So I was talking with a studio owner about engineering, and he asked me:
“Do you play any harmonic instrument?”
“Well, I play guitar very badly. I’m good enough to play the Nervous Breakdown EP, or the entire Ramones’s catalog, and I am not worried to play any better.”
“But you should, and quickly. All the best engineers play guitar or keyboard very well. Professional level. If the singer sing in a different scale, you should know it. You have to be able to spot a 7th out of place and bla-bla-bla.”
So my question is: Do you guys play guitar (or keyboard, or flute, etc) really well (minor and major escales, all the theoric shit)? And this is important to your job as engineers?
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
2I play the hairy harmonica pretty good.
steve albini
Electrical Audio
sa at electrical dot com
Quicumque quattuor feles possidet insanus est.
Electrical Audio
sa at electrical dot com
Quicumque quattuor feles possidet insanus est.
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
3sassi wrote:All the best engineers play guitar or keyboard very well. Professional level. If the singer sing in a different scale, you should know it. You have to be able to spot a 7th out of place and bla-bla-bla.”
Since when was this the business or responsibility of an engineer? Presumably their job is to record whatever the client wants to record, not to be a musical sounding board for their duds.
I'm guessing it would be useful but ultimately not really essential. Plus, there's no reason not to improve given your environment right? Right!
run joe run wrote:Kerble your enthusiasm.
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
4I can play all of Damaged. So yeah, I'm much more qualified to press record than that asshatwearer.
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
5My quick answer is "an engineer does not need to know anything at all about music theory, like songwriting or chord voices or anything, but does need to know about sound frequencies, and what they sound like, and how they work well together or work badly together". Okay, yeah, you could just stand there and turn knobs until something sounded alright, but I don't think that's the best way to do it.
I think an engineer should be familiar with instruments, drums, guitars, bass, and vocals, as much as possible, to understand how the instruments work, what they are supposed to do, how they should or should not sound... and if they don't sound "right", be able to figure out what needs to change.
But I don't think an engineer has to know music theory, at all, as far as "this song is in Eb minor, and on this one chord here, you're singing a G which really should be a Gb, otherwise you are singing the major third which is not part of this scale" or stuff like that. An engineer can understand that stuff, and have an opinion about it, but that is really the job of the band to know these things, and if there's a "[/i]producer[/i]" involved, then it's his job too. But not the engineer.
A "[/i]producer[/i]" should know music theory, for sure I think, and should know how to write great songs, and what makes a great song, and how to make things sound a certain way not by changing the settings on the amps, but instead by changing what sort of instruments are being used, and how are they arranged, and which instrument is going to be louder here, and quieter there, things like that. What kind of drum beats will get people dancing? Knowing music theory really well is something that would be very helpful to a good "[/i]producer[/i]"
I know music theory pretty well. When I listen to a band playing live, or even a single musician playing live, I usually have opinions about how the engineering could be done, how I think it should be recorded, or what's a good way to amplify it.
And I sometimes have ideas about parts of the songwriting or instrumentation that could be done "better" in terms of my personal taste. Of course there are musicians who write songs where I couldn't dream of a way to improve them. And there are engineers that do way better than I could, and I know it, so I wouldn't wanna change anything there.
But most of the time, I have ideas about the engineering side of things that I would change (like, "that guitar sound is kinda awful, but if you cut the mud around 100Hz and the icepicks around 3-4K, it could sound a lot better") and ideas about the production side of things that I would change, even if it's as simple as "wow, that singer would be able to actually sing the notes, so much better, if the melody was moved up an octave, or a 5th or something". Or "man, that song sucks bad, you should really not put it on your album" in really bad situations.
I don't think any of it is based on my understanding of music theory, though. If you listen to a lot of music, and *really* listen to it, you can start to truly hear and identify what sounds good and what sounds bad to you. You don't have to know music theory to listen to a band playing and notice that one of the strings on the bass is out of tune. You just have to learn what "in tune" and "out of tune" sound like.
I think an engineer should be familiar with instruments, drums, guitars, bass, and vocals, as much as possible, to understand how the instruments work, what they are supposed to do, how they should or should not sound... and if they don't sound "right", be able to figure out what needs to change.
But I don't think an engineer has to know music theory, at all, as far as "this song is in Eb minor, and on this one chord here, you're singing a G which really should be a Gb, otherwise you are singing the major third which is not part of this scale" or stuff like that. An engineer can understand that stuff, and have an opinion about it, but that is really the job of the band to know these things, and if there's a "[/i]producer[/i]" involved, then it's his job too. But not the engineer.
A "[/i]producer[/i]" should know music theory, for sure I think, and should know how to write great songs, and what makes a great song, and how to make things sound a certain way not by changing the settings on the amps, but instead by changing what sort of instruments are being used, and how are they arranged, and which instrument is going to be louder here, and quieter there, things like that. What kind of drum beats will get people dancing? Knowing music theory really well is something that would be very helpful to a good "[/i]producer[/i]"
I know music theory pretty well. When I listen to a band playing live, or even a single musician playing live, I usually have opinions about how the engineering could be done, how I think it should be recorded, or what's a good way to amplify it.
And I sometimes have ideas about parts of the songwriting or instrumentation that could be done "better" in terms of my personal taste. Of course there are musicians who write songs where I couldn't dream of a way to improve them. And there are engineers that do way better than I could, and I know it, so I wouldn't wanna change anything there.
But most of the time, I have ideas about the engineering side of things that I would change (like, "that guitar sound is kinda awful, but if you cut the mud around 100Hz and the icepicks around 3-4K, it could sound a lot better") and ideas about the production side of things that I would change, even if it's as simple as "wow, that singer would be able to actually sing the notes, so much better, if the melody was moved up an octave, or a 5th or something". Or "man, that song sucks bad, you should really not put it on your album" in really bad situations.
I don't think any of it is based on my understanding of music theory, though. If you listen to a lot of music, and *really* listen to it, you can start to truly hear and identify what sounds good and what sounds bad to you. You don't have to know music theory to listen to a band playing and notice that one of the strings on the bass is out of tune. You just have to learn what "in tune" and "out of tune" sound like.
"The bastards have landed"
www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album
www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
6steve wrote:I play the hairy harmonica pretty good.
I concur.
<ot>
An engineer needs working ears. Some engineers need only half-working ears.
</ot>
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
7steve wrote:I play the hairy harmonica pretty good.
I'm unfamiliar with this particular term, but is it safe to assume that it's related to the "roast beef harmonica"?
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
8scott wrote:My quick answer is...
not quick.
it's not the length, it's the gersch
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
9It's like expecting an electrician to do plumbing.
"Well, since you're here, can you just-"
"No."
"Well, since you're here, can you just-"
"No."
The importance of play guitar well in engineering
10Steve V. wrote:I can play all of Damaged. So yeah, I'm much more qualified to press record than that asshatwearer.
Qualified to suck dick.