|
 | | | | Nov30Written by:Rip Rowan
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 6:00 PM  There's an old saying that goes, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
There's a corollary to that saying. "If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?"
Followed closely by, "If you don't know where you're going, who knows where you'll end up."
There's a point to be made here.
Before I ever hit the record button, the first thing that must be determined is the artist's sonic goals. Sonic goals refer to the kind of outcome the artist wants to achieve. Should the overall sound be majestic and lush, or tight and defined? Will we be developing a Wall-of-Sound mix, or a sparse, "exposed" mix? Aggressive or approachable? Angry or melancholy? Lo-fi or hi-fi? Dramatic, or understated?
If you're the producer as well as the engineer, then these are decisions you'll make with the band or artist. If you're just the engineer, then you'll work with the producer to understand the sonic goals. If the band is a developing band, you may want to set these goals on a song-by-song basis. As the project progresses, a sound should emerge that will define the rest of the project. On the other hand, if the artist already has an established "sound" then you'll probably want to set these goals for the project up-front, then evaluate each song's place in the whole.
Bob Lichty wrote an excellent article on this topic a few months ago. In it he covers the importance of clearly defining the roles and goals of the project. If you're interested in production and project management, be sure to read it.
The simple fact is: you may not know where you're going when you get started. And that's OK. As long as you all agree that somewhere along the way, a decision will be made and a direction will be taken.
Decision. There's that word. From the Latin: de - off, from; caedere - to cut. To cut off from, to separate, in making a choice. That's right. A decision to do something almost ALWAYS involves NOT doing something else. Think about it.
In the case of Four Mile Mule, the band already had a decent song catalog of about two dozen songs. All of these songs were solid, well-written songs, but none of the songs had "radio-ready hit" qualities. So there was no clear direction where the project would end up. As it turned out, the lead-off song emerged during the final stages of the recording sessions, and was the last song we recorded. This song helped define which songs would be included on the demo CD and which ones would be cut.
Four Mile Mule has a sound that is similar to adult alternative rock sung with a country twang. It's guitar-based powerpop music with strong riffs, but the lyrics are earthy and "down-home" and delivered with a decidedly country flair. This is not "Black Hat Country" - it's country music designed to appeal to a rock audience.
Using the song's stylings as a guide, we decided early on that the overall sound needed to be simple, reasonably hi-fi, and just a little edgy. The goal was to create a sound that would be a little prettier than your typical rock radio hit, but tougher than your typical country hit. The guitars needed to be edgy, the drums needed to be fat, and the vocal needed to be full-range and up front. We felt this would be a sound that would best show off the group's rock / country crossover potential.
Let's take a close look at a song from the album, and build it up track-by-track so you can see - and hear - how the pieces fit together. The song is the band's lead-off single, "Black and White Movie." Download it and listen to it first, before reading further. You'll need to hear the song in order to get an idea of how the tracks fit together in the mix.
ProRec is not equipped to handle a large volume of full-length MP3 downloads, so we're going to ask you to download the song from MP3.com. Here's what to do:
1. Click here to go to the band's MP3.com site
2. "Black and White Movie" is the first song on the list. You want the hi-fi version. Click the link that says "Download." You'll download the song.
3. After downloading, use your browser's "Back" button to come back here.
You'll need an MP3 player to hear the song, as well as other little MP3 clips we're going to reference during the article. A good MP3 player is WinAmp. MP3.com also has a large list of MP3 players in their software section.
Please note that I neither wrote the song nor performed on it, and the song is used here with the artist's full permission. In other words, this ain't my personal plug.
Tags: | | | | | | | |
|
|