Anyone Read This Article (decline of Gearslutz.)

I had never heard of Bon Iver. So, I checked out their song Holocene. To me, it sounded like a cut off the Beatles "White Album" with a few FX to make it sound mysterious, but also with less comprehensible lyrics than any simple guitar based song the Beatles ever wrote. To then later see that it was up for best song of the year made me wonder if its popularity was based on the power of Pitchfork, or something else.

I couldn't go to Gearslutz' High End anymore and see another "What's The Best Mix Bus Compressor" thread, and the impersonal nature of such a large forum was a turn off. I also noticed that as my "ignore poster" list grew, how many of the same people showed up all the time.

Yep I know I was just wondering if anybody else saw it and I wonder if the numbers are still in the decline.

Indeed. Everyone thinks they are "high end" regardless of what gear they use.

A band was in the studio the other day.. They loved the mixes, but then told me they wanted to master them to take them to the next level.

I asked them what they meant by that.. Which turned into a big discussion on what mastering meant.

It turns out they didn't actually know what they wanted from "mastering", but had always read in forums that mastering was just something you did, that knowledgeable people online always said they mastered their songs.

So these guys knew a mastering engineer who would master their songs for 20$ a piece.. With Ozone and some other plugs that he used at school.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Then we contacted the mastering engineer to ask a handful of questions, and then he was miffed and defensive that we were questioning his work and his setup, which wasn't even his.

These are the same guys who were so impressed by the sound of my overhead mics, that they asked me if they were Samson brand, because he read on a forum that Samson brand was good.. and high end.

It's almost as if permitting and/or even abetting misinformation is a good business model. If you're the only game in town, then they have no choice but to come back for more.

I'd check into it if I didn't already know a few reputable mastering folks I'd use, if the artist actually wanted to pay serious money for serious mastering..

When I told them what a real mastering engineer costs, they quickly decided to not master at all when faced with the prospective mastering engineers within the remainder of their budget.  I mean, I can crush the mix and boost some highs and lows and add some harmonic excitement during the mix if that's all they wanted anyway..

I just don't get that a band will spend thousands to produce and record an album but they balk at mastering that costs more than 20$ a song.

But more than that, it's just the whole "read it on a forum" thing.  They didn't even do any real research or anything, just took some person's word in a forum because it was assumed they were professionals discussing "high-end" audio gear and production.

I mean, I know a lot of the folks on here are professionals with lots of work under their belt and I still take everything said with a grain of salt!  

Wow. That article is awesome. I was sad to see it's 4 years old. Looks to me like GS has grown to over 200,000 members now. Of course, they still count all the ones that have left too. This will put it in proper perspective: They have 10,000 people online at one time. We have 30...maybe. I would love to see this forum grow. I'm not sure how to do that and keep the tone the same - maybe I'm naive to think that we can - but I do. I think it's about accountability and respect...and making sure opinions aren't bought and sold.

Yeah. I'd imagine that would be a good place to advertise. I subscribe to Tape Op. Bet a lot of others here do too.

Following Svart's comments about research, I have noticed all the totally bizarre ways that bands do or do not find you. They don't and never did telephone/google/check the MIX directory/or AES. They do ask a random guy they think looks cool in an alley/track down a friend of an acquaintance they heard once saw a studio to ask advice/go for the cheapest possible option they can find on FB/Youtube/Myspace. I dumped my free yellow pages listing after about 5 years, because absolutely zero business came from it: if they need the yellow pages, it proves they don't have a clue. Word of mouth is all that works, but that is dangerous too for all the reasons Svart mentions: maybe they haven't checked many words from many mouths, or even considered their reliability.

TapeOp forum looks pretty dead too, I don't know what it takes to get people away from GS. I notice MOTU has representatives answering questions at GS, but seldom at MOTUnation. All about the traffic.

That is expensive . 

What if everybody donated $10 ? 

Put it this way, I would like for it to make enough to where I'm not spending more than I make from it. And you guys don't need to give for me to advertise, just give if you are compelled to.

Reading that article, by the 'rules' over there I should have been kicked off too, the only reason why probably is that none of my external links lead to anything resembling 'competition'. I'm sure they'd be enforced it the did.

I had a guy from a band tell me to send my mixes to another engineer, because he wanted the sound "more analog" and was promised that from the other engineer. So, I called the guy and asked him what analog gear he had. The answer? Slates VTM plug in, which I already owned and I have the UAD Studer A800 as well.

Thankfully, I told the leaders of the band what had transpired and they backed me. A part of me wanted to take off all my analog compressors from the mixes and say "fine, go with the analog guy".