What could be better? All the gear you need to create that hit record in your spare room nestled up next to the comfy old sofa and TV? Sounds ideal?
How many times as an engineer, producer or musician have you wished that you could emulate that environment where your music is going to be heard - like in the living room etc?
With the advent of powerful computers it's now easy to record, manipulate, sequence, arrange and mix in your own home. Get the guys around to do vocals and hey presto a ready made hit is served from your own kitchen!
If you're a competent and an all round objective musician, arranger, producer and engineer it's not far off perfection. But if you depend on others to bounce ideas off and to take some of the strain in areas that you're not so hot on its not necessarily such a good idea being cocooned with mouse and midi keyboards. If you don't have the great studio monitoring that's required to make sure it will sound great wherever its played and if the equipment becomes limiting after a bit, you really aren't being productive. Maybe, for most people, it's more of a writing environment where early planning can be done.
So, after a few weeks the novelty has worn off. You're on your own with possibly the kids, noisy neighbours, the lure of the TV and popping out to actually interact with others... This is where the production room comes in to its own.
The beauty of the production room is that for a set rent you can experiment to your hearts content trying out ideas away from distraction without having to worry about running up unforeseen big bills in the big studio.
While not as good as the fully fledged studios that these rooms tend to be situated next to, being near to other creative people can be a great help and having some technical support and advice can be of real value. You can always borrow the odd mic or gadget when you need to. You can also close the door and walk away to go home for a break.
This seems to be the favoured solution for many producers looking to develop their acts in an inexpensive way. Much of your work can be simply taken in to the studio for continuing when you're ready and when you walk in to the studio you have more time to give your record the sound that you have in your head.
Many studios now have these rooms as they realize that it works in their interests too. For example in London, many top studios including Olympic, Strongroom, Roundhouse, Stanley House and many more have several production or writing rooms booked out on sometimes an annual basis.
This move to smaller producer rooms can be seen to be having an effect on the mid range studios. Unlike the larger studios with more space and staff, the mid range studios that once acted as the cheaper tracking rooms are being squeezed as they aren't one thing or the other. By incorporating writing/production rooms, the bigger studios can hold on to much more of a project from inception to mastering.
The big studios with their huge mixing desks can seem expensive, but they are poised, ready to tackle anything that you throw at it. The studios tend to be staffed by people who's vocation in life is to make great records and these people are by and large going to help you make great records too. If you'd walked in off the street and started to work on a recording without the planning, well, you would be paying lots for nothing and there's no point in complaining about the bills. Think of the poor engineer!
If you've spent time in the production room you will be ready to get recording and mixing in a fraction of the time and you'll have a very happy engineer working with you too!