I worked sound for Sara Fitzgerald for the first 2 years she was open. I did sound for SRV (& every other band that played there) on several occasions and have an interesting story about talking to him and quite a few others backstage. I left Fitzgeralds' to work in my 8 trk studio full time and a friend of mine, JB Burlange, was doing sound for him. JB went on the first tour with Stevie & then went to work for Omar & The Howlers. I used to love at the end of the night when Stevie would come out & sit on the edge of the stage & play Lenny or Little Wing for an encore. BTW - Stevie wanted to go on tour with Bowie but Bowie's management only offered to pay him $1000 per week while on tour, & knowing that SRV's own album would be out soon Stevie's management said that wasn't enough money. So SRV's management declined the offer. Stevie & Bowie had become very good friends from what I understand, and left to them it would have happened - but as always, business & $$$ got in the way.
Bill Ham used to work as a record promo man for London records back in the 60's (now you know why ZZ got a contract with them). The promo men in town all had an office of sorts at Daily's One Stop in the Heights. (A One Stop is where juke box operators would buy their records for the juke boxes and get labels, and other assorted vending machine supplies). Don Daily is the man who found and first recorded George Jones. His daughter & I went to school together at Reagan High School. I got a job at a small independent recording label here in Houston back in 84' part-time. I was groomed for a promo man position by a man named Charles Godfrey - everyone called him Heffer (as in a cow chewing his cud). Heffer worked for Philly records & worked with artists such as The Jackson Five, Nina Hendrix (was in a group with Patty LaBelle), Lou Rawls & others. Heffer shared offices with Ham at Daily's & told me some good stories. Another promo man there was Tony Tambarino, who is still a independent promo man out of Nashville. However, Tony was known in musicians' circles as the bass player for a band called The Gentrys. I forgot the name of their top 40 hit song back in the 60's. Maybe it was "Lets Go To Garner State Park", but I'm not sure. Another promo man at Daily's was Irv Woosly...Irv is George Strait's manager. I talked to both of them in a conference call one day with Heffer, & both seemed like very nice guys. (The label I was working for had a few C&W acts signed)
In 67' I got a part-time gig playing some dates with Lightnin' Hopkins & I got even more involved with the blues scene. Lighnin' told me to dump my old Silvertone amp (it didn't even have reverb) and get a real amp. He was instrumental in me getting my first Fender amp. (which I consider to be a good move!!) I played with him (at Liberty Hall) and at a place called Jubilee Hall several times, and a bunch of speak easys (bootleg beer joints that stayed open all night in the 4th & 5th wards).
I still compare all albums made to the Sgt. Pepper album. It was a miracle what came off on that master. George Martin was as much to credit with the album as were the Beatles. He's retired now, but he was one of the best record producers ever. He also produced Jeff Beck, Peter Sellers, & a host of others. I come from a recording background as well so I was very impressed with what they were able to accomplish with a 4 track tape machine. (actually they used 2 4 tracks tho) I always thought Martin was a true genius.
I remember when The Beatles "White Album" was released here in Houston. KFMK (a now defunct radio station - known to all the hippies, they had the DJ "Crash", and Viet Nam draft resistance information). They played the album all the way thru for 8 hours straight from 1st cut to the last over and over again.
In my opinion the key ingredient it takes to be a good mix engineer has always been "good ears". If you can hear what you are listening to then you can do the job. I'd consider myself to be a just mix engineer nowadays and I leave the other aspects of the engineering to someone else.
Of course everyone told me not to go into the studio business. I dismissed the other studio owners comments as just a way to keep away any more competition, but I think several were truly trying to warn me & keep me solvent. But - I've always been one of those guys that just has to try something for myself. It was always a dream to own my own studio, & even tho it was a monetary failure, I gained a lot in other areas. So all I can say is if you can get the financing to do a start up biz you might as well go for it if you realize that it can set you back financially later down the road. But then on the other hand you can always look back and say I tried. Nothing ventured - nothing gained as they say. I guess I'm a gambler at heart.
In a scenario where money is not a consideration, a "real" studio with perfect acoustics is a must for big dollar productions such as artists like Barbara Streisand, Carlos Santana, etc. But with the outboard gear available to the average musician now it is possible to record great tracks in a home studio or a small project studio that will rank good enough to compete with the major recording studios. It takes some time & some talent but it can be done.
I always told up and coming performers to use 57s (Shure SM57 microphones) because you can drive nails with them & still use them later in the evening! While I was working for Dale Mullins he had 2 Neumann mics. They were so warm & responsive that you'd swear that the person singing was in the room with you. Incredible mics. I bet he didn't pay but about 8 or 9 hundred bucks for each of them back in the 60's. I agree - the MD421 is pretty good too. I've used them in several studios and for live performances. They won't take a bunch of dbs but they are really a nice, fairly inexpensive mic for vox.
You wouldn't believe the little studio we (The Tweeds) cut our album in. There was barely enough room to turn around in there, but we got the project done cheap. They had a Mackie board, some very nice mics, & we utilized some good ol' Shure 57's & 58's as well, & we used a couple of Lexicons, dbx limiter/compressors, and a few other odds & ends, but mainly, it went right to tape (except for our own effects pedals). It would have been much hotter if we had it mastered, but I couldn't afford it, but for something to sell off the stage at our gigs I can't complain at all. We even got a little airplay around town for a while on the blues shows on KPFT.
I have a friend that has set up a project studio & he uses Pro Tools. He charges $50 an hour and its all compatible with the major studios -- so when they get the basics done at his place they can take it on down the road to a major studio that goes for $150 an hour or more and finish up. Saves some big bucks that way.
I had helped a very close friend of mine, Dale Mullins, build a first class 16 trk studio in Spring Branch, and thought I had the knowledge to go out on my own. I did have the experience to do the building & equipment setup, but it was the business end that got me. I was not heavily connected with ad agencies or the pop scene to keep enough $$$ coming in the door. I did some jingle writing and produced a few singles, and several albums, but most of the biz was demos for bands around town. My friend Dale Mullins died back in 83' and his wife sold the recording studio to Jeff Wells who had another studio at the time - Sound Arts. Jeff relocated his equipment to the new facility and renamed it Sound Arts. It has walls that are a foot and a half thick, double doors into the studio from the control room, a big iso booth for either drums or vox, and an area in the corner that was set up for a grand piano, and several sections around the wall with baffles to contain guitar amps. It was & still is a great room. As good as anything in LA or NY or Nashville acoustically. Of course Mullins was just analog, but Jeff has gone digital with 3 DA88s & he's cut some very good stuff there. Texas Johnny Brown (who wrote Two Steps From The Blues for Bobby Blue Bland) recorded his album there & its getting national recognition, and Mark May & The Agitators cut 2 albums there & they are charting sales up there with Bonnie Raitt & Stevie Ray.
So the old myth that you can't record anything in Houston is shattered. Of course in the old days there were lots of hits cut here. Don Roby who owned Duke & Peacock records in the 40's & 50's cut a bunch of stuff on Big Mama Thornton, Little Richard, Bobby Blue Bland and a few others that made some big money. More recently (1970's) Sugar Hill cut hits on Freddy Fender & ZZ Top cut their 1st album there.
I'm not out there trying to compete with every studio in town for a piece of the pie anymore. I used to have guys from bands come in & say things like, "Well we'll need a Aural Exciter, or the blah blah blah piece of equipment." My theory was simple - I didn't need a lot of the things these guys were requesting because I had a room that sounded great & I didn't need a bunch of outboard gear to make up for a lousy room & acoustics. But you can't convince a 19 year old rock musician that read in a magazine that Van Halen or whatever there favorite band was, that used that piece of gear that he really doesn't need it. They also didn't understand that their idol band spent $65,000 to record their album. They wanted to come into my 8 track studio at $15 per hour and get the same sound. Yeah - Right!!