The Recording Revolution Turns Two

Two years ago this week I humbly began what would become The Recording Revolution. Starting purely as a reference to point my friends and fellow musicians to when they would come to me for recording and gear advice, that simple blog has grown to a massive online community that is reaching across over 40 countries, helping people make better music in their home and project studios.

Building A Recording Philosophy

With over 300+ blog posts and over 100+ free video tutorials I hope you’ve found your time at The Recording Revolution valuable and enjoyable. I hope that you not only have learned more about your craft, but you have gone and applied that knowledge to actual recordings. We only truly learn from experience and I can’t magically give that to you.

I can however help you build a philosophy or framework, through which you can make better recording and mixing decisions. In reflecting over the most helpful things I’ve ever learned in the world of making recorded music, here are five major axioms or “rules” I live and die by in the studio. They have served me well and I hope they are of benefit to you and your music!

1. The price (or amount) of gear you own has almost nothing to do with how good your recordings or mixes will turn out.

I still seem to find people fighting me on this, but they are wasting their energy fighting an irrelevant battle. It’s true no matter what you think! Gear is not the solution to your recording woes. People would like to believe it is, purely because if that were true, then the solution is simple: buy better gear. If what I’m saying is true, that gear isn’t the deciding factor, then the solution is troubling: you just need to get better at recording or mixing. You see? It’s way more work to practice recording or mixing than it is to just buy more stuff.

2. The more recording/mixing projects you complete, the better you will become as an engineer.

If you simply never finish a project, then you will seriously handicap your chances of rapid improvement. The simple act of completing an album has tremendous benefits as it allows you to analyze what worked and what didn’t. You have more of a game plan for how you want the next project to go, and that my friends is how you begin to learn.

3. The fewer choices you have to make, the better your decisions will be.

I find time and time again that I work faster and more creatively when I’m not bogged down debating which compressor plugin to use or which microphone to put on my guitar cab. If I limit myself (even if purely in my mind) to a select few tools in the studio, I can quickly grab them and go. If things to don’t sound quite right, I can adjust and tweak what I have rather than immediately switch to a new tool all together. This keeps me focused on the music, not the gear.

4. Always try something new.

If you go into a project with nothing new that you want to try (technique, approach, effect, etc) then you’ll never push yourself. I find myself bringing at least one major new thing to try on every recording or mixing project, and I usually over do it. But that’s OK. I use the idea a lot, learn how it can or can’t work, and then maybe next time I dial it back in to a more subtle level. Each project you work on, your bag of tricks will grow and you’ll be using them with more class each time!

5. Only do what serves the song.

At the end of the day, we are creating music here. Whether in the recording phase or the mastering phase, everything you choose to do or not do to the audio should be filtered through the lens of how it helps or hurts the song at hand. So many young engineers ask questions like, “What is the right EQ for a snare drum?” or “Should you use delay or reverb on vocals?” These are the wrong questions to be asking. The better questions would be “Does this EQ curve help the snare drum to fit in the mix and give the song the groove it needs?” or “Does delay give the vocal the right vibe here or does reverb?”

Only make decisions based on how they affect the song’s impact on the listener. When in doubt, simply stop and try to listen to the mix as a music lover and listener. Is it working? Are you bobbing your head? Is it connecting with you? Or is something distracting? Fix the distracing things and just make great music. That’s what all of this is about ultimately, not technique or gear. It’s always about the music!