In Quebec, the music producer in search of quality audio is confronted by a situation that is conditioned by the small size of the market.

Convinced by the dominant ideology to force themselves into frenzied competition, the most popular recording studios, all 'business-oriented', have adopted a compromise policy: they will only acquire mid-range equipment that is most 'in demand' by producers, equipment that is rarely of the best quality.

To conserve this clientele, they must make constant additions and sell off rapidly, at a loss, equipment that has gone out of fashion. The necessary investment- for purchase, cost of installation, calibration and training- is considerable, and it is thus important to preserve at all costs a large number of clients, who are treated with a certain indulgence. This state of affairs contributes to a stagnation in the quality of audio produced here:

• the equipment available from one studio to the next is essentially the same, and results have a tendency to be standardized;
• no sound engineer can come to master a piece of equipment hastily bought and installed, even more so since he knows it is destined to be sold off as soon as a competing manufacturer succeeds in convincing the producers that their product is more 'cool';
• with top priority being to preserve a full slate of bookings, studio managers train their personnel to take care of their 'attitude'. Since it is out of the question to risk offending the client, sound engineers are taught to anticipate what the client will want to hear;
• in this context, the most demanding clients prefer to record outside of the province, which only confirms the attitudes of the dominant studios.

Studio Inverse proposes a credible alternative to this situation...