In the early 80s, music production and recording centered around big analog desks and racks of analog gear. Tracks would be recorded through this gear to tapes, and then played back through the desk and mixed down to a single stereo track which was then mastered and released on vinyl and later cassette tapes. Because the engineering talent required to make this gear (and use it) was rare and highly specialized, it was expensive, and studios would spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire and staff their equipment. A single album could literally take $100,000 or more of equipment to produce. And so... studio rates were very high.

The 80's saw the advent of two technologies that would change everything: the computer, and digital<->analog conversion. These two technologies grew at a fast rate and changed the model for music production. Analog desks were still important, but now instead of tapes computers could be used to record and play back audio with much greater precision, and mix sessions could be recorded and played back as well. This allowed work to be more productive, shortening recording times and, as computer prices dropped, gradually reducing the cost of each album. The engineering talent required was still high but much more affordable than before, and so studio rates dropped and music production was opened up to more people.

In 2000, the advent of the internet accelerated the rate at which computer technology was able to replace analog technology, with more and more analog hardware being replaced by its digital equivalent. There was an explosion of engineering talent as college students rushed to join the technological revolution. Digital mixing consoles began to undergo evolution similar to that of computers in the 1990's... becoming much more powerful and less expensive at the same time. Fast forward to 2020 and computer based options for music production have taken over completely. Although some analog equipment remains, it is now considered valuable mainly for its "character" content. The price point of tomorrows basic studio is less than 1% of what it was yesterday, and the engineering talent required to make it all work is now commonplace. With recording available to anyone, studio prices have dropped completely off the chart and many of the analog studios from the 80's have closed their doors permanently.

While some may argue that digital = harsh, this is really just a function of process. The truth is that warm, analog sounding results are fully achievable with modern technology.

To obtain the best "studio of tomorrow" in today’s world… M&D Sound has built a strong foundation of digital io, backed it with powerful computers, software, network, dsp, a large investment in “plugins” (the digital equivalents of analog gear), and a careful selection of analog "character" components. This is the official studio of the band “One Sultry Day”, and is located in the private residence of owner Dana Dougherty.