Home Cooked
May 2021 Update
Okay, so you’ve invested time, money, and more time and money into your studio equipment and music. After all that, you still feel like you haven’t reached that point in your craft that says; what’s produced here is top-notch commercial quality, but uniquely "my sound". Did you ever think that your perception of yourself and your craft is the biggest challenge to your “success”? If you solely use the same old recipe time and time again or if you stay true to the "rebellion" by trying not to sound like anyone, you probably will not grow past the snapshot in time you started making music from.
I've been both and I'm learning to reset myself again and again. As a seasoned fellow producer / artist / audio engineer, I would like a few moments of your time not to teach you anything new, per-say. I would like You to take a small amount of time to enjoy what you already know, in a new way. You my friend, are now the master chef that has come home to cook your favorite meal, while intentionally switching things up to discover something new and great.
You walk into your kitchen aka the studio, ready to create and you are surrounded by all your stuff. You are overwhelmed by all the gear, all the "pots, pans, spices, knives"… Every plugin is like that one-use spice or cooking utensil. Plugin overload anyone? How can you make something great or get motivated, if you don't know where to start and your afraid if you start with what you know, you will only make what you always make? I think I have a great idea to help you avert this crisis - the right questions. The first question is used to overcome being overwhelmed. 1. What do I need or normally use to make music ("cook")? Michael Homnick from "How To Set Up A Home Recording Studio” put it this way: “It's easy to get overwhelmed when you are considering the seemingly endless combinations of hardware and equipment geared toward recording music. Take a step back and think about what you want to accomplish with your home studio”. I think he makes a great point. Start with what you know and works the way you want it to. The second question we could then ask is, 2. what new thing can I do that I don't normally do?
Then, experiment. Why? We can spend so much time pumping out cookie cutter standards, that we lose the edge that drove us to be artists, producers, and engineers in the first place. Yes, if you are doing this for money, there are timelines and specific desires for clients. Many of us, however, first started making music because we wanted to create something unique and great. So,what are we doing with the time when the constraints of serving clients aren’t there? When we fail to make time to maximize our creativity, based on the fundamentals we already know, our clients will pay the price in the long-run. Fads "flavors of the day" like the newest hardware or compressor plugins will change with time. If we don't know who we are while adjusting to change, we risk losing our purpose for getting into music. Potential clientele and fans may be more attracted to our competition, because they are more than the flavor of the day, they are able to make greatness out of the "standard". The standard is a starting point, great songs often take something to the next level be either adding something new and unexpected or taking away that little sound or EFX that is always there. Lets mic those drum samples coming out of the monitors and mix it back in to the song. What does my guitar peddle EFX sound like on this vocal or sample loop? What happens if I use Izotope Imager on my string section or on a bus to other EFX? Give it a try.
Get inspiration: Listening to old and new music can be like watching the food network. Not mnay things in cooking or music are actually new. Great artists, however, do things that we would never expect to include watch and learn other artists. Its not bad to be inspired by others and maintain relevance in culture. Its absolutely imperative if you are mixing, producing, or being an artists as a vocation - money. But still and again, I invite you to make time for your fundamental skills and equipment to be pushed to the edge of your imagination. Take time to learn more about others in the business. Master those plugins you only used once or never figured out. Maybe, try new ways to use the ones you are familiar with? While greatness is based on solid fundamentals, knowing how to use those fundamentals to do new things or fix current problems is the key, in my opinion. Master producer George Massenburg put it this way in Billboard Magazine: "I would like to see the musical moment protected and revealed. Producing to me doesn't necessarily mean defining the music. Sometimes it's identifying it. That's where I think I am a producer." I think that is the heart of what I am trying to tell you!
Cheers and happy cooking up a new sound!
Chris Nunn
7Th Sounds Productions
HOMNICK, MICHAEL. "How To Set Up A Home Recording Studio." Macworld 30.4 (2013): 76. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.
Arky, Jack. "As Producer, Massenburg Is Inspired By `Musical Moment'." Billboard 108.6 (1996): 46. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.