We’re back with another episode of FAQ Friday!
As always we received tons of marvellous questions this week!
Before we get into the questions for this week, I wanted to take a minute to thank Stealth Sonics for my very first pair of In Ear Monitors! Can you believe that I’ve never used IEM before? These things are absolutely amazing. I got goose bumps trying them out! haha
Our featured question this week: “How much time do you devote to each aspect of the creative process as a percentage?“
As a rule, well, there are no rules! haha
If I’m working with a singer/songwriter who is a piano player, then I’m probably going to really care about what piano I record, and where I record it.
When we did David’s (The Workday Release) piano based record a couple of years ago, we went to Harmony and threw some mics up on the C7! It’s a phenomenal piano! We took this beautiful piano, got great performances and then we sang on it!
If you’re recording the Fray for example, we built the song around the sound of the piano with the drums and everything else that worked around it. I recently did a video where I take you “Inside The Song” “You Found Me” by The Fray! Watch The Fray – You Found Me: Inside the Song here
If you’re an acoustic guitar artist- get an amazing acoustic guitar sound. Get an amazing vocal. Build the track around that!
If you’re a rock band, a heavy band, or a classic rock band, then you probably want a big drum sound! Then you’re deciding on what is the guitar sound? Is it ACDC? Is it Alice In Chains? Do you need to use 3 guitar amps to build those massive tones?
You need to decide what the band is about to be able to make those decisions. For me it is inherently, what is the focus of the artist?
If it’s a rock band, probably everything in that song is getting an equal amount of attention! It’s usually not about percentages based on time. It’s making sure that you bring the same effort and attention to detail to everything.
So to answer your question, it really depends on who the artist is, what they’re about, and what the focus of that particular album or recording is. Like I said at the beginning, there really isn’t a set of rules where for example you should be spending 25% of time on drums, 16% of that on the snare, 25% on Bass, etc. It might take you 4 days to get the drum sound you’re looking for in a room you’re not familiar with, and it might only take 1 day to get the guitar sound!
The best thing you can do is make sure that you bring the same effort and attention to detail to everything.
We cover the following questions during this episode of FAQ Friday!
• How do you deal with a vocal with too much harsh resonances. The type when you cut them out, the voice loses quality? (5:10)
• What are your thoughts on using limiters on the master bus? (9:10)
• Would you mic a ukulele the same way you mic an acoustic guitar? (11:54)
• How much time do you devote to each aspect of the creative process as a percentage? (14:07)