Great Tactics and Techniques From Graham Cochrane

Hi, guys!

Great tips from the master himself. Graham Cochrane talks about his tactics and techniques on growing your fan base, dealing with struggles, getting out of creative ruts and much more.

I think this can be really helpful and stuff you can actually apply to your own work, I know for me it was!

What specifically about his interview/talk inspired and/or helped you? What measure of success did you achieve as a direct result?
 
Sounds more like promotion for Graham to me.

I like some of his stuff. His videos have helped me figure some protools stuff out. I like his philosophy of creativity bring paramount, and that one can make music with minimal gear. All good stuff.
But make no mistake, he's a salesman. He's there to sell, and what he has to sell is his knowledge to new people starting out.
To me, real education comes in the real world.


I think he's doing just fine on his own without any additional promotion from new guys coming onto this forum.
:D
 
Sounds more like promotion for Graham to me.

I like some of his stuff. His videos have helped me figure some protools stuff out. I like his philosophy of creativity bring paramount, and that one can make music with minimal gear. All good stuff.
But make no mistake, he's a salesman. He's there to sell, and what he has to sell is his knowledge to new people starting out.
To me, real education comes in the real world.


I think he's doing just fine on his own without any additional promotion from new guys coming onto this forum.
:D


Thanks for your input.

Don't know how it's promotion for Graham since the information can be helpful to a lot of people :)
 
What specifically about his interview/talk inspired and/or helped you? What measure of success did you achieve as a direct result?

Hi man,

There's tons of stuff. I think one of the highlights are that you got to be patient, great things takes time. Work Smart and Strategic, rather than "Hustling".

He also talks about how to grow your client base and much more.

If you apply these techniques you will see great improvement over time rather than right now.
 
Hi man,

There's tons of stuff. I think one of the highlights are that you got to be patient, great things takes time. Work Smart and Strategic, rather than "Hustling".

He also talks about how to grow your client base and much more.

If you apply these techniques you will see great improvement over time rather than right now.

How did you apply his talk to your life/musical pursuits? How has it paid off (as-in, what tangible benefit have you received) as a result of this interview? You said it helped you, how specifically?
 
How did you apply his talk to your life/musical pursuits? How has it paid off (as-in, what tangible benefit have you received) as a result of this interview? You said it helped you, how specifically?

It's paying off over time. As I mentioned previously, working smart rather than hustling. How to organise your day to be productive. What route to pursue if building a client base. Also, to have seen someone struggling like him in the beginning can give comfort to people to actually see that it pays off to be persistent.

There is no quick tactic or technique in this interview that will change stuff over-night for you. Which is why I also like it.

Please specify what you think could have been better :)
 
All I can say is that the young generations today have it made when it comes to making music and recording.
Like the old saying goes...I would give my left nut to be in my 20s or even 30s and have all this gear and all this new technology and all these options. :D

Back in my 20s and 30s..."home recording" wasn't even a coined phrase yet, and while there were people doing it, we were loners scratching in the dirt trying to get information and learn the secrets of recording. Now, you can click your mouse for 5 minutes and have access to more information than we could access in 5 years back in the day.

Still...there was a lot of value to coming up through those lean, in the dirt years...because all that stuff stays with you, and it creates a solid foundation, whereas today, people will spend those 5 minutes clicking on the internet...and end up with information overload, and no simple way to absorb it all so that it makes quick sense. Plus, many are looking for that quick easy path...so it feeds on itself, the rapid overload of info.
So yeah, there something to be said for taking it easy, absorb things, give stuff time to gel and make sense...especially when you are still very young and can afford to invest yourself for the long haul, rather than looking for a quick solution to everything.
 
^^^+1
You want to see something funny, locate the vid where Graham is expounding about how everything you are doing is wrong and your song,mix, voice all suck. Like he's God's gift. :spank:
 
... locate the vid where Graham is expounding about how everything you are doing is wrong and your song,mix, voice all suck. Like he's God's gift. :spank:

Ahh...how about you link to it...I don't think I want to waste my time looking for it. :p
 
Please specify what you think could have been better :)

Your original answer was all "you" and not in the "I". I was asking for your take on what was valuable, not what you thought was potentially valuable for me [how would you know?].

Thanks for the replies. :)
 
All I can say is that the young generations today have it made when it comes to making music and recording.
Like the old saying goes...I would give my left nut to be in my 20s or even 30s and have all this gear and all this new technology and all these options. :D

Back in my 20s and 30s..."home recording" wasn't even a coined phrase yet, and while there were people doing it, we were loners scratching in the dirt trying to get information and learn the secrets of recording. Now, you can click your mouse for 5 minutes and have access to more information than we could access in 5 years back in the day.

Still...there was a lot of value to coming up through those lean, in the dirt years...because all that stuff stays with you, and it creates a solid foundation, whereas today, people will spend those 5 minutes clicking on the internet...and end up with information overload, and no simple way to absorb it all so that it makes quick sense. Plus, many are looking for that quick easy path...so it feeds on itself, the rapid overload of info.
So yeah, there something to be said for taking it easy, absorb things, give stuff time to gel and make sense...especially when you are still very young and can afford to invest yourself for the long haul, rather than looking for a quick solution to everything.

Well said, my coworker has been learning home recording and plugs me for a lot of information, and it's all nearly as you theorized -- not how, not even really why, but more 'when'. Like, when do you know to use plate reverb? When do you need compression? At what point in the chain to do you drop this or that effect? Even stuff like stereo imaging, seeing the sound stage as something that can be divided up and instruments assigned/dedicated space on that stage... he found plugins, DAW, and tutorials on how to adjust those things but not much useful stuff on the bigger picture. The 'engineering' part seems to be lost in the information overload. People new to this don't seem to be taught that it's something you dive into and poke around a lot to learn what works, and more importantly - what works for you. Some information is so easy to come by, and yet the 'art' in mixing is not found in that 5 minutes and I think it leaves new home recorders a bit frustrated. "I could find out how to use side chain compression on my kick/bass, but it still sounds like shit".
 
To take the 'start from the bottom' comment, from a technician's perspective I find a good 20% of noob questions are about VERY basic electrical matter, power supplies, phantom power misconceptions and the inability or sheer bloody minded "Oo! I am an 'artiste' can't be doing with that" attitude to signal diagrams*.

Noobs are ok with the 'building block' approach to audio but if they step outside the available cable/level/impedance situation they are lost. And heaven FOREND they should buy a test meter!

The old guys were not called "recording engineers" for nothing. Many were graduate electrical engineers and in many cases (BBC e.g.) BUILT much of the kit.

My proficiency with DAWs is very limited, I know what I need to do to do certain things and sometimes I have to buckle down and learn a New Thing (and have forgotten it next day!) "It" ain't easy and I am too lazy to really learn all the bells and whistles but then I don't want to/can't make music!

*I don't expect people to understand electronic schematics but a signal flow diagram is just a 'map', gets you from A to B to C in the mixer whatever. MIND YOU! Many people don't learn map reading skills these days! Take away their Sat Nav and they are lost..Literally!

Dave.
 
There's not that much difference. Sure, a lot more affordable gear and a lot more possibilities.

But the result is that there are also a lot more paths to follow and, especially, a lot more people on these paths.

Before you had 15 record labels to choose from, now you have 1500.

It's different, but not really better. It still takes talent, effort and luck.
 
I saw that video. It's not for snowflakes.
It was actually a good video. All he's saying is that it's not about gear, techniques, mic choices, tricks, etc.
He's saying that what it comes down to is what it's always been about.
The song, the arrangements, the performance. In short talent.

It's always been that way. Guys have done great stuff on a cassette 4 track and guys have done shit in a pro high dollar studio.
Don't be mad at him for telling the truth.
:D
 
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