PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production Greatest music tech advance of decade?

The widespread ownership and power of today's home PC is the glue to nearly all of the choices commented on. As the common denominator, most of the advances mentioned are advances that increase PC power and complexity while in many cases, greatly reducing cost. I think of the difference between 1 GB SD card and 1 TB SSD hard drive as more a convenience than a technical advancement to a home studio.

The home studio environment broke the 10-50 thousand dollar barrier in 1972 when TEAC (Tascam) introduced their 2340/3340 reel to reel decks. Other manufacturers quickly followed with their own versions and models and the true home studio market was born. TEAC exploded the market in 1979 introducing the cassette based Porta-Studios. Again other manufacturers quickly followed with their own versions and models.

The home recording studio recorder quality evolved from amateur demo quality to commercial radio ready quality in 1990 when consumer digital hardware became available at a reasonable cost. If $3,499 can be considered reasonable. It was a reasonable cost to what major commercial studios used. A home studio project now had access to a physical recorder capable of matching any recorder in any major studio in the world in recording quality. Tascam DA-88's and similar Alesis digital 8 tracks were in major studios, minor studios and bedrooms.

These are milestones that changed the recording industry for both commercial and consumer recording. The common denominator between both markets was cost and track limitations.

Next came the PC based software DAW's. Software overcame both the cost and track limitation barriers. Cost is somewhat a misnomer because although the cost itself has been enormously reduced, in many studios, and all studios to some degree, that cost reduction is reduced and offset with the purchase of software programs, VST's, VSTi's that in some studios run tens of thousands of dollars cost themselves. The strangest thing I find about PC software is it's entirely based on emulating and imitating classic hardware accessories like compressors, equalizers, reverb, delays, and channel strips and also hardware recorders and preferred over hardware choices even though it comes with a difficult learning curve.

In much the same way that I think of the advances in digital storage benefits in a home or commercial studio being more of a convenience than an advancement that changes the core and path of the recording industry, I think subsequent advances and improvements in PC software to be the same, convenient. An exception could be software that manipulates audio in a manner that did not exist before its invention or is impossible to do with hardware, but I can't think of an example at the moment of such a software that has fundamentally changed how audio and music is recorded in pro studios and home studios. I think of Software in comparison to a toaster. The introduction of toasters changed how we make toast. After that initial introduction to cooking, future toasters could make four, eight or 16 pieces of toast which improved the efficiency and further reduced the cost of making toast but did not change fundamentally the process of making toast.

The problem naming the greatest music tech advance of the past decade is most, if not all the things mentioned were introduced prior to 2010. If they transformed the commercial and consumer music industry, they did so at the time of their introduction, not with subsequent improvements and advances. Edshaw's 2007 example of the introduction of RealTracks is an excellent example. RealTracks have increased in quantity and quality but they are still RealTracks that changed BIAB when they were introduced. Of course, BIAB itself was a fairly old software program by the time RealTracks and RealDrums were introduced.

PC audio software did fundamentally change how music is recorded and processed in both the commercial and consumer markets. It's advanced and improved how we record and process audio and narrowed the gap between quality and quantity of the commercial and consumer markets. The biggest barrier between commercial and consumer end product is now the investment cost of a commercial recording studio environment versus a home bedroom/garage setup. The investment commercial studios put into high quality, professional grade software programs. The operator's education, experience and expertise operating these complex software programs. The investment in hardware such as microphones and external processors. The gap, even with actual recorder of equal quality, remains huge.

To me, although initially introduced in 2004, the newest version of computer hardware to impact and technically advance home and small commercial recording abilities over the last decade is the stand alone, multi track, digital recorder.

A stand alone digital recorder immediately eliminates every tracking issue users face in every DAW recording the user makes. It completely eliminates the need for an audio interface, audio drivers, interface power source, CPU, OS requirements, Physical connections and types, available connection slots, Audio interface installation and updates, Microsoft and Mac OS updates screwing with and changing or disabling your system setup. It will work with whatever computer one currently has for audio and will also work with any and all audio computers you will have in the future. It eliminates operational obstacles like latency.

These factors and others aren't always truly appreciated by users for the immediate benefits received and removal of the above constant distractions from the recording tracking process. There are many benefits to not tracking through a consumer audio interface and doing it without losing quality in the audio. You will always find the input specs of a modern stand alone recorder and the line level outputs to be comparable to any similar cost audio interface. But you will almost always get more inputs, outputs, routing options, digital effects engines, the ability to move more than a single fader at once. They are completely zero latency devices. These devices are portable. Some can be battery operated and are smaller than a paperback novel. They come with many options and differences between brands and models making it super easy to get a unit that has features optimized for your personal recording (tracking) needs and preferences. They all have multiple means to interface and transfer files to and from a PC and DAW. You do not lose any capability of current or future software programs.

So for me, the greatest music tech advance of the past decade is the latest iteration of the stand alone, digital multi track recorder like the Tascam Model 16/24. For $700, the Model 16 provides 10 preamps equal in quality and specs to four and eight channel audio interfaces and record at A/D Resolution of 24-bit/48 kHz. Optimized for a home studio, the Tascam DP-24/32 is in most cases, an even better choice. $400 current cost is very appealing. For artists that record mostly for personal entertainment, using portable units like the Tascam DP-006. 008, 03 or the zoom R8 that all list for $300 or less would be a solid and good choice. Don't be fooled or taken back by their size and cost, properly paired with quality recording gear like condenser mics, external channel strips, external mic preamps, analog or digital mixers, these units are very capable of capturing commercial grade audio clips.

Examine today's digital multi track recorders to be used the same way the DA-88 digital recorders were connected into analog recording chains in the 1990's where the DA-88 replaced analog reel to reel recorders to fully realize the recording functionality that's often overlooked and certainly under-used in modern home recording studios.

I'm not sure how these devices gained a reputation of being sub-standard to a DAW because they're not. They're not toys. Do a side by side comparison of the 4 Track Teac 3340s of 1972 that sold for more than $1,000 to the 24 track Tascam 2488 of 2004 that sold for less than $1,000 or the $199 four track DP-004 from 2008 and both units hands down have more features and better specs that the 3340 that made home recording affordable, possible to produce commercial grade audio and sophisticated enough to reside in bedrooms and main stream studios.

In comparison to PC's for tracking, these devices are more stable, easier to use, easier to learn and operate, and though some are plastic, with normal care, these devices will last for decades and never become obsolete.