http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/...w.html?page=all

RIP RCA/A.

They had a good run. Sadly, there's more consolidation on deck from the looks of it. The democratization of technology is having similar effect as the democratization of distribution (via the web) creating a vacuum or lack of need for traditional facilities. Sadly, most folks will never know what it's like to record in a great room with great mics and a great set of ears running the board. But thankfully, more people than ever will know what it's like to record (via home tech) and more people than ever can share their work. Not that more is better, just that more is the future.

Rest in peace RCA Studio A - and may you reincarnate in someone's basement with appropriate IR, DSP and...good ears!

There's nothing positive about any of these places going away.
When a place like this goes away, the sound it made goes away - permanently.
It's like when an iconic glass factory closes - that shit NEVER gets made again. The beauty dies. And we're made lesser by it.
I 'get' that that's how it is now. But I don't have to like it.

Yes, that is what I believe and how I feel. I don't give an f about more ... I want better.

This post has been edited by klasaine: Sep 3 2014, 02:25 AM

I feel ya!! The same sort of thing is happening in the movie industry actually. This year, all the big movie festivals are just shuttling the same films back and forth! Not enough good films are being made for each festival to have enough of their own "debut" screenings.

At a time when it's never been easier to be a film maker, we have a distinct shortage of quality films. I think this trend is happening to a degree in music as well. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing as people adapt to new technology. I have to believe that the best music has yet to come

I hear ya Ken!

And sadly many don't even start to begin to know what has been lost.

I can't remember who said it - probably Richard Shusterman - but we now live in an age of surface without depth.

Here is someone from the young generation (bald as a baby!) who wants to know more.

Tony, your opening post was way too short - please enlighten us!

It's easy to 'own the equipment' but it's not any easier to make art ... or even just good product.
Just because one can use or owns a graphics program does not a Raphael or a Mark Rothko make.

Hopefully someone will buy the board from the RCA Nashville studio A and at least put it in a real room.

I didn't say any more kris as I've said loads about this elsewhere on this forum.

As you've asked though I'm in complete agreement with what Ken has said. There is an art to being an engineer, which is lost in the rush to make more money and in the smokescreen where you can replace us with plug ins and convolution. Part of the art is knowing how your mics respond in your recording space under different conditions for different needs. It's not a simple case of chuck a Neumann in there because everyone says a Neumann is good. It's also not the case that having a convolution of a recording space equal in size to Studio A will have the same response as Studio A. There are a lot of issues that affect the nature of one space compared to another even when they share some of the same major features.

In this rush to sell off studios we lose all the experience and knowledge of the engineers. How many people who record solely or mainly at home know and understand the differences between, for instance, NOS and ORTF? How many have the experience to know which Neumann may work for a particular vocal?

Even if none of this matters anymore what about just having the facility of a space that is large enough for a full orchestra to record in? A space where all the members can interact with each other, with what is being played and how the conductor is directing them as a full orchestral ensemble?

There's nothing wrong with having a home studio but the rush to close professional studios just because the owners want to liquidate their asset is not a good move. We lose much more than most realise.

As an analogy - what would we lose if we stop recording real guitars played by real guitar players and instead only use parts constructed and played in and by software?

I'll be way more drastic with my analogy than that ...

We can do hologram and 3-D printed rocks and trees now. Would you like to take a walk in that environment - permanently? Do you want to live in Disneyland permanently? Do you only want to travel on the f'ng internet?
It's all like eating a pizza with a condom on your tongue.

Rent the movie 'Silent Running'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Running

This post has been edited by klasaine: Sep 3 2014, 06:14 PM

John Berger in the early 1970s argued that modern means of production destroy the authority of art: "For the first time ever, images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free."

I'm with ya Buying some brushes doesn't make one an artist. It's a sad day to be sure, with more sadness to come. But just to be balanced in looking at it on the whole, change always creates collateral damage, but change provides the atmosphere for inspiration. The room was legendary, but honestly, it's the people, IMHO, not the gear, not the room, not board, not the mics, that make great music.

As long as people strive to express themselves, some of them will find profound ways of doing it. We just have to find the ears to hear it





This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Sep 5 2014, 11:03 PM