Opinion
Recording studio madness – what really matters
Moeneeb Galant | 2 Apr 2014 9:11 AM
In my previous article about the Wild Wild West of choosing the right producer for your needs, you may have noticed that I did not speak about the producer's gear, recording facility or location. Again, depending on your needs, the size of the facility and the type of equipment that they own may all be important to you.
However, I believe that none of these things actually matter!
That is quite a bold statement to make. Think about it - do you, as an independent “struggling” artist, really need to record in a recording facility fully equipped with the best that there is; like a Solid State Logic (SSL) 4000G+, 48 input mixing desk, with racks and racks of gear including vintage Neve preamps that your favourite band used to record their music on? Obviously our favourite bands and artists are used as a reference point for the music that we want to make. Up-and-coming artists may look at the mixing desk used to mix the artists record, what type of preamp was used to record his/her vocals, what type of studio monitors were used, etc.
Concentrate on the music
If you have thought about some of these things, I am here to tell you (again) that none of those things actually matter. Why would I say that they don’t matter? Recording in a beautiful studio with the best equipment is probably every artists dream scenario when creating their music. My simple answer is that, no matter how good the gear is, no matter how great your engineer is, and no matter how good your song is mixed, they all fail miserably at making a bad song sound great - and therein lies the answer. Forget the gear, concentrate on the music.
If you have a great song, it does not matter where or how you recorded it, people will love it. I cannot even count the amount of times that I meet new artists at my home studio and the first thing that they do is look around at the room, the equipment, and out of the window. We then proceed to talk about their project and I start playing them some of the work I have done. After listening to the tracks, this is usually what transpires.
Artist: “I know this song! Did you produce it?”
Me: “Yes I did, everything was recorded and engineered in this room.”
Artist: “Really? Where did you record the vocals?”
Me: “Right there where you are standing.”
Artist: “Wow, I always thought you needed to have a huge studio to get your tracks to sound like that…”
And the conversation goes on and on...
Concentrate on the song! It is your SONG that listeners will be speaking about and not where it was recorded. This simplifies your career as an artist even more; focus on writing good songs and giving a great performance/rendition of it, the rest will take care of itself.
Still don’t believe me? Watch this video of YouTube sensation Tyler Ward (singer/songwriter) recording a song at a coffee shop at the airport - all through his iPhone...
[Moeneeb Galant]
Moeneeb Galant is a music producer, songwriter & engineer, in the business for almost 10 years. He has worked with artists such as; Jarrad Ricketts, Clint Brink, Lloyd Jansen; Chad Saaiman and Ebrahiem Inglis. Founder of Gimme Moe Productions, Moeneeb focuses on recording, production, composing, voice-overs, editing, mixing and mastering.
