I see your point here, but just barely.Catoogie wrote:It seems as if most of you are suggesting room treatment but lots of the records I like and I'm talking classic records made by legendary producers and engineers have been made in less than 'ideal' acoustic enviroments. Houses, Barns, Cabanas etc...... I don't put a lot of stock in fancy high end acoustic treament. I think some is needed but it can be achieved 'ghetto' style and as long as you are capturing great performances you will be making great records.
These albums you speak of may have been recorded in less than ideal acoustic spaces, but as you said these were 'Legendary producers and engineers' chances are they could have recorded a group of "Great" musicians in the men?s room at a bus station, and got good results. Most folks during the 'Startup' phase won?t have the kind of experience, time, or incredible musicians to create the magic (most of the time).
So yes, Good songs, Good musicians should come first, but having an accurate monitoring environment (even more so than a tracking environment) should be right up there.
When I started four-tracking I struggled so much with getting drum tones, and mixes that were under my control. I will stress "Under my Control" because it all felt so random and un-reproducible. What I heard in my tiny little nook of a control room never translated correctly.
I then was fortunate enough to assist in some good studios, with well treated control rooms, and I was like holy shit this is actually a lot easier than I thought. I was like hey I use a 57 on the snare why does this sound so much better? It wasn?t the pre-amp, it wasn?t the processing, it wasn?t even the player, it was the fact that the engineer could hear that the 57 needed to be moved 1/2" to the left or right or whatever. After it was moved it sounded right, and there was a difference that could be remembered re-created.
Anyway, ghetto sound treatment suggestments can often be treating the wrong problem. Like the bookshelves full of books, or the mattress turned on it?s side, or my personal favorite is when people cover there entire room with packing foam or egg crates. 99% of the time the problems with home studios (because of small dimensions, and low ceilings) are of course low end buildup. Nothing short of the correct materials (rigid fiberglass, mineral wool, ect) can even touch the more common problems people experience. Good news is these materials are not that expensive (relative to gear).
Sorry about the diatribe, but my enjoyment of recording improved 10 fold when I first started to properly treat my environments.
Thanks