Post
by themagicmanmdt » Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:54 pm
My chiming in on what my head rattled around says:
I love you, prof, but the analogy to a recording engineer (which is, in reality, an artist) to a mechanic (which has a set way on which he must operate) isn't a fair one. I know what you're saying, though! It's all a tool; make it sound good, who cares what you use or don't use or limit to or don't limit to - whatever method (8 tracks or 200) is the best, use it.
It's all subjective, of course.
There is no absolute.
Agreeing or disagreeing is a waste of time.
There's just personal work ethics.
Myself: Record with as few mics as possible on a given source. That's just the sound that I like. Too many microphones on things makes things sound way too unnatural, in an unnatural way. I like unnatural in a natural way. (Opaque, I know.)
This, in turn, really lowers my overall track count on sessions; so, therefore, 24 tracks is tops that I've ever done. Usually I dig doing 12-16 tracks plus some effects sends to sum to 24. That's a lot of instrumentation to me when drums only take up 4 tracks, guitars 1 or 2 a piece, vocals 1 to 2 for the main and one for each background, etc etc etc.
Last comment: There's still something magical to the 'third sound' - the sound Brian Wilson described as when you've got two or more different instruments in the exact same spot (or bus or tape track) in the mix. That's the stuff that rocks my world. So, I tend to really love tracks that do that. That's why I stick with my DAW as 8 in / 8 out. I'll use more tracks actually *in* the computer, but I always have to condense them to 8 tracks to mix.
It's the benefit of the 'sound' of bouncing down, without having to commit to the 'process' of bouncing down.
That's my thing.
And that's subjective, too.
I heart huckabees.
we are the village green
preservation society
god bless +6 tape
valves and serviceability
*chief tech and R&D shaman at shadow hills industries*