Experimenting with quirky ideas can help to create a fun and creative environment in the studio — and can sometimes provide genuinely inspirational sounds!
On paid sessions, every engineer has to get the job done. But it’s still important to find the time to learn your tools, discover new techniques — and foster creativity.
We live in an age in which production budgets are tight and every musician who wants it has access to decent recording tools. Consequently, many studio recording sessions are a bit shorter than they once were and they can be a bit more businesslike too: more of a focus on getting work done and less time for experimentation. As an engineer and owner of a commercial studio, I feel I must be reasonably confident that we’ll end up with something good before I choose to burn an hour setting up a mic inside a piano that’s sent to a Leslie speaker! But it wasn’t always this way, and I still feel quite strongly that a recording studio must be about more than good gear, competent engineering and nice acoustics: it should also be an environment that encourages creativity.
Even with a great live room to hand, it can help to try different spaces from time to time. (Drummers get to sit on a throne, so why can’t guitarists?!)In the early days of running my studio, I’d regularly experiment with unusual mic techniques. Things like recording an acoustic guitar in the toilet, or putting mics in a tube or bucket in front of a drum kit. The client would be on board with whatever crazy idea it was, and actively participate in its execution. Of course, the result would often sound awful. But it was nearly always fun and, sometimes, it injected some much‑needed energy into the session or provided that spark of inspiration we needed to push the production in an original and more interesting direction. I think it was healthy for clients and artists to see me enjoying and being creative in my work too, and I gained valuable experience of what might or might not work on future sessions. In other words, all this ‘play’ made me a better engineer!
The Play’s The Thing
Fortunately, my reviewing gear for Sound On Sound has bought me back some of that time to experiment and play in the studio. When evaluating most equipment, I’ll typically start by throwing a device in at the deep end on a real session and then, over the course of several sessions, building up an appreciation of its strengths and weaknesses in various scenarios that are encountered frequently in the studio. But this paints only part of the picture of what a device can do, and it’s often only when I start preparing some audio examples (to help our readers get a better feel for what I’m writing about) that more of what a device has to offer is truly revealed.
When I’m preparing audio examples for a review, it’s in a very different setting from a recording session and I’m in a very different head‑space..
A big reason for that is that when I’m preparing these examples, it’s in a very different setting from a recording session and I’m in a very different head‑space. There’s no time pressure for a start, and I’m not constrained by the need to serve a particular production or meet a client’s expectations. All I’m doing in these moments is experimenting, with no motive other than to figure out what the equipment can do. It’s just me, on my own, playing around and observing any meaningful differences made to the audio signals — and often I surprise myself by coming across at least one new way (and sometimes more) of using an EQ or a compressor that I probably wouldn’t have discovered if I’d just used it to do a job on a session. For instance, recently, when reviewing a hardware EQ, I found myself boosting and cutting frequencies to what I’d usually consider a stupidly dramatic degree. I was just seeing how the EQ behaved at extreme settings but I really liked the results and, having since bought that EQ, it’s a tactic I often now turn to when tracking.
Lots of tools can ‘do the job’ on a session, but if you take the time to really get to know what your gear is capable of, you’ll get more out of it when it matters.
That’s just one example of time spent experimenting with gear paying dividends, but whether I’m reviewing a mic, a bit of outboard, a plug‑in or whatever, I’m finding that it happens quite a lot. And it’s made me much more conscious of the need to make the time to do this sort of thing. In fact, I think that everyone can benefit from carving out specific periods for ‘practice’ or ‘play’. Obviously, this can have a direct benefit in that you get to understand your equipment in more depth, but it also encourages you to develop new techniques that can be quickly pulled out of your hat in recording or mixing sessions. And without it, there’s a risk that you get stuck in a rut, growing too comfortable using the same tools and techniques and pushing out similar results time and again — where’s the fun in that?!
Everyone can benefit from carving out specific periods for ‘practice’ or ‘play’... it encourages you to develop new techniques that can be quickly pulled out of your hat in recording or mixing sessions.
If you’re in the early stages of your journey in recording or mixing, then finding the space you need to be able to play and experiment should be pretty high up your list. Yes, you can learn a lot by watching other people do stuff on the Internet, and most of us can play with plug‑ins at home too, but finding your own inspiration and having direct hands‑on experience is hugely important. This is one of the positives of a well‑run audio course: as well as the structured learning environment, the course provider will give you access to facilities in which you can (carefully!) mess around. Alternatively, consider offering to help out with chores at a local studio in exchange for some downtime so you can play on your own time. For more seasoned engineers or those with paying clients, I think it’s about respecting the value of the creative aspect of ‘play’ in studio sessions, and taking the time to experiment for yourself outside the sessions (while still leaning on your tried‑and‑tested techniques to get results). In an informal way, I’ve been creating time in my sessions where there’s a sense of ‘off the clock’ fun. Most clients seem to value that and, even with brief periods of play, I get as much out of it as they do.
A Piece Of Work
I suspect, though, that many home producers will actually be faced with the opposite problem: spending too much time playing, and not focusing sharply enough on being productive and finishing projects. Struggling to let go of your creative endeavours as you chase perfection is a well‑trodden path to insanity, but with instant recall in our DAW software and the availability of every audio processing tool, avoiding this is arguably even harder today.
While self‑discipline isn’t the main focus of this article, in many respects it’s the flip side of the same coin, and if you start by defining the time in which you should be playing then, by implication, you’re also setting boundaries that tell you when you need to be more disciplined and your focus should be on being productive. If you find that side of things difficult you’re not alone, so I’ll leave you with one tip that many people who do this professionally will agree with: it’s really important to have deadlines to finish your productions. When your projects have a defined end point, you soon learn to let go and accept, in a positive way, that “this is the best I can do in the time I have.” Make a note of any ideas you’ve had or lessons you’ve learned along the way so that you can make use of them later. And you know what? It’s amazing just how often that project you felt you were being rushed to mix will sound great when you come back to it with fresh ears!