My hat is off to Steve for providing a quality service for those who need to make a record with just a few grand.
I see this industry at a time where "standard studio practice"/"what hits sound like"/"what money can buy" is increasingly divorced from actual music being made on a grassroots level. The DAW revolution seems to offer a way for grassroots folks to manipulate and assemble in the style of the big studio major label top 40 records. Of course, every bit of that manipulation and assembly costs dearly in vibe and sound quality- if you are past master at it and have the finest tools and the finest listening space, it still costs dearly. With less experience, worse tools, and bad monitoring, it gets really grim.
And what is grassroots? Well, there's all the bands that can't even perform without industrial life support systems, again in the image of "the real deal"TM. I've been priveleged to attend concerts by high-level pros where microphones were not in use, but it's very rare outside of classical. And these were not bigtime pop artists, although they were some of the finest. But, for most, a microphone is simply taken as a basic necessity, and a PA and lighting are de rigeur for a performance. Even, if the PA is utterly dismal and in fact induces pain, and plenty of it. That's how it's done! You need a PA, right? And the act will never sound even decent until they have a very high quality PA well implemented (including not least mic technique), and that is not a common thing anywhere near entry level. It's rare even at bigtime big money shows. Sure, it cost a lot, but it rarely is actually a pleasure to listen to.
So, there is this thicket of industrial "musical" equipment in between most acts and their ability to simply perform! Cheap industrial "solutions" are pitched to fill this void, which most of the acts, created in the industry image, can not imagine life without.
That's the entire crux of the biscuit, I'm sure of it.
Most artists cannot even perform without industrial sound engineering, yet few can afford to hire quality help or gear. So they hire mediocrity or worse.
There was a time when artists could perform without anything but their instruments. This kind of performance is straightforward and rapid to record in a suitable room. Mixing need not be a separate procedure. You can record a 3 minute song in 3 minutes, and it can be mixed and done the moment you press stop. Takes some experience and experimentation, but what doesn't.
But, that's not the "pro sound" that we are selling, by and large. So we continue to perpetuate the dilemma of music that takes a long time and a lot of gear to record, and in emulation of that "pro standard" people buy a lot of cheapie knockoff gear that is all they can afford, and after all, they can not even perform without out it! Because their entire idea of performance is modeled after the "big pro deal", with stages and PAs and lights.
I can see how to do an end run around the entire dilemma. Is it really worth continuing this vicious cycle for the glamour and mystique of manipulated and assembled productions?