A STUDIO FOR A SONG REVOLUTIONARY NEW SOFTWARE HELPS STRUGGLING MUSICIANS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

The crack of the tom-toms, throb of the bass and squeal of electric guitar intermix with the hum of the vacuum, the whir of the washing machine.

Cutting a record used to be a laborious, capital-intensive process. Musicians wanting to lay down tracks needed the support of a record label to afford professional studio time or they slaved away in bargain studios to eke out scratchy demos. Hiring a band took time and money, and most never got good enough to ever put together an album.

Increases in computer hardware and software, however, have taken recording from the hands of the pros and put it into those of rough-hewn garage bands everywhere. From kids dreaming of becoming the next White Stripes or dads plugging back into the adrenaline of their rock 'n' roll youths, home recording has become what analysts, executives and players call the biggest potential growth area the music industry has seen in years.

``You save a lot of money and a lot of time,'' said Keith Vonkraig, a hip-hop and instrumental composer from Sherman Oaks. ``You don't have to deal with musicians' egos. You're just a one-man band, cutting out the middleman.''

When the shaven-headed musician records a song, an unlit cigar dangling from his lips, he doesn't need the hassle of hiring a bassist or a drummer. Instead, he fires up his Macintosh G4, running Apple's ``recording studio in a box'' Logic software. With a Yamaha Motif keyboard, he can control Logic's virtual instruments and produce professional-quality tracks in the comfort of his own home.

While Vonkraig relies on the setup to make a living, curious amateurs have provided much of the boom for the music business. Though home recording has been around in various permutations since the 1970s, its quality and affordability could never match a professional studio's. User interfaces have improved, as has sound quality, allowing novices to throw together fairly polished songs and opening the market to people previously put off by technological barriers.

``Now you're seeing guys who used to be going to the professional studios just building it in their home,'' said Steve Oppenheimer, editor in chief of Electronic Musician magazine. ``A guy like me can do pro-quality work in my back bedroom.''

The ease of access has fueled an interest in all aspects of music retail, stoking sales of instruments, microphones, speaker systems and software. From $99 starter keyboards to $4,000 Gibson guitars, Westlake Village-based Guitar Center recently reported its second-quarter earnings climbed 97 percent due to home recording interest.

``There's a huge untapped potential right now,'' said Gene Joly, Westlake Village-based Guitar Center's senior vice president of merchandising for technology products. ``In the last few years, the reliability of the computers and the programs has been getting better. You used to have to buy racks and effects and all that, but now, you can use software. The amount of people feeling comfortable getting into the fray is really increasing.''

Key to that process has been Apple's GarageBand, an easy-interface program distributed with new Macintosh computers that allows users to record up to 64 tracks, mix them and easily convert them into files that can be shared on the Internet. Using its prerecorded loops, musicians can mash together full songs without even picking up an instrument. Introduced less than a year ago, the program has already become influential enough for Guitar Center to cite it recently as a key driver in the home recording category.

``It's so easy, people don't even realize that they're using loops from different musicians, recorded at different times in different places,'' said Xander Soren, product line manager for Apple's consumer audio applications. ``They're all at different tempos and in different keys, but with GarageBand, you can take 20 different tracks and put them all together and have it sound right.''

Mindful that more would-be rockers are plugging in at home, Agoura Hills-based Line 6 will release in the fall the Guitar Port Riff Tracker, a hardware/software combo that lets pickers emulate their favorite classic guitar sounds and transform them into songs. Focused on axe-handlers specifically, it's intended as an audible sketch pad, allowing for ideas to be fleshed out without having to drag extra musicians into the process.

``We wanted something that guitar players can just plug into whenever they get inspired,'' said Mark McCrite, a product line manager for Line 6. ``And it's got a drummer that listens ... now there's a selling point.''

No one wants to cut live musicians out of the process, turning records into robotically churned-out products, but all agree the human-machine dynamic will vastly change in coming years. Marcus Ryle, a former session musician who co-founded Line 6 and serves as its chief product strategist, says the technological progress should bring even more nascent rock stars into the music world.

``The tools democratize the creative process,'' he said. ``For under $1,000, you could build a computer guitar studio. You could uncover talents people didn't even know they had before.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Mark McCrite, left, and Marcus Ryle talk about Line 6's Guitar Port Riff Tracker, a hardware/software combo.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer