Ry Cooder Quotes

It costs so much money to make a record!

It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money.

About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.

I'm a huge fan of home recording. I think it levels the playing field. You don't need $100,000 to record a studio CD.

After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.

I used to record but just in my own studio or in my friend's back when I toyed with the idea of being a rapper.

Now, you can just get a laptop, get some software, put a microphone on it and make a record. You have to know how to do it. It does help if you've had 35 or 40 years of experience in the studio. But, it still levels the playing field so artists can record their own stuff.

I like making little videos and little records. I've always loved video cameras and four-track cassette recorders, still cameras, anything.

Yes, we record practically everything on Pro Tools.

I also have a recording studio that I use to produce bands.

I've been in a recording studio enough times to know that it is not the best place to multitask. Doing a couple of takes of a song and running out to check your email to talk to someone about video production really is not good.

I always feel like there's something magic in recording studios. There's a reason good music continues to be made in them. It's just some mojo element.

The four of us couldn't have made a record with the time left over when we were shooting the show. We were on stage from 7.30 in the morning 'til 7 at night. Later on, when there was a break from filming, and we were sick of doing it the old way.

You can't really imagine music without technology.

It is a lot cheaper to spend eight hours in a rehearsal hall than in a recording studio.

I'm always working on new songs. With the technology these days, any idiot can record on Pro Tools on your laptop. All you have to do is plug a microphone into the input jack and anybody can have their own recording studio. So I'm always down in my basement, singing along to riffs or whoever I'm collaborating with.

Studios always seem to be in basements without natural light and with black everything.

There are so little outtakes from the Joy Division era. We didn't have much money. You couldn't be very generous in recording, so we were very thrifty in how we recorded. Everything was very, very well looked after financially because we just couldn't afford it.

I've got a studio at home, and I'm always recording.

My dad got me the same mic I use on everything now - this $200 mic from Guitar Center.

There was a recording studio in my school, and I knew this kid who had a key, so I'd write lyrics in school while I was in class, and then, in a 10-minute break, I recorded the song 'Hurt' in one go at the school studio.

I think people, just because of digital recording and how computers have become such an important part of our lives, I think the means to record music now is in more people's hands. It's a lot cheaper than it used to be.

You do need money to make a good demo; you do need a bit of financial support.

It doesn't matter if you record with a microphone on a laptop or at a friend's house. Now it's more of a danger of things sounding too high-fi than sounding too low-fi.

You go into any recording studio in the world, and you see candles, lights, and that Apple light from a Mac.