House bands: Professional, aspiring musicians praise convenience of home studios

Monday, June 3, 2002 | 8:16 a.m.

Computer technology has musicians singing a new tune.

Professionals and amateurs alike are setting up computerized music studios in their bedrooms, garages and anywhere else they can find space in their homes.

No longer slaves to recording studios, the musicians are free to create when the mood strikes regardless of the hour.

"I have built over 60 home studios in some very nice homes, or in facilities away from home, like a guest home," said Mark Rossi, a Las Vegas consultant who travels the world designing and setting up recording studios.

Rossi, 48, said a lot of his clients are professional musicians who work out of their home, but many are hobbyists men and women who, perhaps, at one time early in their lives thought about being professional musicians but got sidetracked by careers in other fields.

"They may have had a mid-life crises when they hit 40 and they had the money to do this," Rossi said. "The kids are grown and away at college. It's either a home studio or a Corvette. Buddies want to get together and be weekend warriors. I see that at a lot of places, all over the country."

Simple home-recording studios may be set up for $2,000 or less. The best ones start at about $20,000.

"I have done home studios for some people for up to $300,000," Rossi said. "But they are able to do anything any major (recording) facility can do."

Home recording studios began to proliferate about 10 years ago.

"In 1992 it really made a leap," Rossi said. "I was based in Los Angeles then. Our business was phenomenal."

The reason for the spread of home studios was advances in technology that made the studios affordable.

Rossi said contrary to what some people may think, the marketplace is not being saturated with inferior CDs.

"Really it's being saturated with products with far greater quality," he said. "Many people that are talented who wouldn't have the wherewithal or the venue or the avenue to bring this to fruition are now able to do so. They can start on an entry level for a couple of thousand dollars and hone their skills and their talent and then take the next step up."

Large commercial studios were hit hard by the home-based studios.

"The home studios were popping up in everybody's houses in L.A.," Rossi said. "There was tons of business. Big studios were really losing money. They were angry. They tried to get ordinances passed that you couldn't have home studios. But they've lost their cases all over the country."

The big studios may have only themselves to blame.

"People were getting tired of the racketeering," Rossi said. "A band may sign a contract with a studio and all of a sudden they're $400,000 in debt and they haven't even cut a video. Then they bring in a video producer and they're $700,000 in debt and so the band has to work its brains out to pay back the debt."

Today the same band can cut its own record at home and make a promotion and distribution deal with a major studio.

"The relationship between the artist and the studio is changing," Rossi said.

But there are downsides to having a home studio.

"If you're married, your wife turns into a studio widow," Rossi, who has a home studio of his own, said. "I'm going through my fourth divorce now."

Buddy's studio

Singer Buddy Greco and his wife, jazz singer Lezlie Anders, set up a studio in their southeast Las Vegas home two years ago.

"I always wanted a studio in my house," he said. "Everything I need is here."

Greco and Anders did a lot of recording in their home studio for a new production they are putting together in conjunction with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"Fever" will be a tribute to Peggy Lee, who died in January at age 81. It is scheduled to debut at UNLV in August. Anders is the star of the show, which was written by Greco about two years ago. After its debut at the university, the production will go on a national tour.

Greco said having a studio at home simplifies his life. He no longer has to make long treks to more mainstream studios.

"I do a lot of writing for other people, and I can put it on tape right here," he said.

He has a long list of friends who have recorded at his home studio, among them singing impressionist Bob Anderson, who stars in the Frank Sinatra tribute "Main Event" at The Venetian.

"We've had 22 people recording here at one time," Greco said.

Edging closer

Mike Edging's recording studio is tucked away in a 10-by-12-foot bedroom of his home in southwest Las Vegas.

"I'm a songwriter," Edging said. "I got tired of having to go to a studio and pay for it every time I came up with a song.

"Years ago I bought a four-track recorder and an old console and started recording my own demos. One thing led to another and I started doing it for other people.

"I'm kind of like the guy who ended up building his own house even though he didn't want to. He just wanted to live in his own house."

The home studio is the base of operation for Dreamcat Music, a company that consists of Edging and Brian O'Shea, a trombonist and vocalist who also writes music.

Edging and O'Shea have worked together off and on for 17 years. Both had successful recording careers -- O'Shea in England in the '60s and Edging in Atlanta and Nashville, Tenn., in the '70s.

"I am basically a sax player and singer," Edging said. "I played with the Roy Clark family for a while. And I had my own bands, but the whole time I was playing I was in the studio-production business."

Edging moved to Las Vegas nearly 20 years ago to go work in the music publishing business and ended up in the studio. He says he has owned several production studios around Las Vegas over the years.

"I set up my first studio in my home when I was producing (the tribute show) 'American Superstars' about eight years ago, but then I took it out and formed another company," he said.

But after experiencing the convenience of working at home, he was never satisfied with studio work at the office.

"When you have to commute to a studio you can't walk down the hall in your pajamas and lay down a track," he said.

A year ago Edging hired Rossi to design a home studio for him.

"Technology has moved so rapidly forward that I can do 90 percent of the recording product in here," Edging said.

He works with musicians who have home recording studios in other parts of the world.

"I can post a (computer) file, players can play their part and post it, then I can download it and we've done a session," Edging said. "They can be anywhere in the world.

"I've done projects with a guitar player in Kansas, and there's a local guy I've done some things with and we haven't seen each other in years. We just communicate by e-mail."

Edging's equipment includes a computer, software, audio card, digital console and the best microphones money can buy. The bedroom closet has been converted into a sound room were the vocalist sings.

"Computer technology is a producer's dream," Edging said.

He said the technology has made it easy for people who are not good musicians to produce their own CDs.

"There are a lot of crummy records out," Edging said. "A lot of people think buying the tools will make them the expert ... but it still takes musicians to make it work."

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