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C
CCS
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Good Friend said:I am not complaining too much about joe meeks name and all that, i just think that the market for recording equipment and recording in general is ripe for change. Everyone whos over 25 realizes that in life and in culture/pop culture the things that are new are often what was up until that point shunned or looked down on. All it takes is someone to do it right once and for people to see. Your comment that times have changed hurts me a little. Because yes times have changed, but for the worse. Im only 25 by the way. If you listen to music with a creative mind and not a cultural one, and if you dissect music from a musicians point of view, music has been declining in quality since the 60s. I am a firm believer that if a band had a fantastic songwriter, a singer with a character voice who had the tunes written FOR his voice, who produced their own record at home on modest quirky noisy non state of the art equipment, and the songs were truly good, that it would fold the music industry back onto itself and you would see the decline of certain practices that are currently considered to be "modern" and "state of the art". It will only take one genius band to do it their way for everyone to see and want to copy it. I know there are alot of indie bands doing it their way right now but they arent any good at writing songs. Most indie bands and bands in general these days cannot write and they are pretty much just writing post modern garbage that only their own acolytes enjoy. Anyone who disagrees with this statement is not a songwriter and i can guarantee they have albums worth of their own shitty music written with no regard to how the human brain percieves the ratios inherent in the harmonic scale, and they even more likely contain absolutely no sequential devices in either melody or modulation. Sensationalism without substance is a cancer in the world of art. And it seems that everyone no matter how steeped in musical faith, experience, or fan base is guilty of it. But there is one benefit in all the modern garbage, and that is what it has always been which is opportunity for backlash and and cultural reform. I dont know about you, but i am sick of all this post 90s throw away me too shit that everyone seems sold on. I am also sick of all this sensationalism masquerading as retro revivalism. These bands on MTV that look like the long lost beatles or kinks but they dont even know how to write a bridge that feels like a bridge or how to establish tonality in a key are only impressing 10 year olds. The old days bands and writers knew how to do these things. And the old days producers also knew that character beats fidelity when creativity reigns. So i say lets get rid of all this fake tube garbage. Let get rid of all this super airy top end madness. And mic preamps that look like they are from mars. Give me a giant grey box with 3 knobs the size of tea cups.
You know whats hard to do for a real home recording musician? To find character pieces of equipment that arent broken or so badly aged that determining if it is working properly takes too much time and money for it to be worth it. So what am i left with? Buying a 10000 dollar replica from a boutique-style company? Sorry i cant. Do i go buy a 100 dollar "toob" preamp from guitar center that ruins the sound more than helps it? Im sorry but i cant let myself do that either. So i guess ill just have to go on buying broken lomo tube mics and broken altec compressors off ebay until a company realizes how ripe the market is for inexpensive working truely vintage styled equipment that actually makes you enjoy the sound of your production instead of wondering how much better it would be if you just spent the 10 grand. This will probably annoy most readers and i know everyone has their own opinions, but i think that what i have said has significant weight due to the fact that i have creativity in songwriting and production coming first in my beliefs.
You raise some interesting points in your post. Having been in the recording end of things for many years, let me offer my 2 cents. Very few people have any music ability, much less true talent. But by today's standards, most musicians think they are a recording engineer, mastering engineer, arranger, songwriter, producer, manager, and what not. That's why the music industry music is in such bad shape. If you listen to the quality of players that shaped Motown, and listen to the Motown of today, it's absolute bottom of the barrel, and there's little talent, if any, behind today's R&B and Hip Hop records. This also extends to the pop and rock genres. But like all things there are exceptions, and great artists do surface, on ocassion. I guess I shouldn't complain, since I earn my living in the present climate of music mediocrity.
Anyway, enjoyed reading what you had to say.
Regards.