I spent some time with a buddy yesterday, a producer here in Nashville. We talked about studio design, microphones, and production.
He talked about how he enjoys mixing as much as production, and how he doesn’t care for big tracking sessions with lots of musicians.
I love living in Nashville.
While I was listening to my friend talk, I couldn’t help but think about all the people I interact with online. Most of them are hobbyists trying to learn the ropes of recording and mixing. I notice an interesting trend among the hobbyists that I don’t see in the professionals I know.
The hobbyists are obsessed with the latest gear. They’ll upgrade to the latest DAW, drool over the latest plugin, and keep their studio computers on the latest, fastest operating system.
The professionals? The ones these hobbyists aspire to be? They spend their money on good instruments, microphones, and preamps. They use old computers and “outdated” software. They tweak their systems until everything is stable, and they leave it alone. They focus on producing songs and albums, hundreds of ‘em.
Is your system functional right now?
Are you releasing music?
If not, you’re doing it wrong.
Remember, you first got into audio because you had a dream to create more and better music, NOT to collect gear. If you want to be like the pros, you gotta act like ‘em. Put the catalog down for a few months and go make some music.
You’ll be so glad you did.
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