Do you honestly think if you hired Kevin Shirley to produce a record, and had a 5-hour budget to record and mix a song in a local studio, he could nail the best results?
The answer is PLAIN NO.
As I see, the main problem is BUDGET, but the father of recording budget concerns is PRIORITIES.
Do you know that record companies shell out millions for an album release, where the biggest chunk goes to marketing (payolas, print, press releases, etc.) while you would hardly get 6 figures for a MAJOR STUDIO budget? I think the real problem is the whole business model of record companies in the country.
As I see it, recording budgets don't get as fat as say, the foreign budgets simply because we opt for minimal results in recording to gain the most profit. Why should the executive producer buy you a Craviotto snare if he can use the snare in the studio? Why should you spend time experimenting on miking and drum tuning when "everything can be fixed in the mix"? Why mess with an amp if you can go DI? Why not rent a Hammond organ if the Korg X5D can do the job?
As you can see, there are a lot of 'shortcuts' being employed for obvious economic reasons. "Eh hindi naman maarte ang Pinoy na makikinig eh. Hindi naman siguro malayo ang tunog ng simpleng drum sound at high quality drum recordings para sa isang FX driver na nakikinig sa Love Radio..."
We're pretty much stuck in a paradigm where, "Gusto ko puhunan singko, pero ang tubo barko..." Hence, some artists decide to take the DIY route thinking they can take full artistic control over a project. The bad thing however, is some artists still need to develop their recording skills (i.e. ears, taste, and the science of it all) so they can utilize their equipment properly. While I admit I have heard DIY recordings that can compete with major local releases, still, there is a myriad of rotten indie recordings too.
Sa mastering pati, alam mo nang budget-wise kapos tayo. In the foreign countries, mastering studios don't go less than $300/song. I hardly see an album mastered locally not until Zach opened his facility in Merville. Some people don't even know how important (and what) mastering is!
I think the challenge for both indie and signed artists is to be persistent in asking for more world-class resources to make a record, studio time included. You may decide to record at budget studios (ehem), major studios (eg Tracks, Sound Creation, GC4, etc.) , or at home using a computer. Bottomline is, optimize the resources you have bearing in mind the results as a means to an end. Don't fool yourself into thinking your vocal recordings using Shure PG58 can always beat a Neumann U87 or an RCA 44B. (Can occur that a vocalist in a bad-sounding room using an SM58 can compete with another badly-recorded vocalist through a U87, but not always.)
