![]() And more important, programs like Apple Logic, Digidesign’s ProTools, and Propellerhead’s Reason have become ubiquitous on musicians’ laptops, because they supply the resources once available only at professional studios just a few years ago. ![]() As these reverb programs grow commonplace, the need for a studio’s acoustically optimized rooms has waned. Sonic space-design programs such as Digidesign’s ReVibe or Logic’s Space Designer have become commonplace in home recording studios, capable of making a guitar part recorded in your parents’ basement sound like it was laid down at the Hit Factory, an English church or even underwater. But roles that recording studios used to fill are now being taken over by computers, whose digital-data-crunching power is sufficient to turn any of those Hit Factory condos into a studio that only a decade ago would have taken up the entire building. Today’s artists need pitch correction, high quality sampling, and note-perfect backing musicians. So why has a blight suddenly struck the highest-caliber studios in America? Although music piracy has stricken labels and record stores, you’d think that there would be a greater need than ever for high recording quality as the Bob Dylans and Patti Smiths of the past are replaced with Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. In the past few years, Manhattan’s Sorcerer Sounds, where Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop all recorded tracks the Record Plant, where Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Aerosmith recorded, and California’s Cello Studios, where Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles once crooned into the high quality mikes have all closed recently. Studios throughout the world have been struggling for business like never before - there are more closing studios than platinum albums these days. ![]() But the Hit Factory’s demise may be the first sign of a larger problem. It’s nothing new for historic buildings to be cleared for a quick real estate buck. ![]() But now, the only voices heard are condo owners singing in the showers. ![]() There, Springsteen recorded parts for “Born in the U.S.A.” Whitney Houston recorded “I Will Always Love You,” and Stevie Wonder composed Songs in the Key of Life. Over the years, the Hit Factory served as the studio for 41 Grammy nominees. Where these condominiums are being polished, waxed, and re-waxed, one of the greatest recording studios in history once sat, the Hit Factory. But the sumptuous touches throughout these newborn penthouses may only be contrived attempts to overshadow the ghost of the space’s previous inhabitant. At 54th Street and 9th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan are six duplex penthouses with thousands of feet of premium-grade oak hardwood floor, designer fireplaces, color video intercom systems, stainless-steel Sub-Zeros, and Halila limestone in five-fixture master bathrooms. ![]()
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