If you own any piece of recording gear, chances are you know about Brian Eno and his Oblique Strategies. When he’d reach an impasse in the studio or sometimes just for fun, he’d reach for a deck of randomly assorted cards that had nice general platitudes that would push him toward action in another direction. Sometimes when your songs or your mixes just don’t quite seem to add up the way you thought they would, all that’s really needed is a change in your mindset.
The primary focus of this column is to find the various philosophical approaches to production that will hopefully aid some out there in honing their skills in songwriting, recording, and mixing.
You’ve spent all this time crafting your tunes. You’ve spent all this money on recording gear trying to capture them properly and mold them into an elegant whole. But something is still missing. All too often, sessions arrive at my studios with countless tracks stemming from artists trying to fill in those blanks with an endless deluge of overdubs.
Well, I’m here to tell you that adding in another synthesizer track may not be necessary. And yes, somebody else has already tried using a water bottle as a shaker. And no, you don’t have to go out and buy a new drum kit or the latest sampler or a sexy expensive plug-in to get a good drum sound. Yes, sometimes what you’ve got is good enough.
So you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the tunes, you’ve got the gear. What is missing? I argue that all you need is the mindset of an experienced professional. It might be a foolhardy gambit, but I will be divulging some slightly esoteric philosophy gleaned from years of service in the recording business. Feel free to try these strategies yourself, but if you reach an impasse–I’m only a Submission Form away.
In addition to production techniques, I think it is also time that we re-examined our assumptions about the production world itself. The music industry is a starkly different place today than it was ten years ago, let alone fifty. In this new environment, it is vitally important for newcomers and insiders to adjust our perceptions and understandings of the audio world. From fidelity to the recording studio itself, the times truly have changed and our mindset must change with it.
where did you get that image? that is badass.
sounds like an interesting take, i’m interested to see what you can come up with.