Researching Forums

After looking at a few forums about commerical recording studios vs. home studios, I found a lot of great discussions about equipment used in commerical and home studios, floor plans, digital audio workstaions, rates, and the different sound quality each option will produce. By surprised, I found a lot of arguments rather then discussions, for example, "newbies" trying to earn street credit on popular forums by posting unrealistic or irrelevant topics on such websites as gearslutz.com. With some more research, I will be definately getting great insight about consumer/artist thoughts.

Glossary of Recording

-Pro-Tools: a professional standard recording software that is used for multi-tracking.
-Multi-tracking: an act or device that records one or more tracks simultaneously and played back.
-DAW: Digital Audio Workstation
-Microphone/Mic:
-Mixer/Soundboard/Console: a device that controls the input, timbre, output, and volume of a signal.
-Cans: another way to saying "headphones"
-Monitor(s): 1.Speakers that are usually great in producing linearity of the incoming signal. 2. A computer screen.
-Signal: some sort of sound being converted into electricity
-Analog: everyday sound that hasn't been converted into digital bits (O's and 1's)
-Digital recording: a way of recording by converting the sounds into digital signal, which a computer can read and that doesn't degrade the sound.
-Booth: 1. a room where the singer goes into and records because it is quiet due to the acoustical treatment of the producer/engineer has done. 2. the control room where the engineer and producer sit.
-1/4 inch: a cord that usually is associated with plugging in a guitar.
-Cue: a way of playback for the musicians
-Playback: listening to what has been previously recorded.

Coherence and Cohesion

My project addresses the dilemma of whether commercial recording studios income and population are declining due to the rise of home studios.  This decline is not because of one problem commercial recording studios face, but it faces multiple detrimental problems, which in years, could kill them off as an industry standard of recording. In the near future, because of their recent exploitation of high quality audio achievements, home studios may take the crown of an "industry standard recording studio."

Interview and Transcription

I interviewed a man who has knowledge and a way "inside" of the music recording industry. My first question was straight to the point I was trying to address, "Why do you think commercial recording studios are declining in population?" His answer was very thorough, he first talked about the history of commercial studios starting off in the 1970's as project studios and demo studios, and then explaining certain recording equipment being used in those times. He went on to say Pro-Tools, a high quality recording software used in modern studios, make it affordable and available for artists who don't have large budgets such as record signed artists. Today, the home studio sound quality is better then its ever been. It's so good that commercial recording studios are simply being used for tracking sessions only because houses can't supply a big enough room to record a full band. Creditable engineers and producers use home studios to mix and overdub the already recorded sound in order to cut down on overall production costs.

I asked a couple more questions that I did not prepare for that seemed relevant and went with the flow of the interview conversation. His answers had great insight and knowledge that will help me with my overall portfolio.