Daytrotter
Daytrotter is a website for the recording studio Horseshack, which hosts recording sessions with many popular and typically upcoming indie music acts, although it works with local bands in the Illinois area as well. The sessions can be compared to that of a radio station's lounge recordings, where musicians passing through the town can record live in the studio. Due to their tendency to offer an eclectic sampling of music, and their production style (see Studio section below) the sessions have been compared to that of the legendary Peel Sessions.[1][2] According to the Daytrotter website, they have served more than 21.5 million song downloads. Wolfgang's Vault bought a majority stake in the company in 2008.
Content
- The site typically hosts around 28 songs by 7 bands per week, almost all available as free downloads.
- There is an archives section of past performers, each illustrated by a staff of illustrators.
- In addition to music, there are sections of reviews and commentaries of musicians and their releases, some done by veteran magazine writers and critics.
- The site is a winner of the Nielsen Online and Billboard.com "Music Blog of the Year"(2007) award,[3] and The Morning News 2007 Editor's Award for Online Excellence.[2] The site has also received praise or coverage from Rolling Stone, Wired, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Esquire, Harp, Pitchfork Media, and The Chicago Tribune.[4]
Studio
- The studio, Horseshack, is located in Rock Island, Illinois.
- A minimalist recording process is used to record the visiting bands, the recording process is analog, with no editing, and no overdubbing.[5] The final stage in the recording process goes digital, in order to be able to host the music on the website in . mp3 format. The setup is configurable to the preferences of performers.[5]
- The process of attempting the perfect take, instead of months of overdubbing, combined with low pressure on the artists (it's not a live performance in front of a crowd, and it's not an album being recorded), causes the final product to be an honest representation of the band at the time in both a physical and musical sense.
Notable musicians
References
External links