Interesting documentary: Sound City

[froyd]

Pretty interesting documentary on Sound City and studio recording in general, touching on the transition from analog to digital recording.

One part that spoke to me was about how much was lost by those artists that never put themselves in a studio recording situation, relying on a laptop and a home studio instead.

I saw a parallel with the photography world where some photographers who never experienced the rigor necessary for slide photography (or even just film) are working hard behind the scenes to tweak images to fit their vision so that a C+ image can become an A; whereas, if they had taken an A picture, they could still put their talent with post processing to good use and make that image an A+++++.

This is not even about digital vs film. I think the point above also translates to film photographers that relied too heavily on the darkroom to save their butts or sprayed 5 fps burst in the hopes of capturing the right expression instead of learning to anticipate it.

 

[02Pilot]

Going to see it tonight. Even without having seen it, though, I'm inclined to agree with your analogy. So much of what one sees in online discussions of photography centers on correction and modification rather than working toward just taking better photographs in the first place.

 

[02Pilot]

Just got back from the movie - really well done, totally worth seeing if you're into music.

As to the comparison with photography, I think it's entirely apt. There were numerous points in the film where you could have taken out the words "music" and "Protools" and replaced them with "photography" and "Photoshop" respectively and everything else would have made perfect sense. In both photography and music, far too much time is being spent fixing something that was mediocre to begin with because the person responsible knew they could manipulate it after the fact.

 

[ampguy]

great documentary. Listened to Nevermind this evening!

 

[Griffin]

ProTools/Logic has allowed us minimum recording time with maximum output. When you're on a tight budget, it's nice to know we can tinker on the loose ends in our own time, rather than studio time.