Port Matilda – Sitting behind the glass panels of the console room in his state-of-the-art digital recording studio in Port Matilda, Centre County, Bill Filer tweaks the myriad dials on the 64-channel mixer to create “audible images” on a 23-inch flat panel HD display like a latter day Wizard of Oz.

Bill Filer runs a successful music engineering business in rural Centre County.

Inside acoustic isolation booths are the musicians who communicate with him through microphones.

Back in the era of the Big Band, musicians recorded “live” in the studio. If one musician made a mistake, the whole band had to re-record the song from the beginning.

Enter guitarist and inventor Les Paul, who is credited with inventing magnetic audiotape multi-track recording in the late 1940s.

Multi-tracking made it possible to record and re-record each individual musician’s part, allowed musicians to “overdub” multiple tracks, and to sing over their recorded music. At Audible Images, musicians can record more than 72 tracks on each recording.

Filer is not only a “recording engineer,” often an honorary title, but a professional engineer with an EE degree from Penn State. He’s also been a professional musician for over 25 years and has a steady gig at the Allen Street Grill in State College.

“Being a musician helps a lot in this business,” said Filer. “Groups come here to record for my musical knowledge as much as my engineering experience. They can talk in musical terms, which helps us record a lot more efficiently.”

Since Audible Images Recording opened 15 years ago, Filer has recorded almost every genre of music. In a recent week he recorded a jazz group, a blues group, and a hip hop artist.

He’s also recorded bagpipes, country artists, heavy metal groups, and Dixie-land bands.

Most of the bands come from State College, Altoona, Huntingdon, Lock Haven, Clearfield, DuBois, and St. Marys. Occasionally, he records musicians from out of the region and out of state, usually those who recorded at his studio while they attended Penn State.

“I recently recorded an alum who now lives in Chicago,” said Filer. “I only charge $40 per hour, but in Chicago, it cost him $150 per hour, and he wasn’t happy with the results, so it was actually cheaper for him to fly back here and record, and he was a lot happier with the final product.”

Filer charges a per hour flat rate, which includes use of his array of guitars, amplifiers, drums, and microphones.

The invention of digital sound recording and the compact disc brought dramatic changes to the audio recording business. At first, digital recorders were pricey, but now that most electronics manufacturing has moved to China, home recorders are competitively priced with analog (tape) recorders and are more user-friendly, particularly for tech-savvy young musicians.

“When I first got out of college, I was designing microprocessor controlled equipment so I understood computers better than most recording engineers and knew how to use software to edit digital tracks on computer, but now a 12-year-old can record on a computer, and in some cases, the recording software is part of the computer’s software package,” he said.

Consequently, Filer doesn’t record as many solo acts and younger bands as he used to because many of them own their own recording equipment.

“With the cheap price of computers and recording equipment from China, there are more do-it-yourselfers these days,” said Filer.

Another challenge has been the way the Internet has changed the delivery of music.

Fifteen years ago, bands used to come to Filer’s studio with visions of getting a record deal and making some good money.

“That rarely happens today, because there aren’t many small record labels left,” said Filer. “They couldn’t make any money, because people are giving away music on the Internet, or if one of your friends buys a CD, you can burn a copy for 10 of your other friends.”

Like many small businesses, the recession has had a trickledown effect on his studio.

“I can see the impact of the recession in the drop off in the number of clubs downtown hiring live music groups,” said Filer.

Fewer gigs mean less money for bands to record, and since most bands sell their CDs at the clubs they play, they need to be working to sell their CDs.

Delmar Brown

“Quite frankly, I’m more worried than I have been in 15 years, because everybody has a computer now and since music is digital, computers are a more efficient medium to record on.”

Filer has been concentrating more on bands who have been around long enough to know the difference in quality between a homemade recording and a studio recording made with a professional musician and recording engineer at the console.

He is also taking his engineering wizardry out on the road to record musicians performing “live”. Shortly he will be recording “World Pop” performing artist Delmar Brown.

Throughout the years Brown has collaborated with such notable figures as Sting, Youssou N’Dour, and Peter Gabriel.