Yet another reason to stay out the box

For anything relating to music-making on Windows computers, with lots of FAQs. Moderated by Martin Walker.

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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

I've been reading 'Tape's Rolling, Take One' which is Adrian Kerridige's autobiography, and its highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of professional music recording in the UK from the 60s to around 2000.

Adrian was one of the founders of CADAC consoles, he laterbset up the Lansdowne Studios in Bayswater and CTS in Wembley, and was a phenomenal recording engineer, especially of big bands. I knew him professionally and he was a lovely bloke, too.

But the point I wanted to make was that his book describes his beginnings as an engineer at IBC studios under the tutelage of Allen Stagg -- a path followed by a surprising number of well known and admired recording engineers of the 70s and 80s who went on to great things at Decca, Abbey Road, Olympic and elsewhere.

As part of their training, Allen's young padawans were asked to devise a miking plan to record various types of bands -- which mics placed where, etc. Once done, Allen would then tell them that they only had half the number of channels available, or they didn't have those particular types of mics or whatever. So they had to whittle their recording plan back to the working minimum to capture what was needed. And then the band came in and they applied their reduced plan and had to make the session work. Which, under his guidance, they did.

That kind of training really helped them learn what could be done with the different mics, what was really important and what wasn't, and how to make decisions early and get it right in the studio onto tape, there and then.

And they all became superb engineers from it.

The modern fashion for sticking six mics in front (and behind) everything and hope to sort something worthwhile out later in mixing is either self-indulgent, indecisive, or ignorant nonsense -- or a combination of all three -- and something that I utterly abhor. And the same applies to the notion that you can record any old crud in the studio but somehow make it sound magical with some ludicrous chain of exotic plugins...

I became close friends with Allen in the decade before his death, and we would often discuss his approach to training and his views on modern practices. Although long retired, he kept up to date with the industry and was certainly no dinosaur -- and he still had the most analytical ears right to the end. Lovely bloke.

Now... Where are my pipe and slippers? Nurse, is it time for my medication? I'll just rest my eyes for a little while... Zzzzzzz
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Folderol »

Just to add my 2d.
There is also the financial dimension. If you can only afford the bare minimum, you learn to make the most of it and find ways of getting round limitations. Almost by chance you develop the habit of getting the best source recording you can.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by James Perrett »

blinddrew wrote: I think there's potentially an element of people trying to find the secret plug-in that applies that magic 'make it sound like a record' sauce to stick on the mix-bus at the end.
Missing the point that the bit that the magic happened right back at the beginning with the composition, the performance, and the recording.

And the well known recording could well have come after a demo recording where ideas were tested. The projects that I've been working on over the last few months are interesting because they also include some of the early demos which show how songs can change between the early ideas and the final version.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by The Elf »

blinddrew wrote:I think there's potentially an element of people trying to find the secret plug-in that applies that magic 'make it sound like a record' sauce to stick on the mix-bus at the end.

Very true. The 'mastering religion' that we now see quite often now upholds this belief.

And, of course, the 'make it sound like tape' plug-in, which is really beckoning with 'make my songs sound like the kind of music that was once recorded to tape'.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by Albatross »

Must be very confusing though, for a youngun now. Some of the people on this thread were brought up with tape machine, desk and a few bit and bobs. It was a good education. For us, the DAW was a revelation!

Now, I don't know where I'd start to get my head around all the stuff that's just there for the taking. And educational/promotional videos show all this complexity and dos and don'ts. I mean ... we can't blame people for losing the plot and thinking they need this that or the other.

What we are really doing is throwing novices into the most sophisticated studios on earth, which is what a modern daw on a modern computer is, and having them think they can probably master the thing in some weeks or months. And when they can't, wheel in yet another rack of gear and patch it in to the already unfathomable studio.

I'd like to see an article on how to make a decent record with eight tracks and some elastic bands.
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Re: Yet another reason to stay out the box

Post by ManFromGlass »

I’m sure you would have some snappy numbers recorded in no time. . .
Oh, is that taxi for me . . .
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