, I have recorded a few things, mostly demo type stuff, done a few mixes and masters for bands I really admire and respect, recorded, mixed and mastered my own band's albums (number three is on hold, half done). Studio stuff has been rewarding in many ways but live sound is more my thing. This won't stop me doing projects I'm interested in, but I don't chase studio work.

I've learned that, despite having a decent rep as a live sound guy, making the change to studio sound guy is tough.

Hey Bob - Thats a nice setup you have there. Love the room with all the instruments well done.
I was in the similar boat. Starting building a Studio out the back and then the wife decided that we should split it in half so she could have half for her Art studio stuff, then my Son decide he needed some extra room for his Computer studies and now the studio is finished and I have this tiny space in the corner that is not really a studio. But I claimed dibs on being closest to the Air conditioner so I got win there in this QLD weather.

So whats this I hear of a Rick's gear cleanout this year?

Clean out ? it all depends on how the next 6 months and then the next 6 months goes ..
if it goes really bad for me but really good for somebody else there could well be a studio Clean out yet again ,

if it goes really good for me and ..

well its business as usual innit ? .

In other news I will probably open the forum to new members finally this week , that is if things work out tech wise as i am be inundated with studio types waiting to relieve them selves of debts so the for sale section could well be hotter then then feb around here !

Dale Smith, thanks for the reply, sorry to hear that yours didn't turn out the way you wanted, but a least you have somewhere to hide to Convis 19 goes away, I'm certainly spending a lot of time in my studio these days working on my own stuff and just messing about. My gear isn't as up market as most here but I have fun pretending.

Sorry - slight adaption to the 10 years thread.
My 20 years of Daw’s.
Initially in the late 1990’s . I Tried my hand with the Roland vs880. That was quite a decent contraption at the time. Cost a mint. I only just sold it at the end of last year as it was hard to part with. The quality of that unit was exceptional . The Expanded efx card that was extra was not so exceptional compared to today ht hey that was 20 x years ago. Then out came Vision Opcode. Man that program was complicated. I tired so hard to come to grips with that program but i gave up in the end. Then i went cubase and that was way easier. It was pretty decent for midi as well.
Then i moved up to the latest and greatest the blue faced Digi 001. Man i thought i was in heaven with PT5 or 6 at the time. It was great to be able to record and i did not mind the latency at the time. So it was an easy progression to go to the Digi 002R. And finally i made the jump to the Digi 003r and i was pleasantly surprised that you can hear a noticeable difference between the 002 and the 003. But alas i felt i was getting taken for a ride with all the Pro Tools rtas to aax plug ins and now the subscription stuff so i made the jump to Logic Pro X and have not really dived to deep into it yet. I did get the Focusrite Clarett Pre and wow the sound of that unit is far superior to the 003r. I am pretty happy where i am at the moment.
Ah the memories. Good times.

For me it has been not relying on being a "service" as a dependent income stream.
It still feeds me a small chunk of income producing /recording /mixing etc < but I only take on the stuff I really love.

I realized a few years ago - that I need to become the client - so I get to use my services and studio for free
Be paid to create - not be a slave to others creative pursuits.
Its working.

10 year's ago I moved from primary live sound to Sound Design full time, and to accomodate that I moved house to hour outside of the city, so I had an affordable place to set myself a decated little work space (that wasn't the spare bedroom).

To sustain the 'full time' freelance sound design gig I increase my casual teaching to fill 'gaps'.

Today I am sitting in my little home studio, running a university degree full time, to sustain my career as a sound designer

The interesting thing is the deeper I got sucked in the university system the more I could be picky about the jobs I was taking. Which has meant making more creative and interesting work, which generally makes for better results, which in turn attracts even more interesting projects. Ultimately this feels far more rewarding for me as an artist and a person... it also helps that I like teaching.

At heart I am always going to be a 'Sound person' but in the last 20 years that has meant having to wear a lot of hats, often multiple at the same time, to keep making a living out of it. That can be pretty frustrating in the moment when I'm juggling it all, but upon reflection, that is what keep it interesting as well.

What have you noticed changed in the last 10 years
....more curt about most things (me) - but no-one notices 'cause they're all so cool

What trends have developed in your work practice that you never did 10 years back ?
composing on manuscript (finale) and totally in the box now - no analog gear any more apart from a pair of speakers

What do your clients expect you to do that can’t pay the bills
free rehearsals

What does pay the bills
Did you walk off to get a “ real job “
yeah, still got a real job - now managing a massive VOIP telephony system, iVR stuff, no fun at all

Like Steve Jones, I find myself listening to a lot of classical music these days. Probably showing my age.
But for a synth enthusiast with a studio full of vintage gear collected over 30 years or more, it's a strange time to be in where nearly every old synth has been re-created or re-imagined. Just waiting on the CS-80 and the Jupiter 8... I'm sure be!@#$%^& are onto it.

I'm still making mostly dance music with DJs. They tell me it's quite popular, although you wouldn't know it from the royalties....

Biggest change (aside from my belly circumference)? How making money in the music industry has changed. Bands used to make money from album sales, now they have to make it from touring and merchandise. The record label used to be the money machine, now it's the streaming service. And with the advent of technology, our end of the game, which always was a bit of slog, has become more so as people find it hard to spend thousands when they get 90% of the way there in their spare bedroom. We rely on those who understand that 90% can be bettered - whether it's with those who can take it to 94% like me or those who can take it to 99% like many here on the forum.

Oh, and Taylor Swift. Big change.

Triple R sounds like Triple J used to, Triple J sounds like Nova used to, Nova sounds like...Nova used to. Triple M sounds like a time capsule from 2004.
Three quarters of the music on streaming/radio now has been 'designed' rather than organically written/performed.
Perhaps 'Music Designer' should be the new term for people who make music in this way. Ultimately I can only assume the direction we're heading in is mainly to make it easier for the robots to take over.....