Why I get so irritated with the audio industry..
Oct.26.06 Filed in: tech(ish)
I have been lingering around the audio industry by
proxy my whole life and in the past few years I have
taken a more direct interest in the field and I love
it to death. With this love comes an enormous amount
of irritation with the industry in general. Something
I should point out right off is just how huge it
really is. I know that it is often overlooked, you go
to a concert to see the band and 99 percent of the
people there never think once about what went on or
is going on to make them shine. Most people are happy
enough simply seeing their favorite bands play live
and rarely realize when things sound good or bad.
Also, there is a split down the middle of it that is not quite black and white to most people affiliated with the industry but I feel that there is a bigger line dividing the two fields than most people want to think. Recording studio engineers and live audio engineers I feel are different species of thought. The thought process for working in a studio is not totally different from working in a live environment but enough so that I can safely say that studio engineers should stay in the studio and live engineers should stay out in the field. Part of my feelings on this topic come from experience working with guest engineers and whatnot. I wont go naming names or getting into to much detail, I just wanted to put my opinion out there.
So at any rate, now that ive been exposed to the workings of the industry (more the live side of things than the recorded end) I cant help but be critical of its structure. It is really really really heavily influenced by the top companies in the field. Let me reword that, not the top companies as in the companies that are necessarily putting out the best products and innovations but the companies that spend the most money in strategic marketing. I guess that you could say that about every major industry in the world but to me it feels different when it comes to the audio industry simply because of it's not quite in the spotlight stance among the general public. The sad thing is that the biggest companies are making cheaper and cheaper crap because the men in suits at the top of the company food chain are looking to grow and grow. They are money makers not innovators and I think it is totally killing the industry as a whole. The same thing is happening in the recording industry with companies like M-Audio dumbing down and lowering the bar for acceptable quality sound everywhere.
Good sound is getting harder and harder to find these days and part of that is all of the miseducation flying around. There is so much BS you have to gig through before getting anywhere. The market leaders are paving the way to a future of bad audio and its scary. Maybe it's always been like this and I am only just now beginning to get it. You look at companies like Mackie which has become notorious for being super cheap crap and they have slyly started "The Coalition to End Bad Sound" which is hilarious to me. Then there are companies like Harmon (which is the Kraft Foods of the audio industry) and Shure which are putting out cheaper and cheaper junk every year but no one seems to be seeing this because they are so blinded by there pull in the industry as a while and even the "Pro" publications are pushing it because guess where most of their funding is coming from... Sorry, I forgot, not naming names here. It's just silly what kind of junk these guys are selling these days.
The sad part of it all is the rise in schools like Full Sail which are marketing zoo's. Seems like the physics behind good sound and the interesting nitty gritty are continually getting glossed over so as strange and backwards as it is the actual science behind good sound reproduction is lurking around in this murky grey area. It's a depressing fact that I am going to just have to live with but its a struggle being right in the middle of the field like I am because I have to deal with people constantly who are so blind to it all and are so hard to deal with because it's getting so everyones an expert these days.
I'm sure I have contradicted myself somewhere in all of this rambling mess but I just had to get some of it out of me. I know I have a lot to learn and am not at all gods gift to sound but I can say that it has been quite a bumpy road getting to know the ins and outs of the field and I can't wait to learn more and more.
Also, there is a split down the middle of it that is not quite black and white to most people affiliated with the industry but I feel that there is a bigger line dividing the two fields than most people want to think. Recording studio engineers and live audio engineers I feel are different species of thought. The thought process for working in a studio is not totally different from working in a live environment but enough so that I can safely say that studio engineers should stay in the studio and live engineers should stay out in the field. Part of my feelings on this topic come from experience working with guest engineers and whatnot. I wont go naming names or getting into to much detail, I just wanted to put my opinion out there.
So at any rate, now that ive been exposed to the workings of the industry (more the live side of things than the recorded end) I cant help but be critical of its structure. It is really really really heavily influenced by the top companies in the field. Let me reword that, not the top companies as in the companies that are necessarily putting out the best products and innovations but the companies that spend the most money in strategic marketing. I guess that you could say that about every major industry in the world but to me it feels different when it comes to the audio industry simply because of it's not quite in the spotlight stance among the general public. The sad thing is that the biggest companies are making cheaper and cheaper crap because the men in suits at the top of the company food chain are looking to grow and grow. They are money makers not innovators and I think it is totally killing the industry as a whole. The same thing is happening in the recording industry with companies like M-Audio dumbing down and lowering the bar for acceptable quality sound everywhere.
Good sound is getting harder and harder to find these days and part of that is all of the miseducation flying around. There is so much BS you have to gig through before getting anywhere. The market leaders are paving the way to a future of bad audio and its scary. Maybe it's always been like this and I am only just now beginning to get it. You look at companies like Mackie which has become notorious for being super cheap crap and they have slyly started "The Coalition to End Bad Sound" which is hilarious to me. Then there are companies like Harmon (which is the Kraft Foods of the audio industry) and Shure which are putting out cheaper and cheaper junk every year but no one seems to be seeing this because they are so blinded by there pull in the industry as a while and even the "Pro" publications are pushing it because guess where most of their funding is coming from... Sorry, I forgot, not naming names here. It's just silly what kind of junk these guys are selling these days.
The sad part of it all is the rise in schools like Full Sail which are marketing zoo's. Seems like the physics behind good sound and the interesting nitty gritty are continually getting glossed over so as strange and backwards as it is the actual science behind good sound reproduction is lurking around in this murky grey area. It's a depressing fact that I am going to just have to live with but its a struggle being right in the middle of the field like I am because I have to deal with people constantly who are so blind to it all and are so hard to deal with because it's getting so everyones an expert these days.
I'm sure I have contradicted myself somewhere in all of this rambling mess but I just had to get some of it out of me. I know I have a lot to learn and am not at all gods gift to sound but I can say that it has been quite a bumpy road getting to know the ins and outs of the field and I can't wait to learn more and more.
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