Home studios rescuing recording industry
Spira Tlhankane | Friday August 10, 2018 12:58
Successful artists and producers have transformed into mastering engineers and their stories haunt even more than the horrid piracy that has invaded the music scene, causing untold miseries.
Digital technology has taken over and one can record and master a song with someone from America in an instant. These new development forces longstanding recording venues out of business, but for a studio owner in Mogoditshane who has faced the tides, it is not yet time to shut down.
Kabo Koosimile of Galaxy Records has seen it all and has decided to stick it out amidst the changing world of technology. The man who started the business in 2006 then called Lyf Art productions told Arts & Culture that after taking a break for some few years, he made a return in 2012.
“I now record traditional gospel (mokhukhu), afro pop, afro jazz, house music,” he said. Koosimile whose studio is right in the comfort of his own home in Mogoditshane, said to hire a space is expensive. With hungry upcoming artists constantly knocking on his door, and a lot music that needs to be recorded, Koosimile said he has bought equipment locally and is proud to say it is state-of-the-art. “I have a day job, equipment is expensive, there is low pricing of services,” he said.
Koosimile added that he does all rounds of engineering from recording, mixing to mastering. “It depends on the customer, some come for recording while others come for our mastering services,” he highlighted. Koosimile said Galaxy studios however do not sign artists, but they plan to do that in the next two years. “I want to get a piece of land and build studios, or even rent them out,” he said.
He also said he wants to sign big artists in the future. “I have worked with Daniel Oletile, City Boys, Chariot Mocha, Ernest Molaodi and Moroka Moreri just to name but a few,” he said. The self-taught sound engineer said he would also enrol for courses outside the country to formalise his experience.