Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all
I can't fully buy into the "gear" thing because these days there's a lot of new gear that's just as good as the old stuff. You won't find it at GuiTarget and the rest of the pro-sumer dealers... but it's out there from dealers like Mercenary and Vintage King.
In the last 20-odd years, the biggest change has been the move from analog to digital recording. Drums are drums, guitars are guitars... but now instead of being limited to 16 or 24 tracks, it's unlimited. Go ahead and DO 40 takes of a solo, figure it out later. Everyone gets lazier. The worst is drum replacment... IMO it's no excuse for getting "bad" sounds in tracking... "Yeah, it's not great. We'll replace it later..." It's removed any need to commit.
With advent of tools like AutoTune & beat detective they get used on everything automatically just because they can. One listen to modern rock radio shows that... I flip it on and can hear Waves preset #46 and snare sample "X". Now it's easy to sit there for hours & polish a turd... create a performance, or suck all the vibe and life out of one. That's why I like keeping things on tape. Sounds great, and it keeps that whole pandoras box of limitless editing closed. Keeps people focused on the big picture... the playing.
On the flip side, I'm really not opposed to using digital for what it IS good at.
If there's an amazing take but the drummer botched a few bars, it's easy to fly stuff around or tune just a few less-then steller notes in an otherwise flawless & great vocal take. Tape sounds great but a 2" deck is basically a 600 pound hot dog cart. Not exactly portable where's I can fit my 32 I/O DAW rig with a bunch of racks & mics in my car and set up anywhere.
Good analog, or good digital. Either one costs a fair bit of coin. And it's all in how it's used. People were tuning vocals and flying stuff around back in the '70s...
Originally posted by Curly
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In the last 20-odd years, the biggest change has been the move from analog to digital recording. Drums are drums, guitars are guitars... but now instead of being limited to 16 or 24 tracks, it's unlimited. Go ahead and DO 40 takes of a solo, figure it out later. Everyone gets lazier. The worst is drum replacment... IMO it's no excuse for getting "bad" sounds in tracking... "Yeah, it's not great. We'll replace it later..." It's removed any need to commit.
With advent of tools like AutoTune & beat detective they get used on everything automatically just because they can. One listen to modern rock radio shows that... I flip it on and can hear Waves preset #46 and snare sample "X". Now it's easy to sit there for hours & polish a turd... create a performance, or suck all the vibe and life out of one. That's why I like keeping things on tape. Sounds great, and it keeps that whole pandoras box of limitless editing closed. Keeps people focused on the big picture... the playing.
On the flip side, I'm really not opposed to using digital for what it IS good at.
If there's an amazing take but the drummer botched a few bars, it's easy to fly stuff around or tune just a few less-then steller notes in an otherwise flawless & great vocal take. Tape sounds great but a 2" deck is basically a 600 pound hot dog cart. Not exactly portable where's I can fit my 32 I/O DAW rig with a bunch of racks & mics in my car and set up anywhere.
Good analog, or good digital. Either one costs a fair bit of coin. And it's all in how it's used. People were tuning vocals and flying stuff around back in the '70s...
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