That was then, This is now. Part Dues. .

It’s been quite the weekend for musical posts and rants. Since Robb Flynn from MachineHead wrote THIS, now I don’t have to. Joe Elliot of Def Leppard let The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame know EXACTLY how he felt and many other musical brothers and sisters chimed in as well. There is a movement underneath the stagnant surface of the industry, and hopefully it will build into a tsunami that wipes away this mess.

So, having covered that base, I’d like to take a moment to discuss something very dear to my heart. For those of you who are from the old school, you are dismissed from class, as you already have this subject mastered. Those of you who saw Dave Grohl’s “Sound City” AND understood it completely are also
excused from class. The rest of you, get settled and pay attention please, class is in session.

Let’s say for the moment, that this sheet of dough is your music. You wrote this killer song, completely resplendent rhythms and melody, hooks, riffs, and beats. The lead and harmony vocals are tight and precise and angelic (or demonic, if that’s your thing). Now it’s time to record this puppy and prepare it for the masses. Let’s look at your choices.

Today, especially for younger bands, the standard question is “Do you use Pro Tools?” Or “What operating system are you using?” “We are going to single track everything to a click track and then quantize it.”

Ok. You want digital. You quote the li(n)es that were fed to us a couple of decades ago. “Everything is clearer, you can hear everything”.

Well, that’s partially true. You CAN hear all the instruments. You can lock all those notes into perfect to the millisecond waveforms, and artificially perfect a tone, or performance with cut and paste. You can purchase the entire drum, amp, and axe sounds from any number of artists or producers. You can make the tone deaf sing like an angel. Now here comes the whole truth.

Like I said, you can hear all the INSTRUMENTS, but you aren’t getting ALL the sound. Allow me to demonstrate.

Digital recording takes a “sample” of what it hears. This disc of dough will represent that sampling. Digital recording takes that sample perfectly, through converter algorithms and bit and sample rates and stores that information as a sequence of binary data. It can only capture what it can sample by definition of its parameters. So you end up with this:

Using the analogy of digital recording being a round cookie cutter sampling from a square sheet of dough, you see all the left over scraps after the cut. These scraps are left over because the very properties of digital recording limits what it can do. Yes, it can pristinely capture a sound that fits into the parameters, but it cannot get ALL the information, no matter how good the converters or the sample rates. It can only cut that round piece out of the square sheet. No matter how close the cuts are made, there will be lots of scraps. What’s in those scraps, you ask? Well, space, harmonic overtones and undertones, nothing, everything. It’s my belief, that in these scraps resides the IMMORTAL SOUL of your song (and I’m not alone in that belief). No matter how good the converters get, no matter the bit and sample rate, these scraps get left behind. Your music loses that little bit of something that is the difference between good and great because of it. Analog catches all those scraps. You get space and depth and warmth naturally from tape. In my opinion, it captures the soul of your performance. If you accidentally get a digital “over” while recording, that take is useless. If you get an analog over, you may have a little more wiggle room. Tape allows magic to happen. But one rule holds true: Tape (and digital) don’t lie. Garbage in = Garbage out.

Of course, with analog, you lose the ease of editing. You lose virtual tracks. But hey, that’s a sacrifice worth making. It’s about being true to your music.

You can single track every instrument, you can quantize the shit out of it. You can apply all the purchased sample tones you want. It’s not YOU. Human beings SWING when they play, tiny fluctuations in tempo that push and pull the listener along with the music like a train. All the tones you bought for the recording, are you going to be able to reproduce them live? Do you play single parts of the song live? No, you play together. Why would you not at least get all your rhythms down together to get the same energy you profess your band brings to a live show? I personally hate playing to a click track, but I love playing to my drummer. He doesn’t mind a click track, so he gets it in his ear, and I play live with him. Get all that tracked at once, you’ve got less stuff to record. And because you are all recording to your own separate isolated tracks, you can always go back and fix any bruises on the guitar and bass. As long as those drums are on, you’re good to go. But try to get those bed tracks as “live” as possible. Let the drums play to the click if you want tempo guidance, but save time by getting all those rhythms done at once. Time is money. Bands play together. Don’t worry about buying a tone pack, sound like you. That’s what rehearsal is for, forming tones and shaping songs. Use your time in studio to record songs that sound like you. You set up, adjust the mics, get your levels, and play YOUR songs like you. Capture the essence of you, not every other band that cobbles their song digitally piece by piece using the same sounds as all the other bands.

At the end of the 80s, people became sick of all the bands sounding alike. All the clones of hair and glam, the endless parade of same allowed grunge to wipe the playing field clean, shake up the status quo, and pave the way for something new. Why squander all that by repeating the cycle? Be yourself. Not a clone. Dig?

No matter what format you choose, digital or analog, do you. Don’t buy into the “new norm”. Don’t buy your sounds, make them. Play as a band as much as possible before and during the recording process. Your audience and your listeners will thank you. And you will thank me and those like me in the end, because at the end of the day, YOU created your sound, not some guy who cut and pasted triggered sounds onto the track. You sound like YOU, not like the band “insert flavor of the moment here”.

There is no next “grunge” movement. The next event on the horizon is complete and total apathy. Music is not the focus of people’s lives anymore due to the technology that enslaves us. Everything sounds the same, everything looks the same, and most people have no imagination or attention span. Music isn’t the soundtrack to life anymore, it’s incidental background noise. Change that. Care enough to be original, to be yourself, and push the confines of the box technology has put you in. Take some steps backwards to move forward.

Rock was about rebellion, about breaking the rules and pushing the envelope. Music meant something. Musicians were a special fraternity, you paid your dues; you learned to play and/or sing, to do it with others and to improve upon your collective skills. You perfected performance, writing, recording, marketing, etc. You put 100% into it. As it should be. Technology removed that. Now anybody with a few dollars worth of programs can make sounds, string them together, moan into a mic, tweak it with AutoTune, and call it a song. Multiply it a few more times and call it a record. The technology that leveled the playing field for the independant musician opened the gates for all the pretenders and wanna be’s. It allowed corporate music to push even more “pretty” no talent mannequins, dancers that lip sync to backing tracks, prefab boy bands, and “artists” whose only talent is being able to stand upright or dress themselves. It’s up to us as musicians and fans to fix it. Support your brother and sister musicians, BUY music that was created by musicians, not corporate puppets, not GarageBand owners who want to play rockstar. If you can’t play 99.9% of it or can’t sing it IN KEY, live, don’t perpetuate the illusion. The technology was meant to improve, to be used as a tool, not be the means to the end, which is what is coming if we don’t turn it around. Think about it.

Hope you enjoyed today’s lesson. I’m off to the teachers lounge for a drink and a smoke and a bit of acoustic guitar. Read Robb Flynn’s blog, there will be a quiz next week. My office is always open if you have questions or wish to discuss this subject further. Have a great day everyone. Be dangerous, and unpredictable. And make a lot of noise.

Class dismissed.

Uncle Doom