Ears are finally starting to get good enough to realize...

[Steve Henningsgard]

how far I have to go. Ultimately, I don't know shit! Seriously, professional records (the good ones) sound really fucking good. I can only hope that with my ability to hear just how far I have to go, I can eventually get to where I want to be.

When did you realize that you didn't know shit?

Seriously, how do the pros do it? The foresight it must take to know what tones work together to produce the right emotions & feeling, it's just nuts. For the most part, I can get all of the instruments working together with each individual part in its own space and all of that. But to get the *emotion* right? Amazing.

 

[Massive Master]

When did you realize that you didn't know shit?

About the time I got really good monitoring. That's when I realized it was all about the core sounds (and trying to heavily modify them is usually a fight you won't win).

Making a good recording should be "easy" -- It should seem easy. Sure, experience makes things seem easy to some extent -- But it shouldn't be "forced" - It shouldn't be necessarily difficult. If it is, something is wrong. It's the finding out what's wrong that makes the difference.

If the kick doesn't sound spectacular just from throwing a mic in front of it, it's not going to sound spectacular later. Change the kick, tune the head, use a different mic, position it differently - Something. Same with the snare. Same with the cymbals. The bass, the guitar, keyboards -- If they don't sound "wonderful" from the start, then you're fighting to make them wonderful. And the final recording is a whole bunch of "wonderful" or "not wonderful" stacked together.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

If they don't sound "wonderful" from the start, then you're fighting to make them wonderful. And the final recording is a whole bunch of "wonderful" or "not wonderful" stacked together.

This this this. After recording so many not-great bands/songs, I'm inclined to believe that one's overarching best strategy for putting out great records with your name on them, is to find great bands to work with.

 

[RAMI]

This this this. After recording so many not-great bands/songs, I'm inclined to believe that one's overarching best strategy for putting out great records with your name on them, is to find great bands to work with.

Not necessarilly "great" bands, because that's a matter of opinion and hard to measure. I think the important thing is to record artists (if that's what you do) that are able, with or without your help, to get as close to what they (and you) hear in their head as a final product. Like Massive said, getting good "core" sounds it 92.7% of the battle.....and having a good "vision" of what you want it sound like in the overall mix before going anywhere near a RECORD button is a huge part of that.

 

[Massive Master]

The 'core sound' thing can never be overstated... Back in the day when I used to hang "downtown" I'd have occasional access to safety copies of some really amazing stuff (as in, some of the best stuff -- Ever).

Hook it up, bring up the faders and it's almost done. Find a verb that works and add a little something here and something there and the mixes sounded "this close" to the mixes that won multiple Grammys and stacks of golds & platinums.

Granted - In these cases, you sort of knew what these mixes were supposed to sound like. The original mix engineer didn't.

I'm not trying to suggest that "anyone" could've gone in and mixed these recordings in the same manner -- Sure, there was a lot of "art" and such involved. But the mix engineer wasn't spending hours and hours trying to make crappy, dead toms sound like cannons. Or trying to make a crappy sounding bass with month-old strings sound like they were fresh. They were all carefully captured, meticulously crafted sounds that "naturally" worked well together. Many times, without much regard for anything else --- Anyone who's heard those "I found these raw tracks online" stuff can attest to all the noise, bleed, room & rumble that you'd never notice in the mix (even if it was there in the mix).

I know people that will spend 8 hours going through an isolating every drum hit in a mix (manually "gating" everything else out). Where if they would've spent ONE hour TUNING the kit properly and another making sure the mics were positioned properly, they'd be celebrating the bleed between the mics.

Because bleed you like is "ambience" -- and ambience you don't like is "bleed" --

Anyway, I'm rambling. I need booze or something - It's been a long and hectic (and really expensive when that pipe exploded) day.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

I need booze or something - It's been a long and hectic (and really expensive when that pipe exploded) day.

Just had a fair amount myself (decided to turn a white russian into a shake for whatever reason: turned out well). And oh god, what happened?! We had a toilet overflow upstairs once, but fortunately the leaks were in the middle of the live room, which is carpeted with ugly cheap carpeting (and NOT wood flooring).