INTRODUCTION

“Time Tested” principles - guaranteed to lead you astray…

- Everything new is better

-Everything old or “vintage” is better

 -The longer that you work on a recording, the better it sounds

-We can always “fix it in the mix”

Ya Gotta Be Crazy to do THIS for a Living!      

I have been away from the pressure cooker for about ten years now.  When I say “the pressure cooker,” for me, that means the recording studio.  In 1978, starting with a home studio in my childhood bedroom, my friend Richard McAndrew and I dove into the crazy world of studio ownership…first to record our novelty songs for “The Dr. Demento Show,” the syndicated, L.A. based radio program and then followed by a bare-bones, low-end commercial facility to record song demos for songwriters, local business jingles, and whatever else someone wanted to get down on tape.  Looking back, this often yielded some bizarre occurrences.  Yes, those were the days of strictly analog, tape-based, recording gear - often with very limited track capacity to add additional instruments and retake performances (without erasing what you already had… hoping to replace it with something better!).

The studio is a strange place to spend time.  In an instant, it goes from total silence to outrageous volume and back again.  Emotions go from amazing exhilaration one moment to despair the next.  Navigating this type of environment takes a special personality.  Since I stayed in recording for well over 40 years, I must have had something that made me hang in there and made my clients want to come back time and again.

I’ve seen a few individuals climb to the pinnacles of success and a few who have gone the other way. One client of mine was a recurring featured guitarist and vocalist on the nationally telecast “Shindig.”  Just a few years later, I saw him performing in a rundown bar in Orange County, California...he needed the money.  In another case, a pedal steel guitar/guitarist went from backing up Kenny Rogers on the Tonight Show to performing in a dumpy “toilet” of a country bar in Hawthorne, California - all in the same day!

One thing that’s quite clear to me: if you want to make lots of money, this is probably not the right career choice for you!  Unless you are a “trust fund baby,” having a back-up plan and a stable income source or a second job are pretty much prerequisites for staying in the recording business for the long haul.  The pressure to discount rates due to the competition from other studios, coupled with the costs of rent and other overhead expenses not to mention the initial investment to properly soundproof the space can all be overbearing.  Adding to this are repair costs and the relentless ‘hints” from clients to upgrade  and replace your equipment with the latest “cutting-edge” gadgets.  As you can see, havoc can easily ensue.  I am not familiar with how it works in other markets, but I have no doubt that much of what I have experienced in the L.A. area carries forward to other parts of the country…especially the major recording hubs of New York and Nashville.

The recording engineer might be sole or part owner in the business, or a hired independent contractor, but rarely a full-time employee except in the largest studios in L.A. such as Capitol and Conway Recording.  In the beginning, Richard (McAndrew) and I started out as equal partners.  We both took turns as recording engineer and marketing/managing of the business.  Unfortunately due to our limited income stream at the time, this also meant we would each have to clean up the studio after recording sessions.

In smaller rooms such as ours (and later mine, as sole owner), the engineer often ran the entire show alone.  There was no second engineer to set up drum mics and make coffee, and no producer to run the session.  Unfortunately, this often left the engineer as the de-facto “Swiss Army Knife” of the facility.  That means that the engineer deals directly with the artist all of the time when there is no record producer, which in low budget sessions is very often the case.  This can be a lot of fun or a major pain in the ass!

Reflecting back on my long career, I’d say that about 10 - 20% of the work was very fulfilling, another 20 - 30% somewhat fulfilling, and you do the math for the rest of the recording sessions!  What makes the whole experience worthwhile are those few truly magical moments and projects that lead to something you can be proud of for a lifetime…I guess that’s the reason I stuck it out so long!

-Bob Wayne