In tune with spartan times

Economists suggest Canada is walking away from the recession, but advertisers seem reluctant to believe it and as a result most ad budgets offer little room for fancy sound track treats.

That may explain why several music production shops have created in-house studios or have at least enhanced their ability to produce sophisticated demo tracks that keep them out of the big, expensive studios as long as possible.

Veteran music producer/composer David Krystal of Toronto says the large-scale advent of the in-house facility was inevitable, both because of declining budgets and the lower cost of technology. Techno advances have even allowed producers to service long-distance clients with digital phone patches and, of course, couriers.

And then there’s the convenience factor. Krystal, who has been availing himself of the studio-next-door (Digital Music) for the past three years, says it’s useful to have somewhere to ‘dump all your machines.’

That thinking explains why Rosnick MacKinnon’s Ted Rosnick spends so many hours at Sounds Interchange. His shop has had a 24-track studio in-house for ‘about a year now.’ Installed to facilitate demos, the sound board has become a creative and financial advantage. Rosnick says his staff can record in-house then take it to Sounds Interchange and record across to the higher end multitrack with timecode. The creativity can be injected at the office ‘instead of being under the gun in the studio at $450 an hour.’

Of course, Rosnick stays with studios to access the best technology and engineers. Still, ‘a lot of really great records and some of the best jingles that you hear out of the States are done out of basement studios.’ And, identifying a trend mentioned by music producers throughout the city, Rosnick points to agencies’ demands for more polished demo tapes: ‘The big advantage of the in-house facility is (it allows) better, more sophisticated demo tracks.’

Meantime, Sounds Interchange reports no serious loss of business yet as a result of the trend to in-house studios. Sounds general manager Peter Mann says in-house studios let producers ‘do more elaborate demos… But when it comes to the final big product, it still comes here.’

Mann recognizes that the increasing complexity in commercial spots makes the in-house facility a requirement for many production houses. ‘Every two seconds they need a new effect,’ he says, almost a Star Wars for audio, which would cost too much if all aspects were assembled in the big studios. The agencies benefit most from the trend to in-office studios, Mann says, because ‘they get more for less.’

Even for those producers who have no interest in being in the hardware business – the major studios have state-of-the-art machines and rooms – a small in-house music room is essential. Rick Price, a partner with Tom Szczesniak and Ray Parker (former principals in Acrobat Music) in the month-old shop Parker Szczmith (pronounced Smith) Music, says even their neophyte company can generate synthesized music for output to digital audio tape (dat) and can record voice-overs and some sound effects.

Price, the producer of the trio, says doing some work in-house boosts the creativity quotient. ‘Music is a personal thing,’ says Price, ‘not a corporate thing,’ adding to his point by mentioning that the partners do business in an old house, a comfortable atmosphere. He says his shop, where the principals have backgrounds in live action and animated series, radio series and commercials of all types, applies the creativity-first credo to all of its production.

That’s a theme repeated at various music houses. Louder Music and Sound Design, which opened its doors early last December, got started with a desire to ‘explore’ its own vision and is helped in that quest by having a 24-track board in a little studio of its own.

Again the point is made, this time by principal Steve Convery (who left The Einstein Bros. with Clive Desmond and set up Louder with third partner/producer-administrator Lisa Moore) with shops like his are not in the hardware business.

Convery says he and Desmond direct a pair of staff writers and freelancers in sound design and music composition and can produce demo tapes and animatics in-house. But that’s as far as they go to trim expenses. Convery says he still favors bigger studios such as Sounds Interchange or Manta Eastern for ‘bigger sound,’ bigger rooms and top-caliber engineers.

With less money available to use for their productions, music houses echo each other in saying they want to produce for commercials, tv, and features. Not only do they do more types of work, they also go, or plan to go, farther afield to get it. Convery, for example, has a ‘few u.s. clients’ and is assembling a ‘pool of reps’ to bring in more American jobs. He doesn’t want to dive into New York, though, and be eaten for lunch. He’d rather a rep start with smaller centers.

Doug Wilde of Harris Cole Wilde agrees that moving into America means starting small. hcw does some u.s. jobs via agency referrals, but he says it is still considering whether to put a rep in place in the u.s.

By contrast, hcw’s studio plans are in the active phase with a ‘pretty basic’ room under construction, to be completed early in April. Wilde says there had traditionally been smaller recording rooms inside writing stations but the new room will be separate and will feature a 24-track machine and a voice booth and will allow instrument recording. With this move, Wilde says hcw hopes to pick up some smaller budget jobs and, with partner/engineer Mark Stafford on board, can offer an expert hand to operate the studio equipment.

Early April will also see the completion of a sophisticated in-house studio at The Einstein Bros., including a 32-track digital machine. The new technology will be fully automated and will allow full recording (except for full orchestras since there’s not enough space), synch sound and even Foley. Einstein founder Jody Colero says a grand piano will have a home there as well. The engineer in charge will be one of Colero’s partners, Scott Boyling, who used to work at Sounds Interchange.

But because there will only be one room, and there are five people producing material from within the company – to say nothing of freelancers, Colero doubts Sounds and Manta will be hurt financially.

Colero also pulls business from the u.s. The company employs one rep in Detroit and pays commission to reps in secondary markets when those reps land jobs for Einstein.

In a telling comment on the quality of creative brought to Einstein’s door of late, Colero says junior teams at several agencies are ‘writing a lot of good stuff’. Since December, he says, ‘I’ve really noticed the changing of the guard.’

Some producers are also hailing the North American Free Trade Agreement as paving the path to new foreign customers. At Toronto’s Shurman Armes Crawford (also putting in a studio), word is that Robert Armes has just wrapped a project for a Mexican client.

Cost-cutting isn’t limited to increasing the amount of in-house production. Chris Stone of Chris Stone Audio says he’s seeing a slight increase in the use of his stock music and sound effects, although he also thinks fewer commercials are being produced. Stone says since it’s faster and cheaper to use stock, and as people begin to realize that stock doesn’t imply Muzak quality, his service is becoming more widely used.

Then there are the satisfied customers and the appealing tracks. Stone recounts a story in which he’d supplied an ‘old-time fiddler and piano’ track for a Saturn spot and then received three phone calls inquiring about that piece of music.

Stone says the trend to more in-house production makes sense for certain types of projects with electronically generated tracks, but ‘what they can’t get is authentic original instruments,’ which he can provide.

He’s also accustomed to helping out with suggestions on what kind of track fits which pictures. ‘A lot of times people will just send me a script or send me a video and say `what should go in here?’ Or they say they’re thinking of going one way and I suggest another. Usually I’ll try to find what they’re looking for.’

Creative boutiques are probably a fading phenomenon. That seems to be the consensus; it’s a matter of survival. ‘To compete, we have to practically do a final as a demo,’ says Elizabeth Taylor, partner/rep at Toronto’s Tantrum Productions, which opened its penthouse doors last November. With 15 years in the business as a rep for Pirate Radio/Shurman Armes Crawford and the like, Taylor sees in-house production as a continuing trend. Tantrum has a 24-track board already and plans to put in a voice booth. ‘Clients can’t afford to go into the (big) studios for just a voice-over,’ she says.

Tantrum will also foray to the u.s. at some point, she says, as soon as she and her musician partners Chris Tait and Doug Pennock have a little time on their hands.

Meantime, the focus is on creativity for clients at home. Tait, a singer and guitarist formerly with the band Chalk Circle and now with Big Faith, works with Pennock, a keyboard and guitar player who played with Joan Armatrading and Air Supply after graduating from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., in composing the tracks. ‘They’re new and they’re young and different,’ says Taylor, ‘and I think that’s one of the reasons people are coming to us. I think people are ready for some new blood in this industry. They’re dead curious about us.’

Talking of different creative perspectives, Parker Szczsmith’s Rick Price says he brings a unique element to the composition mix given his background in directing, writing and producing in commercials, film and tv. ‘A filmmaker in a music company is a really interesting twist. It’s like translating…I take my visual acumen and apply it to (my partners) and they turn it into music.’