Music is About The Vibe, Not The Gear

In the last few months, I've worked on several sessions that really put into perspective what it is to be a session player, or a great player in general.  Credit goes to Jed Leiber for putting it in succint terms, but I agree completely, and have seen it first hand.

"First and foremost, you need to get a great player.  Then a great instrument; tuned and intonated well.  Finally, get a great engineer who knows how to mic up the instrument, and you're golden."

The player is key... I've seen way too many musicians get the same instrument, same amp, same pedals, same piano, same drumkit, same mics, same pre's, and then blame everything else for not getting the right tone.  I've also seen many sessions where top-tier players pick up a guitar they've never played, into an amp they just rented, through a standard guitar micing setup, and it sounded amazing.

As an example, on a recent session with Joe Perry, I prepared every standard guitar micing setup in anticipation for his guys to come in and choose what to use.  I had two 57's, a Royer 121, and an MD421, all ready to go into 1073's, 1081's, Great Rivers, and API 512's.  Just to get a tone before Joe showed up,  I set up a 57 on-axis off-center in front of his Vox AC15, through a 1073, and it sounded pretty good.  I awaited for the engineer to come in and get everything set up his way, but when we got Joe on a guitar, turned it up, he said "awesome, we're good to go!"

Not because of the amp, mic, or pre, but because he was playing.

If the musicians aren't feeling it, or just can't get a good take, no amount of editing, EQ'ing, or tuning is going to give you what a great player can give you.  Great music is always about vibe, and feel, and if you're constantly editing everything you play, something is missing.  Some of my most rewarding sessions were with players that could lay down their entire performance in one take, and their pocket was locked in the whole time. 

Trust Your Ears and Instincts

There are many guidelines to follow when tracking or mixing music, but sometimes you have to ignore them completely.

On a recent session with a very talented singer that I hadn't worked with yet, I set my pre, EQ, and compressor at my normal starting points. The session got started so quickly that I didn't have much of a chance to dial in any settings, as we literally jumped straight into the first take. Everything sounded pretty good, but when I looked over to the compressor, so I saw something that made me jump a bit.

The 1176 needle was hitting the far left, past 20dB of gain reduction at 4:1 ratio. It sounded great to my ears, and had to fight the urge to bring down the input.  In my experience in tracking vocals, it's always better to err on the side of caution, and leave the heavy compression for later if needed. You can always add compression, but it's difficult to remove excessive compression after the fact.

With that said, I did use a high pass filter pre-compressor, and I rode the input knob of the 1176 a bit between songs, to compensate for difference in tone and energy.

When all was finished, after two days of doing scratch vocals on eight songs, and keeper vocals on two, I listened back to the vocals, solo'ed up, and found the tone, vibe, and dynamics that I was hoping I'd acheive, so I was pretty happy with the result.

The biggest thing I took away from that session was trust your ears and instincts, and break the rules every once in a while. Being creative is the most fun part of working in music, and if you follow protocol all the time, creativity takes a backseat.

Maybe You Don't Need The Right Tools

Working in various studios over the last few years, I've realized that you work with what you're given, and regardless of the quality of equipment, it's the person using the equipment that matters.

High fidelity still lives.  It just depends on who's setting the standard and who's spinnin' the knobs.

- Gary Lux

Gary is a friend of mine, and an engineer that I greatly admire and respect his work.  For more info on him, check out GaryLuxMusic.com.

I bring up the quote, because it emphasizes the significance of the person using the gear.  With the availability of affordable recording equipment, it's no wonder everyone has a home studio.  The problem arises when the person using the gear doesn't have the foundation of how audio equipment works, and basic signal flow knowledge. Give a talented engineer a 57, a cheap preamp, and he/she will create something great.

Take for example this group, The 88 recorded a single, "Love Is The Thing", using only an iPhone mic and an app called FourTrack! They even have a making-of video here: http://the88.net/love.htm

With all that said, a couple months ago, I had a rather nice vintage Telefunken ELA M 250 in the studio (valued at approx. $30,000), and I couldn't resist having an impromtu session with a few friends of mine that were in town playing at Whisky A Go Go (Song Preservation Society). I set the mic in omni, hit record, and didn't touch anything else. Three guys stood around the mic, one of them with an acoustic guitar, and what came out was far better than I expected.  I can say I've never wanted a microphone more in my life!

The point is, while great mics do sound great, the best engineers can do great things with very little. I always like to remind myself that The Beatles made amazing albums on four track tape, and some of my favorite drum sounds were achieved with one to three mics.

The Right Tool For The Job

I'd like to reference one of my other interests in life, cars.  In a recent post to the Top Gear website, Richard Hammond describes his experience with one of the best driver's cars out there, the e30 M3.  Read about it here: http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/hammond-bmw-m3

This brings up an interesting point… there is always the right tool for the job, and using that tool, being familiar with that tool, is what separates an artisan from an amateur.

Most studios out there have a plugin list that is longer than all of their physical gear combined.  There is no such thing as having too many toys, but when you don't get to know any of them, they're useless.

The key is always finding the right tools for the job, and that is something I've learned (and continue to learn) to do working with music.  Finding the exact tone, sound, or effect that the client is looking for is a very difficult thing to get really good at.  Using the tools at your disposal to achieve quick results is something some of the best tracking and mix engineers are able to do, and something I work hard to accomplish in every session.

Vocal Chains

I've kept a lot of notes over the years, and something I thought might be of interest is the vocal chain of some of the more recent artists I've had the opportunity to work with.

Lil' Wayne - Sony C800G -> Avalon 737sp

T-Pain - Sony C800G -> Neve 1073 -> TubeTech CL1B

Cee-Lo Green - Telefunken ELA M 251 -> Hardy M1 or Neve 1073 -> 1176

Kid Cudi / David Guetta - Shure Beta58 -> Avalon 737sp

Trey Songz - Sony C800G -> Neve 1081 -> 1176

Diddy (VoiceOver) - Sony C800G -> Focusrite ISA 430

Cheryl Cole - Sony C800G -> Neve 1081 -> 1176 -> LA2A

Scotty McCreery - Telefunken ELA M 250 -> Martech MSS-10 -> Focusrite Red 3