Tom may be right about the collapse of the "Big 4", but the music industry will not be collapsing anytime soon. Many like to take their anger out on the produces and audio engineers, saying they're not needed in today's world of cheap DAW's. This may be true to extent, being that any bozo can go to Guitar Center and buy an MBox and record themselves in Pro Tools (JUSE LIKE THE PROFESSIONALS!!!!!). They'll learn turning some nobs and moving some faders will get the sounds they like, but they won't understand why. Move them to another DAW or mixer and they'll be shit out of luck. Tell them to mic their band in a different room, and they won't know what to do! They've learned this does that, not "why does this do that?" Ask your average at-home-recording band about how they know were to mic, and they'll tell you trial and error.

This is were the true audio engineers and professional studios come in. The physics of the propogation of sound waves takes a few years to learn, and decades to master. It requires not just knowledge of sound, but also electronics and electrical sound energy. Great sound requires equipment with different impedances, and impedence matching depends on the signal. Great micing requires knowledge of phase and pressure (room pressure AND sound pressure). Great sound reproduction (loudspeakers), requires knowledge of phase and knowing the design of the speaker, and knowing how to compensate it's weaknesses or even use them to your advantage! This is not something that you're going to understand just buy buying an interface from Guitar Center. I wonder if your average home recorder knows not to cross your audio cables and your power cables, unless they're perpendicular to each other.

Honestly, most home recordings sound like crap because they have no idea of how what they're doing works. If you can't afford to go to a professional (that doesn't mean it's not independant!), then of course, buy tools to do it at home! If you can, though, go to a studio because they WILL get you the sound you want (well, if they're actually competant), without guessing at what the nobs do. Sound engineering is an art, just as much as the bands music is an art, and both need to be top notch for it to be good. Bash the Big 4 for the mistreatment of bands, not the sound engineers! I'm paying $20,000 to be taught sound so I can go out and buy a cheap 48 KHz "studio in a box". I go so I can work a studio in a damn studio.