Here's a video which will hopefully refocus the viewer on a brighter and productive future, as this year unfurls itself.

It's an inside overview of Capitol Studios in Hollywood...one of the Big Guns !....recorded about a year before covid hit.

No matter if you're a dyed in the wool location recording person, or an aspiring studio engineer, it's great to hear folks recounting the operations within a big, productive, industry-benchmark studio....one which straddles its past accomplishments and future ambitions with pride and unabashed optimism.

There's room for Dolby Atmos mixing, vinyl cutting and vintage mics & outboard too !

No matter where your audio career or hobby is at now, this portal into 'recording life writ large' will lift your spirits, however briefly...I guarantee it.....30 mins of happy escapism.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex85UBvDrgQ

Capitol just closed down all the mastering rooms. See https://variety.com/2021/music/news/...ff-1234883994/ including the vinyl cutting room...

This may be a new record for a complete 180 degree turnaround in only two posts.

Maybe before posting GOOD NEWS announcements the OP may want to do a bit of on line detective work...that story was from two years ago. BEFORE COVID-19. FWIW

Ha, online detective work is pretty much the enemy of keeping spirits up, in my experience. Thanks for the half hour of escape, studer58.

On closer reading of the Variety piece, it doesn't sound like anything other than an internal re-structure of its CEO role and outsourcing of its mastering, to make way for more recording studios?

The video makes mention of bringing another vinyl cutting lathe online in response to the (well before COVID) increased demand for vinyl. This latest adjustment seems a sober and considered 'response to market conditions' that any large business makes in response to market changes...and the article refers to mothballing processes like vinyl cutting, which is simply the inverse of the trend mentioned in the video. Ebbs and flows....

Considering the current logistical hurdles of people safely gathering in the confines of typical recording and mixing rooms, that Capitol is intent on creating a suite of smaller studios (perhaps linked via video to allow numbers of musicians to work in safety !) seems practical and sensible. That an "old style dinosaur studio" is still open and functional in covid-2021....doesn't this strike you as remarkable ?

Anyway...back to the cold, hard hand-wringing and gleeful naysaying, it's more newsworthy than the 8 subterranean Capitol reverb chambers, and meeting Mick Jagger in the men's bathroom !

BTW Tom, check my 2nd sentence in the first posting....re the date of the video's production...it's hardly the "current GOOD NEWS" you're claiming it to be...and mostly I'm just sorry that it failed to elevate your spirits as intended !

Perhaps you could silver-line your cloud by offering your mastering services to Capitol...?

The closing of the Capitol Mastering Suites hit the general mastering community pretty hard. One more nail in the coffin if you will. Not trying to be negative but...Capitol mastering at one time was considered the best of the best. The rest of the video was all fluff. If this excites you and makes you feel good then by all means watch it. For me it was not the kind of video I would get excited about since I am a mastering engineer and not a studio recording engineer (at least not recently) and Capitol closing down the mastering suites for "budgetary" reasons was not really a good omen.

FWIW.

Huh....don't you mean 'more work for the general mastering community has been immediately generated as a result of the closure of the Capitol Mastering Suites' ? Re-line your dark clouds with silver, as I said above....

From the WWW

Capitol Studios

Universal Music has closed the mastering facilities at its Capitol Studios complex in LA – which is particularly known for its vinyl mastering. The two mastering studios at the facility will be converted into recording studios. The company blamed a lack of demand for the decision.
In a statement, a Universal spokesperson said: “At Capitol Studios, while demand for recording studios remains high, there has been an overall decline in requests for mastering services – to the point where we have decided to close Capitol’s mastering facility and focus on other areas of the recording process that are in higher demand by artists, including using the space to build additional recording suites”.
The tape restoration operation at the studios is also being closed. It had previously been responsible for digitising old Universal masters, but the company says that most of that work has now been outsourced to the nearby Iron Mountain company.
Several staff have been made redundant as a result of the closures, including Capitol Studios’ Vice President Paula Salvatore, who recently celebrated her 30th anniversary at the company.

FWIW

In case you hadn't noticed...

So the demand for Capitol's mastering services have declined...while demand for recording at their facility has increased...hence the drive to convert their mastering studios into recording studios.

Who's going to be doing the mastering of the (increasing) material deriving from the new (smaller) Capitol studios ?

Obviously smaller mastering facilities (like yourself...if you position yourself appropriately !)

It would seem reasonable to assume that recording hasn't stopped...it's just being done in smaller, less expensive studios...and mastered now by independents who haven't priced themselves out of the marketplace, like Capitol has...

You keep seeing speed humps, potholes and "Road closed" signs ahead on the horizon Tom, both for yourself and the industry...but they're fictional, just recalibration-shifts in the recording/mastering landscape...not the portents of certain doom you are forever predicting...

As for the Capitol redundancies...big deal, they've been through a pandemic downturn...like most of the world, who wouldn't expect staff shedding, starting at the top tier (CEO) ?

Capitol will still be around 10...20...30 years from now: responding and adapting to whatever downsized or upsized need the recording world presents for them

It does, and I did!
Lord knows we need some fluff now and then, given the times.

P.S. First time I saw the Capitol tower was around 1960, and my sister and I thought it resembled a stack of 45s.

Distraction and fluff was indeed all it was intended to be.... !

Come off it man. Nobody needs that perpetually sour energy, especially when they’re just trying to bring a little light into people’s lives.

Here's a bit more distraction candy...."How Neumann plans to maintain its edge after 90 years of success, from the president himself, Wolfgang Fraissinet"

https://www.audiotechnology.com/feat...ars-of-success

Not trying to be a "downer" but the facts are the facts. Today more and more people are DIYing their own mastering or turning to AI sites like LAN#R. It would seem that will more and more people doing more and more recording and mixing that this would be a GREAT time for mastering engineers. In our case we are busy but if you read what others are saying they are "super busy" with mastering which is GREAT, if that is the truth, which I have to assume it is.

Maybe if you are in the top 10% of mastering engineers (think Bernie Grundman or Bob Ludwig) then you are working everyday doing what you love - mastering. If you are in the middle, like I am, then the mastering jobs just don't come "pouring in" everyday. Right now I am transferring over 200 cassette sides for a client, interesting work and pays the bills but would I rather be mastering music - you bet!!!

I try and be honest on these forums and if telling it like it is doesn't work for some people then I am truly sorry.

Here's the 'last straw' to drain your perpetually half-empty glass with....welcome to the Uber-world of mastering, 2021 style

https://www.airgigs.com/categories/m...neers-for-hire


If you're not in an adaptive frame of mind and ready to change tack as needed (like Capitol clearly are...) then any newly-evolving and relentless wave of sabre-toothed tigers are going to predate upon your territory...that's the way the business has always worked.

However, you have incoming work, which pays your bills....so....?

The is also Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?q...io%20mastering and Sounds Better https://soundbetter.com/s/mastering-engineers

And your point is????There are WAY MORE mastering engineers than people who need them. I have diversified so many times over the past 26 year I lost count. If you look closely at the ads you will see people in half million dollar studios offering mastering for $10.00 a song...not going to happen. Either the pictures of the studios are stolen or someone is in a world of hurt, money wise.

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. Be safe and STAY HEALTHY!

Anyway, back to the original thrust of this thread...here's a tale by Greg Simmons (known as Simmosonic in this forum) of true location recording escapism, subjecting mics to significant environmental stress in the Great Outdoors.... all in the name of documentary making:

https://www.audiotechnology.com/feat...ong-huge-story

Have H6, will travel....

Nice story...thanks for sharing.

On a whole 'nother level, anyone here interested in forming a consortium and putting a bid on this ? .....

http://larkingslist.com/products/bro...rding-studio-1

Perhaps Steve Remote would be interested in opening a European office? There may be Brexit tax complications associated with that rig however...(just speculating)

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic being a "moving target" now is probably NOT a good time to purchase a remote recording mobile truck. It looks amazing and I am sure that if the world was not in the middle of a pandemic it would be snapped up in a heartbeat. DAMN pandemic...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

I did some checking with a few friends who are currently mastering engineers in the US. A lot of them are holding their own and seeing "normal business levels" No one I talked to (6 in total) is being "overwhelmed" with new projects or getting a lot of new clients. (not a great sample, I realize but...) The only exceptions noted are comments from people on this web board.

I congratulate them and hope the trend continues. FWIW

And you think if the world were pandemic free it would therefore be a good time to buy a remote truck ? Is there ever a 'good time' for such a purchase, given that it's not 1977 anymore? Maybe it's actually bargain priced....precisely because of the pandemic ? Perhaps your vision is blinkered ...and limited to the prevailing current day conditions only ? There is another possible outlook perspective (to persistent doom 'n gloomism) ....it's called future planning....

Shut-downs still in effect in California. Even the museums are still closed but open in every other state. No indoor dining or music, outdoors only. Still gets chilly here at night. No clubs or concerts anywhere here. This is a bad place to be a musician.

I am not in Europe so I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I certainly would think long and hard about such a purchase here in the US of A for two reasons...
One the payback would not equal the purchase price for a looooooooooong time (if ever) and two I would not want to be competition for Steve's remote.

I would have loved to have something like this a few years back and even looked at re-purposing a van that was used by a remote TV company and an ambulance but the payback was going to be way too long. We were doing a lot of remote recordings at churches and schools and it would have been nice to have something like a remote van with a permanent setup in it and the van you provided a link to would have been GREAT! Today with COVID-19 and every parent bringing their IPAD or IPHONE to the concerts no one needs professional recordings anymore. We mostly did classical and children's orchestras and choirs and that market here is gone for good.

It is nice to dream but then reality bites and poof the dream is no more...

You may be beyond rescue Tom....

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Very different here, we have a major arts festival and Fringe opening today for 3 weeks: it's summertime so a mix of outdoor and indoor venues, spaced seating is going to be the only real clue that anything's different this year from 2019...but we've had no real public transmission for a few months, so cautious optimism is justified. Hell, we're now even allowed to have 50 people on dance floors, as of last week !
We might even see choirs here again, before too long...

Given how much the entire live performance industry, across all music genres and including theatre, dance, opera stands to gain from the resumption of risk-reduced public gathering...and given how the only vector that can facilitate this is mass vaccination/true herd immunity....I'm surprised the live music sector hasn't mobilized itself to actively promote vaccinations ?

OK, not yet via concerts....but through songs, TV jingles, Facebook ads, YouTube artist endorsements and collaborations with public health authorities....this could see the sizeable public reticence to vaccinate get broken down. It would take the wind out of the sails of the anti-vaxxers too...

Everyone seems quite happy to wait until they're summoned for their shot....but the next variant out of the gate might be the one that threatens the efficacy of our current crop of vaccines...so speed of rollout (as Fauci says) really is of the essence !

It seems the entertainment industry really could be playing a significant mobilzing and PR role here....but I'm not seeing it as yet ?

There are so many great things happening in the world right now but my mastering business unfortunately is not one of them. I just got my first COVID-19 shot, I am doing a very large transfer project, I have two other restoration projects that are coming in and we are busy. I was able to get some new/used equipment at a reasonable cost for our video and audio studio and I am updating a 2008 "Cheese grater" Mac Pro with new hard drives and a new GPU. I am basically a very upbeat and happy person but all is not rosy. I really don't think things in the mastering world are as good as people try to make it sound. Some of it is self promotion and some is simply bravado. If people are doing well I suggest they keep on doing what they are doing...FWIW

BTW Mark Twain is my great great grandmother sisters husband...FWIW

This book might merit a place on your reference book shelf:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews...abel-mastering