[kj] Pro Tools, We Hardly Knew Ye

Frank Coleman fbc at 21ca.com
Sun Aug 26 00:15:25 EDT 2007


>>

It's very easy for a band or producer to become basically a slave to
doing *everything* on a music production software like Pro-Tools. In
stead of getting a good performance in the studio by the band or singer,
you can just cut n' paste samples of *anything* to create a song. Singer
out of pitch, no problem. Guitarist can't nail a solo, no problem.
Drummer can't keep perfect time, no problem. You start adding all that
up, it leaves far more room for mediocrity and little for actual
spontinaity in the studio. Throw in a lazy or inexperienced producer and
you get 95% of what passes for music these days.

<<

While I totally understand this point of view, I think the problems
described herein are human ones, not the fault of the technology, per
se. Technology is sometimes a convenient whipping post for all too
human foibles. And I don't think that's really fair.

Example: I'm in the middle of doing a full length album with one of my
bands (DFHC) as we speak. My brother is the manager of a top studio in
NYC, so we did it there. We're actively gigging and are very well
rehearsed. That is absolutely key, in my view, to the success of a
recording session. Otherwise, you'll end up just farting around.

I have a rule of thumb about recording -- no more than three takes. One
to get the lay of the land, one for real, one for backup. Anything more
than that is too many choices, or you don't belong in the studio, you
belong in the rehearsal room. That's just my opinion, but it's served
me well for 35 years, so I'm sticking with it. ;)

We're doing our album in Pro Tools. I've done plenty of albums analog.
I prefer this way and it's what the studio has, so... Gotta say --
non-destructive editing is a godsend!

Anyway, I went in one morning, got my drum sound in about an hour (my
kit is very well tuned) and laid down the drum tracks to all 11 songs,
by myself, to a click track, in 90 minutes. That's my preferred method
of doing drum tracks, as I find it less distracting and I can bash like
mad without having to worry about leakage.

A few days later, I brought the rest of the band in -- two guitars, bass
and farfisa organ -- and recorded them all at once to get the live
interaction happening. We got all the instrumental parts down in about
5 hours. We're finishing up the vocal tracks over the next two weeks,
then we'll do one more session for lead guitar overdubs and that's it.

The final product will be ready in about a month, so you'll just have to
take my word for it for now, but believe me when I tell you we haven't
sacrificed an iota of integrity, spontaneous inspiration, etc. just
because we used Pro Tools. It sounds the absolute balls, even without
being mixed or tweaked or EQed or anything. Yes, I've gone thru and cut
'n' pasted four bars here and eight bars there to get a "best of"
rendition from the takes we did, but.. you know... we can actually play
and sing, so major surgery was never an issue. I'm not after
perfection. I just want it "right" -- and by "right" I mean the way it
sounds onstage or in rehearsal.

When we get around to mixing, we'll re-amp a few things to get just the
right edge (that's the process whereby the signal is fed back out from
the computer to a real amp and re-recorded to a new track), but since we
did everything in a cohesive, organized fashion, it shouldn't take a lot
of work to get a consistent sound from song to song, so they all sound
like they belong on the same record.

The point is -- regarding the technology -- all the technology did was
get out of our way and let us do our thing in an expedient,
high-resolution manner. Which is what it's supposed to do. The
important stuff came from where it always does -- the people.

In other hands, yes, a functionally infinite amount of flexibility can
lead to laziness or suffocating perfectionism. But that has to do with
the hands at the wheel, not the wheel itself... ;)

My $.02, you understand...

best,
FBC

F R A N K . C O L E M A N
Design . Development . Direction
Interactive . Online . TV . Video . Audio . Print
Portfolio . 21st Century Art . http://www.21ca.com

MySpace . Frankie7 . http://www.myspace.com/frankie7

Drummer . Bentmen . http://www.myspace.com/bentmen
Drummer . 777s . http://www.myspace.com/triplesevens
Drummer . F-Units . http://www.myspace.com/funits
Drummer . Direct From Hollywood Cemetery . http://www.myspace.com/dfhc

Alter Ego . The Vegetable . http://www.myspace.com/the_vegetable






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