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Old 04-08-2014, 07:40 PM   #62
insub
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Louisville, KY, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by norbury brook View Post
There are many traps for young players...
The world is full of marketing departments trying to convince you that equipment and specifications can substitute for talent & hard work. This is not true, the 'performance' transcends the medium every time. The performance includes musicianship, vocals, orchestration, arrangement and the mixing decisions. These are all under your control and have little to do with the DAW software you use or plugins you have.
This statement is what i believe this whole thread was truly meant to be about. It certainly resonates with my own experience, and is the same message I find myself trying to convey to other musicians. Especially the ones who are new to recording. My own band falls into this category.

In the past I discovered that I was falling victim to gear lust. I always thought, "If I just had that piece of gear, I would really be stellar!", but over the years I have come to realize that all that great new gear just created more distractions to keep me from becoming a better musician. In the end nothing can replace hard earned skills or pure talent. My cousin reminded me,"Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." I have come to grips that I have nearly hit the limit of my musical talent in regards to the fact that I have hit the limit of the amount of time that I can afford to allot to the creation of music and overall practice to become better at my instrument. While a bit depressing, it has been a quite freeing conclusion.

What is much more important than having the best gear is to have the gear that fits your workflow the best. I think that limiting your available resources truly forces you to be more creative in reaching your end goals. I used to produce on a Yamaha RM1x and though the sounds of its XG engine were horrible compared to my Motif ES. I ultimately made more (quantity) and more interesting beats on that old box because I knew it like the back of my hand. When I worked on it man and machine became one.

My tools have gotten much better over the years, and my skill sets have changed and improved, but I have never become a true master of my instrument. I am only a mediocre keyboardist, an average or better home recording engineer (if you can call it that)and now life responsibilities have taken priority over musical development. If I could do it all over I would have focused all the time and energy I spent learning the technical aspects of recording, and music in general, learning to be a better musician on an instrument.

Don't get me wrong. I love playing and recording music. I just mean to say that if you look at the history of recorded music and compare the equipment used to the fidelity of the equipment that the average person can afford to put in his/her bedroom, the quality of that recording really does boil down to the talents of the musicians who performed it and the engineers who recorded and mixed it.

@YEP: I don't think I've ever seen such an elegant forum post before. I appreciate your contribution to this discussion. I enjoyed your posts and the OP, especially.
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