This post was first published in Feb 2014 at projectstudiohandbook.com/PSHforum
Never underestimate the power of marketing. We might scoff at the banal messages we are bombarded with daily but advertising affects us in many ways.
One way is to subtly build a picture of a culture that serves the needs of manufactures. And the web has proved to be the perfect place for it. Masquerading as Independant forum posts and user generated content, gear manufactures are leveraging opinion to pedal us old tech and new.
So we are constantly told that expensive and dated tech from the 70s is what you need because loads of successful records were made with it. And there's no shortage of venerable producers and engineers appearing in manufactures ads telling us so. All being paid or getting freebies of course.
But when was the last time you were able to conduct a satisfactory comparison between mic pres, or (god help us) analogue to digital convertors?
Yes there can be subtle differences, but they are insignificant compared to how you use them and the contribution your creative decisions make to the finished product.
An example is the reproductions of the old Abbey Rd EMI tech. In our hearts we all know the reason those records sound great has a lot more to do with the talents of Mike Scott, Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith etc than the tech they wrestled with. Those guys created great records because they were talented and experimented all the time with whatever they had lying around.
Next time we see a great review of a piece of kit in a magazine, remember that those reviewers rely on the advertising revenue from the manufactures who's gear they review. That's why they rarely tell us anything bad.
So, we'll focus on providing useful theory, and you can decide for yourself what is a great piece of gear and how to use it to create something different.
Lets not forget that unless we want to copy what's gone before, we can be creative with ANY gear.
OK OK, we know. That's 2 blog posts on this subject! We'll stop now.
Next up, we've decided to focus on completing the Audio Theory playlist videos over the next few months. This stuff is so essential, there's no point posting the synthesis and digital audio theory videos until they're done. The first 2 or 3 will be uploaded in March.
Thanks for reading. (It only cost you 10 mins of your time!)
Never underestimate the power of marketing. We might scoff at the banal messages we are bombarded with daily but advertising affects us in many ways.
One way is to subtly build a picture of a culture that serves the needs of manufactures. And the web has proved to be the perfect place for it. Masquerading as Independant forum posts and user generated content, gear manufactures are leveraging opinion to pedal us old tech and new.
So we are constantly told that expensive and dated tech from the 70s is what you need because loads of successful records were made with it. And there's no shortage of venerable producers and engineers appearing in manufactures ads telling us so. All being paid or getting freebies of course.
But when was the last time you were able to conduct a satisfactory comparison between mic pres, or (god help us) analogue to digital convertors?
Yes there can be subtle differences, but they are insignificant compared to how you use them and the contribution your creative decisions make to the finished product.
An example is the reproductions of the old Abbey Rd EMI tech. In our hearts we all know the reason those records sound great has a lot more to do with the talents of Mike Scott, Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith etc than the tech they wrestled with. Those guys created great records because they were talented and experimented all the time with whatever they had lying around.
Next time we see a great review of a piece of kit in a magazine, remember that those reviewers rely on the advertising revenue from the manufactures who's gear they review. That's why they rarely tell us anything bad.
So, we'll focus on providing useful theory, and you can decide for yourself what is a great piece of gear and how to use it to create something different.
Lets not forget that unless we want to copy what's gone before, we can be creative with ANY gear.
OK OK, we know. That's 2 blog posts on this subject! We'll stop now.
Next up, we've decided to focus on completing the Audio Theory playlist videos over the next few months. This stuff is so essential, there's no point posting the synthesis and digital audio theory videos until they're done. The first 2 or 3 will be uploaded in March.
Thanks for reading. (It only cost you 10 mins of your time!)
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