From HEATsink Sent Thu, Mar 26th 1998, 02:17
From HEATsink Sent Thu, Mar 26th 1998, 02:17
I`d just like to chip in on the current cash-to-quality-ratio debate. As someone who has recently spent more than a few quid on studio equipment (and who a certain someone might have had in mind when they stirred up this debate <grin> ) , and who seems to be in a state of constant paranoia over whether his music is actually any good, I`ve got a personal interest in the topic. My view is that Great Music doesn`t discriminate between a minimal studio set-up and a top-flight set-up, that is to say, the equipment used in the production of Great Music is, generally, irrelevant. If you, as a music listener, look for qualities such as clean sounds, spacious reverbs, shiny EQ and all that other engineering crap to form your opinion of what you are listening too, then maybe you should give up and chop your ears off. If, however, you can judge a track by the things that actually make up its musical existance, like melody, rythm, structure, mood etc., then congratulations! You Know The Score. This view of the listener needing to know how to differentiate between Great Engineering and Great Music can also be applied to the producer. As producers also listen to music, this shouldn`t be too hard. Unfortunately, subjectivity often creeps in, and the phenomenon of "Producer`s Ear" is witnessed. No-one listens to their own music the same way as others listen to it, simply because of the bond between creator and created (anyone see the Ugly Baby episode of Seinfeld? ). You might get fed up of listening to it sometimes, and cringe at the cock-ups or cheesy sounds, but it`s yours, you made it, you own it (usually). Now, it`s up to others to decide for themselves whether it`s good or bad, but you wouldn`t have pressed record if YOU didn`t think it was any good at the time. Accepting this, I say that someone with a lot of top gear in their rack still only presses record if they`re happy with what`s coming out of their Genelecs. Any producer who thinks having a Lexicon can excuse their lack of talent is a fool; the one who uses that Lexicon as an aid to expressing their feelings is to be respected. Money should be second to music. Great, now someone`s going to write back saying "great grammar, but you`re full of shit... " <---HEATsink---?