~! I'm afraid whoever said some of my shit is poorly produced got it
~right. It is not that I don't care about the listener though. When I
~created the said tracks (I've got a fair idea of what ones your on
~about) I didn't have an audience in mind at all. I was just creating a
~few things to amuse myself on the atari. When it comes time to make an
~album, some of the "throwaway" (I hadn't thought much of them at the
~time of recording) tracks have the most emotional resonance.
~Re-recording them "correctly" is futile: it loses the feeling
~(totally).
Ok, yes I have to agree with this. I have made some recordings in my studio
that just sounded soooo good at first, you record it on a take, the pad
clips... but damn it sounded good. then you go off, come back, start
tweaking the eq and before you know it- you've started to change the song
beyond recovery [you know, move one fader up, now turn all the effects down,
now compensate for that by moving other faders up... before you know it...
armph! where did my main melody go?].
There is something to be said to one's approach to music though. Is the
producer someone who spends hours making and editing sounds [like I would
say Ae or Aphex do], or are you content with getting a sound that meets your
feel quickly, so as to finish the song in one inspirational moment? How much
of your creative process do you devote to song preparation [making patches,
sampler banks, making your own drum kits etc.], to composing, to mixing and
to mastering? I think to some they find certain parts of this process more
interesting than others- and then tend to focus on them. Leaving the others
a little left behind. That's fine- if you are making a statement. But there
is nothing wrong with making a good song and production even better. This is
why, traditionally at least, people have chosen one or two parts of the
process as their focus. It's what they enjoyed [the mixing, the mastering,
the composing or the "sound making" [i.e. the bass player, singer or synth
programmer]. Today we are faced with all levels of the process and it's a
daunting task. The thing is, you CAN do it all now too, for not much money.
But you are asked to be a master at ALL of these levels. A task for the
obsessed or the brilliant... I would say.
BUT, I strongly feel that there are MANY people out there who make music,
primarily the more novice one's. who make LOOONG songs, record it all and
reject all criticism [under a mask of "it's art!"] simply because they lack
self confidence in their abilities. It takes a certain level of humbleness
to let someone ELSE take your song, rip it to pieces, shorten it, and then
master it and say "here, now THAT's a good mix! {while the producer is
thinking to himself: you IDIOT!}". What many great "publicly" accepted
artists really lack is that ability to say they make mistakes and they are
still learning. I really respect that, and we- as humans... don't really
make any room for people to be people...
My first reaction was to say to the list "cracks and pops are just lazy",
and I do still think it is. But now I also am left to agree with Mike P.
that if you have a certain moment that was recorded, and you just can't
reproduce it [as many times I have found to be true]-- how do you solve the
problem? Personally, it's just an indicator to me that I have still
something to learn. Either I need to be able to reproduce that moment better
[more oversight in what I am tweaking and editing-simplify things], or I
need to be able-while in that moment- to be more attentive. It's one thing
to paint a Rembrandt- it's another to paint a Rembrandt and spill some red
paint on it at the end and go "ooops!"- darn... um, yes well... here you go,
it's still my masterpiece! its ART!" lol...
for arguemental sake, if anyone wants to here one of my tracks where _I_
clipped the pad and STILL kept the take [it was from a live
session/performance planned for the OLVG in Amsterdam] cause I NEVER managed
to get the melody so pretty ever again when I tried [and failed], here's the
link:
=)
http://www.fountain-city.com/portfolio/ear/olvg.mp3
But would I publish this song? Probably not... unless people REALLY-really
wanted it, even with the error(s)... but anyways... dream on...
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