Ear Candy

Wow, what a difference knowledge and experience make!

Yesterday morning was my first session working with a producer/engineer who knew exactly how to record me. I haven't heard any final mixes yet, but the quick proofs I heard on the spot just knocked me out. I've been hearing myself on tape for two decades, but suddenly I felt like what I heard on the monitors was what I hear in my head.

I think I need a sidebar here: I was talking to a recording tech. student in Hollywood last summer at a pool party (OK, it was at the Days Inn; I was in LA for a family wedding). I was telling her how I would want to record, that I'd want to play and sing at the same time and try to get a natural, ambient sound. I wasn't very good at articulating what I meant, but she was saying, "oh, that's not how you do it! You record each thing separately on it's own channel, totally dry. Then you can add whatever ambient feel you want with effects. You can always add, but you can never take stuff away." Well, that made a kind of sense, but it didn't feel right for me.

So I've been talking and corresponding with Jimmy E. since the summer about getting started on this record, and he's asked me all kinds of questions about my recording values, about records I like, about what I hear in the songs I like. He's listened to my rough "laptop" demos and some live recordings of my songs. In other words, he was well prepared. When I arrived, it was clear there would be no soundproof chambers and isolated microphones and channel separation and electronic tricks.

I sat in a chair and played awhile as he put nice microphones close around me and some others far away, then he went down the hall to his control room and said, "we're rolling." We recorded multiple takes of six songs in about two hours. Sometimes he would say, "well, I don't think you can improve on that unless you just want to do it again"; other times, he'd say, "why don't you try slowing that down a bit; I feel like you're rushing it," or "don't be afraid to really dig in on that E minor chord there; I feel like you're a little tentative." Sometimes he'd move a mic a few inches or ask me to turn my chair a little.

When I listened back to the rough mix, there was no need for electronic reverb or various other kinds of gimmickry; intelligent microphone placement had provided natural reverb in just the right proportions. I just kind of stood there slack jawed. I guess there are some things they just can't teach in recording tech school.

So I'm that much closer to having a well-produced EP. Yay.