My Thoughts on BandLab: From Reel-to-Reel to the Cloud

When I first started recording, everything was analog. Back then, if you were in a big studio, you were dealing with 16 or 24 tracks of tape. Home studios? You might’ve had 4 or 8 tracks if you were lucky. Fostex, Tascam… that era. And anybody who lived through that knows tapes were bulky, everything took forever, and syncing MIDI to drum machines was like juggling flaming knives. It was a lot.

So when digital recording showed up, I knew the future had arrived.

A friend of mine — KATT, from Elyria, Ohio, who hosted a radio show ( DC & Company x KATT Hip Hop Show)— put me on to Cool Edit 96. At that time it wasn’t even Cool Edit Pro. But that was my first taste of recording inside a computer. From there I moved to Cool Edit Pro, then Adobe Audition, and I rode that wave for a while.

Meanwhile, all the older analog heads were telling me it wouldn’t last.

“That computer stuff isn’t real recording.”

“Analog is the only way.”

They weren’t trying to hear it. They were trying to talk me out of digital technology altogether.

But history has a funny way of proving people wrong.

Same thing happened with the SP-1200. When that machine hit, people were looking at it like, “What is this little box with eight buttons supposed to do?” They couldn’t understand how we were squeezing full beats out of 20 seconds of sample time.

We learned how to speed up samples, slow them down, flip them — and next thing you know, that machine became responsible for millions of records.

FL Studio went through the same thing.Back when it was called Fruity Loops, people laughed at the name alone. Everybody was clinging to their Tritons, their Akais, the big hardware. But here we are today — FL Studio is one of the most used DAWs in the world. It earned its respect.

I said all that to say this: BandLab is going through the same cycle.

People look at it funny. They underestimate it. But I see the same signs I saw with all those tools that ended up changing the game.

I’ve mixed quite a few BandLab sessions now — even for Artists who were locked up.

They invited me into their sessions from behind the wall. I logged in, downloaded the tracks, pulled them into Pro Tools, and mixed them just like any other session. Same thing for artists on the outside. And honestly? BandLab makes that process too easy.

One thing I like is how BandLab gives these artists a starting point with their vocal chains.

Some artists will tell me, “Yo JReese, this the chain I used in BandLab,” and I’ll look at it and say, “Okay, I see what you’re going for.” Subtractive EQ, taking off the low-end rumble, gentle compression, de-essing — that type of thing.

Sometimes I even line up my Pro Tools chain in the same order just so they feel comfortable, and we build the sound from there.

But here’s the real gem: stop using BandLab only on your phone.

If you log into the desktop version, it opens everything up.

You can use your sound card. You get more options. More control. Honestly, I wish Pro Tools had a version of this type of setup. Pro Tools is too heavy of a DAW to run like that, but if they ever figured it out, it’d be dangerous.

BandLab even has me thinking about remote recording differently.

I could literally track someone somewhere else through BandLab, then download the stems and finish everything inside Pro Tools. That’s something I might test out soon.

Overall, BandLab is on a good path.

They’ve got a community, they’ve got accessibility, and they’ve got potential. I’m curious to see where they take it next, because the foundation is solid.

And if you’re using BandLab and need your tracks mixed down,

you already know where to go: 1515universe.com/bandlab

Studio 1515. J.Reese. Signing out Yeamon!