GEO FOCUS SPAIN
POPULATION: 57 MILLION
“Cinema is probably the only field in which audio is still approached with great respect.”
Sergio Castro, Funky Junk Spain
>>> DISTRIBUTOR Word on the Street
SERGIO CASTRO, sales manager of the Spanish division of pro-audio distributor Funky Junk and a 30-year industry veteran, talks us through the current state of the country’s pro-audio industry.
Like many other European countries, Spain is struggling economically. How has this affected the pro-audio industry? It certainly has affected the industry. As with society in general, the ‘middle class’ recording business also tends to disappear. I mean, big artists still use the bigger studios, but most of the Spanish big studios have disappeared in the past decade. So the Spanish international artists who signed deals with big labels can afford recording in places like the USA, UK, or Germany. On the other hand, rock bands and pop artists selling to their home market have ended up building their own rehearsal studios where they also record and produce their own albums that they must bring finished to their signing labels. Sometimes they even release the records themselves. This, although bringing a sensation of artist freedom, is mainly a compromise on the recording and production quality, with less than professional means being used in the process. Cinema is probably the only field in which audio is still approached with great respect, and where pursuing the best quality is part of the schedule, while television is more and more image oriented. Having said that, some big DJs are now aiming at having their own production rooms with high-end stuff installed along with excellent acoustics and decoration to feel creative.
What’s the current state of the recording industry? In our company group there is an operational recording studio that we use as a demo room (although the main idea was to prevent the place from being knocked down when the original owner went bust). We feel that musicians who cannot afford to pay for excellent acoustics in a space equipped with some of the best recording gear end up recording at home in less than satisfactory conditions. The record labels (the ones still in
www.audiomedia.com
existence) cannot or do not want to spend any money in guaranteeing a decent sound production. Bear in mind that the music distribution media
is now 99% digital, but the quality of reproduction is fairly low, although something different is advertised. Computers and cell phones, even on headphones, have poor dynamics and distort the real audio signal. In fact the signal is already optimised to be used on these devices. Not to mention the background noise, as you listen on the bus, the train or the aeroplane. So why should labels care? Why should iTunes care? Musicians care, and they try to do their best, but finance dictates how far they can go.
Have there been any noticeable growth areas? As I said before, cinema mixing rooms pursuing the best possible audio quality and acoustic performance, especially now with Dolby Atmos and the most important DJs/producers, who seem to be really into having the best possible conditions to create their music. Although we are not quite involved with live
sound, we realise that there is a big potential market out there for Dante, Cobranet, AES50 or MADI,
especially in the broadcast industry (which we ‘touch’ every now and then). Also, the niche market for gear like Thermionic,
Shadow Hill, BAE, or Rupert Neve has been growing in the last few years, but it has also been contradicted by the drop in the financial stability of the interested customers. This is obviously the feeling we have about Spain and Portugal.
Have you seen any trends in technology purchasing? Is there anything that could be unique to Spain? Well, I believe that in the last few years there has been quite a jump in the search for good converters. Finally users understand that the audio chain is only as good as its worst piece. It doesn’t matter that you have a mint vintage microphone with a 75dB gain preamp with incredible dynamics, going into the latest technology DAW if your signal is being converted by a cheap A-D converter. We are lucky to be able to offer Prism Sound, Apogee, or Lynx converters among the brands we distribute in the group. These give us the authority to advise people about the fact and we have a reputation for doing a good job on that.
www.funkyjunk.es
March 2014 21
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