Professional guitarist Neil Zaza could use just about any equipment he wants when recording his music. But rather than stock his studio with expensive gear, he uses a $99 microphone to record his guitar, drums and vocals.

Zaza, a rock instrumentalist with 10 albums to his credit, has been won over by the sound quality of his Ball mike from Westlake Village manufacturer Blue Microphones.

“It is a very versatile mike and is useful in many situations,” said Zaza in an e-mail from Italy, where he is on tour. “Prices have dropped, but the quality remains very high. It’s a great time to be recording these days.”

As technological advances allow manufacturers to craft high-quality recording equipment for less money, more musicians, both professional and amateur, are opting for less expensive gear. And the growing popularity of affordable audio technology has been music to the ears of a number of local recording equipment companies.

Blue in particular has become a favorite of both professional musicians and voiceover actors with such high-profile artists as Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, using Blue’s products. And while the company’s more expensive microphones which can run as high as $10,000 each remain popular, the broadening line of inexpensive products has begun to catch on.

“We’re growing very well,” said Blue Chief Executive Eli Probst. “One of the largest and most pervasive trends has been the proliferation of inexpensive recording technology. Part of the reason we have been able to benefit is that we have noticed the trend.”

Big box sales

The company, which started in 1995 as a high-end microphone maker, now produces a number of devices that cost under $100, including the Snowball and the Ball microphone favored by Zaza. Later this year, Blue plans to release the Snowflake, a microphone that the company plans to sell for about $50.

“If you are a seasoned veteran who really understands how to record, you can record with a Snowball and have a quality that is equivalent to anything else out there,” Probst said.

The company expects to increase sales by 40 percent this year as it transitions from a small boutique company to an emerging player in the audio equipment field.

But Blue is not the only company benefiting from the proliferation of inexpensive recording technology. Some equipment makers have long sought to open up a new market of cheaper products for casual musicians.

M-Audio LLC, a subsidiary of Tewksbury, Mass.-based Avid Technology Inc. that manufactures speakers, keyboard controllers and a variety of products related to computer-based recording, has moved its retail presence beyond music stores and now sells in big-box outlets like Best Buy and Target.

The company sells a line of recording-quality microphones that retail for as little as $60, as well as keyboards under $200.

“Our whole mission was to democratize music technology,” said Adam Castillo, marketing director for Irwindale-based M-Audio. “The barrier to entry has been lowered so you have a whole lot of new people getting involved. We basically created a new market that a lot of companies have moved into now.”

The increasing availability of inexpensive, high-quality recording equipment, coupled with the growth of the Internet as a marketing and distribution medium, also has given rise to the home studio. “People are actually making records at home now,” Castillo said.

Indeed, John Sweeney, president of Paradoxx Sound, a Palmdale recording studio, said his business has taken a hit in recent years as more people try to record on their own equipment. But Sweeney said studios like his will always be essential because home studios rarely achieve the kind of quality that professional musicians demand.

“Just because you have the equipment doesn’t mean you can do the job,” he said.

Sebastian Haimerl, founder and head engineer of Malibu Sound, a Los Angeles recording studio, said he has witnessed a drop in sound quality as a result of cultural changes that have made music more pervasive but less central to people’s lives.

“People don’t take time anymore to just sit down and listen to music,” he said. “It’s not as important anymore to go to a studio to make a really high-quality recording because people don’t care about it as much anymore,” he said.