Originally Posted by Bruce Swedien  Gearslutz All......
I hope you find this interesting.....
I think that even animals souls are affected by the sound of music....
I have noticed that even animals souls are affected by the sound of music. My wife, Bea's old mare "Susie"(who has since passed away.) used to get nervous and up-tight out on the trail sometimes.
Bea would sing softly to her and Susie would calm down almost instantly and be noticibly soothed and relaxed. Susie would even try to sing herself, by making sort of humming, grunting sounds back to Bea as they rode happily out on the trail.
I have noticed that whenever Bea and I have been overseas for a couple of weeks, when we come home we love to listen to Country Music for a day or two. I think that may be because Country Music is truly "American" music.When music makes you want to dance, that is largely an instinctive reaction to the rhythm of the music.
Certain types of religious music can make you feel quite holy even if you are not. A good example of that, for me, is 'Gregorian Chant' Catholic Church music. Music of certain types can be annoying or downright painful, if you are not 'in the mood'.
What I always try to find in the music that I record, is, those details in the music that make me react emotionally, and then capitalize on those elements, and make certain that they don't get lost or minimized in the recording process. I try never to leave anything behind, or overlook any detail in the music, on the multi-track tape that is important to the emotional statement of the piece of music that I am working on. When I record a song and we are doing the rhythm track, as soon as we are finished with the very basic elements, I make a computerized mix of those elements to freeze my own gut reaction to the music at this very early stage in it's production. This way I have the ability to get back to those instinctive reactions to the rhythm elements before I have had a chance to think about the music a great deal, and to cerebralize it into the wastebasket.
One of the toughest thing to keep in focus, in recording modern popular music, is the fact that a music mix must feel spontaneous in order to communicate a feeling to one's emotions. With the attention to detail that is necessary in recording modern pop music we are forced to concentrate on small details, or elements of the composition for long periods of time. This makes it very easy to lose your perspective on the whole musical emotion of the piece of music that you are working on. I guess it becomes a sort of like the old saw "You can't see the forest for the trees."
In the old days things moved much faster in the studio. In the 1950's and early 1960's we would book the studio for a three hour session, and when we were through we would walk out of the studio with four songs finished, ready to master. It is possible to keep your perspective, but only if you learn to trust your instincts as much as possible. The inherent beauty and power of using your instincts is that they become more diverse and stronger the more you use them.
Using your instincts when mixing music can become an incredible tool to help you "know" what the music must sound like to be effective and above all, entertaining. Once you learn to trust your instincts, you will somehow "know" what musical values are essential. You may not know exactly how and when things will happen (the actual musical events themselves), but all the characteristics along the way become clearly visible, and the end result is musically far more believable. The ability to trust your instincts, takes a long time to master. Even given that knowledge, most recording people can't ever seem to accept their emotions when it comes to recording music. I constantly refer to my earliest mixes, of a song. Even more, to my computerized mixes of the original rhythm track recording session, to get back to my very first instinctive reaction to the music, the moment it first influenced me. That is the only time that I will be genuinely able to react to the music emotionally and not cerebrally.
It’s only at that point in the recording of a piece of music, that I will make sound volume level and color judgements that are totally emotional in their relationship to each other, as perceived by my psyche, with all my musical experiences subconciously effecting the outcome of what I am doing with the music at that moment.I think I am lucky, in that I love details in anything that I am involved in. Especially music recording. I love the musical aspect of what we do in the studio. I love the technical end of what we do in the studio. I think I love the computer and technical aspect of modern music recording so much that I don't ever get bored with it. Every small, little detail fascinates me. I think I have become a bonafide, card-carrying computer nerd! Another strange thing about my personality is that I absolutely hate surprises.
Possibly I am a control freak.
In recording music I want to know exactly how every technical aspect of the process will work. That's not easy when one of the most fascinating things about music is it's spontaneity! I have always felt that in recording music you can luck into or luck up on something once, but never twice. It's like getting lightning to strike twice in the same place.
I try to reduce the mechanical and mundane elements of the recording process to pure science. When I press a button I want to know exactly what the result will be.
I consider myself an artist, in the recording studio. As such.... I try always to remember that just as a fine artist such as a Van Gogh, never attempts to paint the precise reality of a scene or landscape,(which he cannot do anyway), instead he captures the emotion of his interpretation on the canvas...
I realized long ago that I couldn't paint the reality of a sonic image. We can't even define reality. It’s the feeling of the music that I am after. I want people to be able to listen to the music and to experience the sincerity of it's emotion. I don't want to hide the feeling of the music under a lot of meaningless, technical white-wash. I am very much turned off by recordings that are, to me, the obvious result of someone merely "knobbing-about" in the studio trying to make a recording that sounds very much like all the other recordings of the day.
Not that I am against using any and all tricks-of-the-trade. That's not it at all. I will do anything neccessary to paint a sonic image that has both entertainment and feeling as part of it's tapestry. It's when the technical covers the primitive that we lose the passion of music! I think, in addition to listening to our good instincts, we absolutely must have at our disposal, a thorough working knowledge of the technical tools of our trade. This aspect of the industry is in a constant state of change, so a great deal of reading and experimentation must be a part of our daily life.
Skill, to me, generally speaking, means using the tools at our disposal, both natural and technical, in combination, to influence our technique.
Development of our recording technique, as individual recording people, it would seem, ultimately results from our recording "philosophy" but also, it actually evolves into philosophy as well. In other words, aren't the two, Technique and Philosophy, in music recording, actually dependent on each other?
To clarify the issue a bit... to me, in music recording, technique is philosophy put into practice, but at the same time it is also the practical display of the elements which produce our own individual recording philosophy. If you consider these things in the light of your own natural gifts and situation, you will see how they can help to make you a unique recording person.
You can be an individual with your own distinct 'Sonic Personality'.
There now, that didn't hurt a bit did it??? A bit dull but not too bad....
Bruce Swedien |