Dear Conrad,
After reading your biography, I can appreciate your work ethic and “rules to live byâ€.
My wife and I have successfully raised two children through high school and college and we’re proud to say we have two degreed, positive, productive citizens to our credit; a school teacher and a civil engineer.
I played jazz acoustic bass and electric guitar in my musical past I was also a radio air personality by trade for many years and I love what music does for me daily; good movie soundtracks, radio, or my favorite artists. I want to build a retirement lifestyle that I enjoy and motivates me.
If you would be kind enough to outline your view of basic recording/production studio equipment I would appreciate your guidance.Â
My questions are;
1.     Are you a standard mixing console guy or laptop with recording & production software?
2.     If you use laptops, do you recommend Apple or MS?
3.     What is you preferred choice of microphones?
4.     Do you play instruments during or in accompaniment to your artist productions?
5.     A&R; do you just supervise, mix and master your artists?
Regards,
Jeffrey
****************
Hi Jeffrey,
First of all, my disclaimers: I consider myself a feeble pawn in a world of enormous talent, this is just my input to your questions and not necessarily “the way things should be done.”
1.     Are you a standard mixing console guy or laptop with recording & production software?
Both. I recorded analog for ten years before switching to digital. Recording tracks analog is great, but for editing I prefer digital. For mastering a combination of analog and digital gives you the best of both worlds. For editing, I can accomplish in two hours on ProTools what used to take me DAYS on analog. When I look back on all the hours I spent editing analog for dance and electronica tracks before digital, I could just cry.
2.     If you use laptops, do you recommend Apple or MS?
Have you seen the latest invasion of Apple ads? MAC will let you run Mac software AND MS software, so for all my future computers I would go with Mac. I currently own 12 PC’s and one MAC, but times are changing, Mac is back. (Which is ironic since I now live about 40 miles from Microsoft). My understanding is you can have both operating systems running, and just flip between them.
3.     What is you preferred choice of microphones?
What’s the application? For vocals I like the Neumann TLM103 or a good tube mic like Groove Tube, but not for every vocals. Vocals are a precarious animal because for some vocals a Sennheiser 421 is the best pic, which defies logic. For vocals on a serious track, I try 5 different microphones with the vocalist – then listen to them blind and pick my favorite by ear. If I pick the same one 3 times in a row, then that’s what I use. For other instruments and applications there are ones I gravitate towards, but would be too long a list without knowing the specific instrument.
4.     Do you play instruments during or in accompaniment to your artist productions?
Depends on the project. As producer my job is to get the artist/artists to a finished product. If that calls for keyboard tracks, midi layers and sampling – then yes I do those tracks. If it’s a style that I’m not strong on then I would call in a session player, but for most styles I’m the strongest player I know – so I do the tracks. I will bring in guitar players, solo instrumentalists, background singers and percussion on most projects.
5.     A&R; do you just supervise, mix and master your artists?
If I’m producing and mixing, then I have someone else master. If someone else did the mixing, then I’ll master projects that come my way. It’s important in the mastering process to have a fresh set of ears. By “supervise” do you mean promoting the artist and guiding them in concerts? No. The reason is that I consider this a very scam oriented side of the industry that I really can’t stomach – in addition I can’t guarantee results like I can with my audio production work. I have really never understood the whole concept of artists getting managers right out of the gate; from what I’ve seen it usually ends in disaster. I feel strongly that artists should perform A LOT, and don’t worry about looking for managers and promoters until you need them. Artists often use managers and promoters as scape goats, like they will magically make everything happen. When an artist talks to me about management before they’re project is done I don’t take it as a sign they are thinking long term – I take it as a sign they are not focused on their art.
And with all this remember that I don’t yet have a Grammy award on my mantle, so it’s quite possible I am a bumbling idiot and my counsel should be avoided at all cost.
🙂
Conrad
