The Leveling Effect

Our own well-dressed Ed Driscoll , smiling benevolently upon the reader but with the slightly pinched expression of someone looking for a restroom, has a fascinating column on Tech Central Station about digital vocal tuning and its philosophical ramifications for recording:

The recording industry is doing everything in its power to both prevent the legal duplication of commercially purchased music, as well as monopolize the distribution of newly recorded music. But meanwhile, in an effort to attract new customers, as well as sell new products to their existing customers, manufacturers of recording software and hardware have continually innovated, to where, as I wrote recently, the creation of music via home studios is in its golden age. Never before has the technology to produce recordings at home been more affordable or easier to use. A 17-year-old kid, with a modicum of guitar or keyboard skills, can produce a recording easily as sophisticated sounding as anything that can be generated by a group recording in a state-of-the-art Los Angeles, Nashville, New York or London studio.