Welcome to the world of producing records – as I see it. Some of you will be familiar with me personally, or will have watched the vid on this very website. Now Mike has given me the opportunity for some more shamless self promotion, so for those of you who have no clue, I’m the Less-Is-More guy who advocates a simpler way of doing things in this increasingly technology driven world.
And I quote: “What constitutes a ‘good’ record is very subjective, but it’s never down to frequency response; it’s about listener response. Evoking an emotional response in the listener is the secret of successful recording. If you can do that, it doesn’t make much
difference whether you have a humble cassette recorder or 148 tracks of Pro Tools.”
Remember making records is an art as much as a skill, and as such it’s really important not to let any technology or the myths of how things ‘should’ be done restrict your creative abilities. Try working fast and intuitively for a change, you’ll be surprised.
I’ve been in based in Liverpool about 3 years now. Well, strictly speaking ‘over the water’ in Sunny Birkenhead. When I rang the local tourist board for info they said, “Ooooh, you don’t want to move here!” My place looks out over the Mersey, where the sailors on the ferry sing
an occasional tune for the tourists. We’re steeped in musical history of course. Yer Actual Beatles played gigs just streets away from here in church halls and venues demolished long ago…John Lennon spent school holidays in Rock Ferry, just down the road – one of the few British place names worth an album title, but you wouldn’t want go there without a minder. The local Netto supermarket has a double turnstile you have to go through just to get IN.
Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of studios hereabouts, from one man protools home rigs to some quite excellent vintage analogue rooms. How they all stay in business is anyone’s guess. But you could probably say that about any studio.. Or producer!
Top tips for staying in business -
1. Shameless self promotion on recordproduction.com
2. Don’t buy a new piece of gear unless you can fund it with the sale of
old stuff. It’s not worth being sentimental over a Mackie 8 into 2.
3. Buy a highly collectable Mackie 8 into 2 and sell for massive profit on ebay
4. Install a turnstile
I welcome your feedback, and I’m always happy to listen to material – point me to your myspace page for that. But do note I don’t need any interns!
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