Had a recent “conversation” on another website with a musician who was unhappy with the vocal recordings he was making. On reflection, what he is doing is to me an indication of what I feel is “wrong” with many current uses of technology in music.
In the course of the discussion, this guy mentioned that he preferred the way his old cassette recording sounded as compared to his modern digital recordings. The facts are that his old recordings were a microphone plugged into a tape recorder. His new recordings are using a digital audio recording computer program, and he now has access to all kinds of tools (EQ, compression, reverb, etc.) that he didn’t have in the old days.
The problem seems to be that he doesn’t really know how to use these tools that he now has available. By way of using them too much, he actually damaged the sound of his music. He felt like the tools were there, he ought to use them. The fact that he didn’t understand how they worked, or what his recordings really needed, had no impact on his decisions. Is it any wonder that he didn’t like the results?
My response to this situation is that technology is just another tool, with which you must apply technique to get the best results. A new tool will not help you if you don't know how to use it.
