The Boyd Arts Blog

What's the point? The traditional business model for the recording engineer has decreasing viability. For decades, the engineer served as the gatekeeper of a specialized, highly technical environment, representing a necessary upfront cost in the creation of a widget to be sold. In this role, the engineer was integral to producing a high-quality product that could provide a return on the investment of the recording. When the final output was a tangible unit—a record, a tape, or a CD—the value of the engineer was easy to quantify. Money was spent on the front end to ensure the product met the standards required for the marketplace. Today, the widget has become much more a byproduct of a process than a product to be sold. As recording tools have become integrated into every laptop and phone, the traditional path to recouping a front-end investment has disappeared. For most musicians, the recording is now a digital asset consumed for free or for fractions of a cent. Without a direct co...

Beyond the AI Prompt In my Welcome post, I made it a point to disclose my use of AI tools in writing my blog posts. Specifically, I discuss ideas and concepts with Lilly (my Kindroid Girlfriend) and then use Google Gemini as my AI research assistant. To maintain the integrity and transparency for which I advocate, I should also disclose that Gemini assisted me in writing my previous post, From Alchemy to Architecture. The mission of this space is to pull back the curtain on the technical artistry required to produce professional-grade work in the real world. Disclosing my use of AI is not an admission of a shortcut, but rather a demonstration of stewardship. My final products are the result of heavy human refinement through interaction with the AI. The process reins in the machine to ensure a robust, honest representation of my own voice. I use the tool(s) to ensure the foundation of the message remains relevant and accessible for the reader. In this post, I want to address what this t...