What The Hell Am I Talking About Here!?
Nonsense Really, Just stream of conscious blogging for entertainment . . .
Yours or mine? I don't know (Probably mine) . . .
Get back to work, Bret !
Here we go again . . .
Now that the equipment issues seem to be behind us (Knock on wood), we are rolling along. . .
If we were to be locked in a major studio for a month we'd be done with this record long ago. There are many limitations to not doing the album that way. Then again, there are advantages to doing it the way we are.
In a major studio, you don't have a choice but to do it quickly. It's way too expensive not to. Unfortunately, you don't have the luxury to live with something long enough to know what you've really got, other than a high quality recording. You end up living with regrets about what is on the record and how much better you could've done, both as a musician and producer. If you only had more money, or time, you would've noticed this, or that. You would've been able to fix this, or that. etc.
Sometimes you just don't notice a lot of things until much later and once it's out there, it's too late to go back. That part is always frustrating. It applies to songs, parts, performances, arrangements, production and so on.
The great thing about a major studio is that the room is perfectly tuned and you have all of the equipment you could ever need to do what needs to be done. I know my way around a studio like that in my sleep. I can operate all of the equipment and based on my experience, I know exactly what I'm gonna get if I do A or B. Because the room is proper, I can predict what things are gonna sound like.
Most of my studio experience has been in the analogue world, working with 2" analogue tape, recording everything from 24 to 64 tracks. We were incorporating hard disc recording, re amping, and a lot of other things that people associate with the Protools era back then too. It's just that the bulk of the work was done in Analogue. A lot of major albums are still done that way and that would be my preferred way of doing things if I personally owned one of those studios and all of that equipment.
Unfortunately, I don't and I don't think anyone is gonna loan us one for a month, or two on our zero budget either. . .
Making the jump from commercial studio experience (Primarily Analogue) to mastering Protools (Solely) has not been hard in any sense. Once you learn the Software, the actual recording process itself is much easier. A lot of the engineering work is done for you already via the software.
A lot of people will not agree (Even though it's so obvious), but I will also say that digital recording does not sound as good as analogue, other than the noise floor factor. I can hear the difference in a major way and what I hear is not good. I can also hear the difference in a digital recording produced in a commercial studio using Protools HD and the Protools that most of us can afford. The differences are major. The quality of digital is not absolute from system to system, computer to computer. I will say there are also some extremely great things about digital recording too and that it's always getting better. I also acknowledge a lot of bad things about analogue recording. The further I go and the more I learn (You never stop learning), the more I feel that the best situation is a combination of both the analogue and digital mediums working together. At this point anyway.
The only thing I cannot get past is the fact that - sound itself is an Analogue signal. An Analogue recording is a true reproduction of the sounds recorded. Digital is only a recreation, a simulation of the sounds recorded. Then I think of a conversation I once had with legendary producer Bob Ezrin (22 years ago now), where he eloquently laid out (Much better than I'm about to) all the scientific facts of how the human brain cannot hear and interpret Digital signal the same way it can and does Analogue. How the Brain basically just goes to sleep when hearing the Digital signal. How much more active and alive it is when hearing Analogue signal. Compare your favorite album side by side - New 180 Gram Vinyl and CD. Intellectually, they sound the same right? The CD sounds cleaner and louder, but the album probably sounds warmer and richer and fuller. It goes way farther than that though. A lot of people will do this test and say that they hear no real difference. I would say yeah, but subconsciously, you in fact - do.
Ever wonder why music doesn't sell as well anymore? Why the experience of listening to an album no longer has the high it once did? I mean, aside from the fact that people are putting out crap these days! lol
Why isn't physical product as popular anymore? Could it be how we're listening to it? What we're listening on? Is there something to this whole Digital / Analogue thing? When did record sales really begin the decline? When did CD sales first really start taking off? I would argue that somethings start way before you notice them, or when they are written about. Looking at all the statistics is there a correlation between the two that we might've missed? Hmm . . .Give this some thought. Try it. For me, it's crystal clear.
I've done this test many times and it's always the same result. I can put on headphones and listen to one of my all time favorite albums on CD. I can enjoy it, but I can also literally fall asleep. Sleep right through it at high volume. I can then listen to the same album on 180 Gram Vinyl and actually get goose bumps. An almost buzzed feeling of excitement, where I enjoy the album way more. It's not as easy to fall asleep blasting it either . .
I suspect that over time and pretty quickly these differences will disappear altogether, as someone will figure it all out (I hope). Of course this subject is way too complex and involved to do it justice in this blog, but I am obsessed with it and am constantly studying and researching it. Not just in a musical or electronic way either. I study medical journals on the brain itself etc., looking for clues to this issue. Someday, I will write a book on it.
Yes, it is completely subjective too, like most things, but fun to investigate and I wholeheartedly believe there is something to it all. I suspect that in the end, I won't be far off from the truth. There's years to go there, so I digress . . .
Sorry for getting sidetracked there. I'm very passionate about the subject and since it is always there, a part of what I do everyday - It's hard not to go there for me. It's a constant tug of war in my mind. I'm constantly changing my mind back and forth on it. . .
I'm sure some of you by now, think that I'm completely insane . . . I am. but you're not really surprised, are you?
So back to the original subject -
The main disadvantage of recording the album the way we are currently is simply - the room. No matter how much you treat it, you'll never match a commercial studio in that area, so you have to work harder and smarter. Harder only for the time factor of it, but definitely smarter. If you don't know much about room acoustics, this is where you begin studying it.
The other big disadvantage is the lack of equipment to do anything and everything you want at any given time. Plug ins are great, but they can be expensive. Especially if you want to match what's available to you in a commercial studio. Then even if you had it all in plug in form, good luck running it all on your system. So there's another expensive proposition. This forces you to be creative in your process.
The advantages are many - The hourly cost being a major one. The ability to work in different locations from each other and just transfer files back and forth in mere moments. The drummer can be in San Diego, I can be here in the comfort of my own studio and Jimmy can be in his. We can collaborate with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world, if we want to. We can also take the files into a commercial studio and work on them there (If we need to), then go back to working on those same recordings on our own afterwards.
It is truly amazing what almost anyone can do in their own home now, that just a few years ago was impossible. Or at least un-affordable.
Of course I'm not talking about the "cheaters" who can't really play. That just program everything electronically and use auto-tune, etc. in order to sound like they can actually make music. That's not us. If nothing else - We are the real thing. When I talk about being a Producer, I mean a real Producer. These days you will hear people declare themselves a Producer and they'll say yeah, I make beats! I say - No, you're not and no, you don't. You're not even a musician. You're a computer programmer at best. There's a big difference people!
It's what real musicians and producers can do now, that impresses me, if only technologically.
Unless you're name is Tom Scholz of 'Boston'. Then in 1975 you could record a masterpiece that would sell well over 17 million copies (And is still selling 40 years later) of a record you record in an apartment basement. On your own(except for two friends - A singer and a drummer). And you did it without even 1975's top technology, let alone anything we have now. That first album still sounds better than most albums recorded today. If that's you, then you can do anything! I'm really impressed by that feat!!
In any case, you have to know what you are doing. I will say that for all the difficulties I talk about and such, what we have recorded so far, is comparable in quality to anything we've personally done in a commercial studio and that's saying something.
Here's the main point though - In this situation, the biggest difference between the two scenarios I've railed on about here is - We now have the luxury to record something and live with it for awhile. Notice certain things and correct them. Rerecord whole songs just to get a different perspective. Write and record even more material and live with that too, until we are completely satisfied.
Hopefully, what we'll have in the end because of it is the very best songs, performances, etc., possible.
That it will be light years ahead of whatever we would've delivered from a month in a commercial studio.
The worst part is also- "all the time we have". If you have the time, you'll probably use it.
We'll probably never be satisfied with it no matter what anyway. The outside world will either like it or not, no matter how long it took to record it. How it was done won't matter to anyone either.
Still, there's that little inner voice that tells me - "Take your time and do it right this time, you'll be glad you did". . .
This brings me to a quote that the great Tom Petty once said - "You never finish an album, You abandon it!".
How true.
Eventually we'll get tired of fucking with it and abandon ours . . .
Then it'll be out there - for better or worse and we'll move on.
In the meantime, it goes 'round and 'round . . .
I'm working hard today, can you tell?
- Bret.
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