WTF Capitol studios

[pucho812]

:'(

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/capitol-studios-mastering-staff-laid-off-1234883994/?fbclid=IwAR1MmNgoNWCCf7E6pfB22Im1P4S9K7nicfsbYhYiZxWZ_4Fxx7LSXvKEHo4

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Yes indeed, I heard about it last night from a friend.  I really hope UMG don't have any long term drastic plans, like a tower block of condos!
Sending good thoughts to all the staff, I hope it works out.
 

 

[Recording Engineer]

Yeah, doesn’t make sense, at least from what the article is presenting. How about you, since you’re in the area?

Prior to the pandemic, what was the majority of your work? I don’t know if that draws any parallels, but...

 

[dbelousov]

Mastering is not a very fancy thing for a customer. Small studios are in (relative) demand now, so under this brand, it makes sense to build a bit more "affordable" recording facilities.

Although, there will be condos anyway, sooner or later.

 

[emrr]

boooo

 

[pucho812]

Yeah, doesn’t make sense, at least from what the article is presenting. How about you, since you’re in the area?

Prior to the pandemic, what was the majority of your work? I don’t know if that draws any parallels, but...

I knew about this before it was in print. I didn’t want to say anything till it was announced. This directly effected one of our diy members who worked in the mastering dept. out of their privacy respects I won’t say who.
I will say I was in shock when I heard the news especially about the mastering dept as they still have the vinyl lathe’s running. So who knows who made the call and why or what will the future will be.  I can say that at the moment due to the covid restrictions it makes it nearly impossible to do any studio work. We have managed to barely survive this past year. There is a lot of uncertainty in the industry around these parts.
As for the tower, it was sold off over 10 years ago to a development firm and Capitol took a long term lease out.  Another who knows what could happen.
Only time will tell.

 

[midwayfair]

WTF indeed.

Mastering is not a very fancy thing for a customer

I can't imagine not wanting my records mastered, not even 20 years ago when I was completely ignorant about recording (and not yet a total cheapskate) ... I know there's all sorts of leveling enforcement on streaming services now and the last decade has been rough on the album in pop music, but this still surprises me for a major studio to put their name on an incomplete product.

I do understand the need to pinch pennies to survive right now though. I wonder if they've settled on cheaper (read: outsourced) or automated way and they want to just outsource less common stuff that requires physical equipment like vinyl lathing?

 

[Gold]

The Variety article said the mastering equipment was going into storage and not being sold off. It also said UMG was keeping their other mastering facilities open. Since mastering these days is most often unattended hopefully they'll set up in a less iconic location.

 

[Recording Engineer]

I can say that at the moment due to the covid restrictions it makes it nearly impossible to do any studio work. We have managed to barely survive this past year. There is a lot of uncertainty in the industry around these parts.

I haven’t even attempted to work all year. For a friend I did some voice-over editing and music-bed mixing for it, all at home on headphones; all of which has never been my thing at all. But, I haven’t been a studio owner for a number of years now, having sold everything, including all gear in 2015. I still can’t seem to get out of it though, spending nearly $50k since then; all of which I keep at the studio I work out of most (a friend’s semi-private studio that we built from the ground-up), even though there’s already way too much gear there. But haven’t been there since March! It sucks not having a place to be as loud as I want, at any time I want, even if just for fun!

 

[pucho812]

The Variety article said the mastering equipment was going into storage and not being sold off. It also said UMG was keeping their other mastering facilities open. Since mastering these days is most often unattended hopefully they'll set up in a less iconic location.

That would be interesting.

 

[boji]

I haven’t even attempted to work all year.

Very sorry to hear that.  Times certainly are a-changin'.  My whole mixer journey is starting to feel a bit..wasteful.

 

[pucho812]

Very sorry to hear that.  Times certainly are a-changin'.  My whole mixer journey is starting to feel a bit..wasteful.

No way. It’s inspiring

 

[john12ax7]

It sucks not having a place to be as loud as I want, at any time I want, even if just for fun!

I'm feeling those effects as well.  Underestimated how much joy there was in cranking a tube amp at 2am.

The business has been changing for years now,  smaller production rooms are more profitable than big studios, the past year has seemed to accelerate the change.

 

[pucho812]

I'm feeling those effects as well.  Underestimated how much joy there was in cranking a tube amp at 2am.

The business has been changing for years now,  smaller production rooms are more profitable than big studios, the past year has seemed to accelerate the change.

I don’t think capitol had any issue with getting business.

 

[john12ax7]

I don’t think capitol had any issue with getting business.

The article made it seem like the mastering business was declining. Is there more going on behind the scenes that the article leaves out?

 

[living sounds]

I heard the Capitol was overrun last week.

 

[scott2000]

I heard the Capitol was overrun last week.

https://youtu.be/8eXj97stbG8

 

[dbelousov]

The business has been changing for years now,  smaller production rooms are more profitable than big studios, the past year has seemed to accelerate the change.

Most of the productions are done in closet size studios in Moscow nowadays. Or at home. Acoustic treatment? Nobody gives a damn. The most profitable studios are small "all-in-one" facilities for wannabe rappers and pop singers, where you can get arrangement, recording, and mixing out of assembly line for pennies. The outcome is ridiculous crap, obviously, but whatever. It brings money. One could almost literally enslave a couple of youngsters as arrangers and engineers since there is plenty of naive guys who want to "make it" and willing to work at rates lower, than the survival threshold.

Live music in any form is on the decline. I can't spend my usual Google advertising budget anymore because nobody is searching, hence no clicks. The engineers who rent my studio for their clients don't bring any hours as well. Ok, I could close the studio, open a closet, and move on with the "progress" to a crappy small room and make "products" that I'll hate. But why I should do it? I'd better quit.

The most devastating thing is... when some fellow engineer realizes that I can code, work as a *nix sysadmin, repair electronics, work as an industrial electrician, speak English fluently (an extremely rare skill in Russia), etc., there is only one question. "WTF are you still doing it? I'm here only because I can't do anything else."

 

[living sounds]

Looking at the German top 10 charts it is clear that the most important skillset is knowing how to manipulate maximize streaming reports. One rapper who makes crappy plastic autotune stuff last year surpassed the Beatles wrt Nr. 1 singles in Germany.

 

[dbelousov]

Yep. The same is here. Instead of making a quality product or a piece of art, it's more profitable to cut the production budget out and invest it in marketing. Literally, every profitable business works this way now. The minimum quality you can get away with. Popular music is not an exception. Even classical music is rotting very rapidly, at least in Russia.