Life

Thursday on a Tuesday

One of my favorite bands growing up was ‘Thursday’. Every once in awhile I’ll listen back to one of their albums, although I have mostly grown out of heavier music. I’ve always admired the sincerity of their music and lyrics.

The band recently put their new album up for streaming and I figured I’d give it a chance. About 10 seconds in, I knew what the topic of my blog post was going to be for today. Without getting overly technical, the engineering and mastering of the tracks totally destroyed the sonics of the album. It had been compressed in volume so bad that it was a constant mess of distortion. Honestly, my first thought was they self-recorded the album. It sounded that bad to me. 

As a side note, there has been a trend over the past 10 years to make songs as loud as possible. This probably isn’t news to anyone that is familiar with the music industry. There are a couple of reasons for this phenomenon. First, radio stations used to compete to have the loudest signal because studies show people will favor a louder song, even if its just 1 decible louder. Second, consumer devices such as laptops have limited volume output and record labels, bands, and engineers all strive to be the loudest. Problem is, as things get louder, more distortion becomes audible. There is a finite amount of volume you can get out of current audio formats.

To my surprise, nobody had seemed to notice all the distortion on the message board I frequent. It was actually the opposite. There were numerous posts from fans saying how amazing the album sounds. I realize I am more sensitive to this kind of stuff that the average person, but I really feel the distortion was at a level to be apparent to anyone. So, I decided to leave a post on this site. A couple hours later I had noticed the singer of the band left me a reply as follows:

…The LOUDER your master is, the worse it sounds under these circumstances… Dave Fridmann mixes and masters EXTREMELY loud…

I just about fell out of my chair. Not because a childhood hero listened to something I had to say, but rather I realized how sad things have become in the recording industry. Not only was it not self-recorded like I thought, it was done with a big name producer. His defense for the songs sounding bad is that the volumes have been raised so much that it’s unbearable to listen to it on anything other than a nice sound system. What? Really?

So we’ve finally come full circle. It’s now at the point where we’ve raised levels so much that it sounds like complete garbage on just about any device. The whole argument of increasing volume in the first place was so it sounded good on ipods and laptops with limited volume output.

Why even have to defend this? Couldn’t they just make a record that sounded good with a lower volume? I’m not saying that I don’t try and get volumes up as much as I can, but I’m not about to ruin a record while doing it.

I guess the moral of all of this is, it didn’t matter to anyone other than me. Why should I waste my time caring about something that ultimately won’t matter to the consumer? I guess I still have some pride left in me.

Thoughts on Audio Recording in 2011

So much has changed in the world of recording in the last eight years. Some days I think it’s been a blessing. Other days, I feel as if technology is making it impossible for me to continue on. If it weren’t for computers, I would have never been able to start recording on my own. Prior to the 90’s, a vast majority of songs were tracked to tape and required large amounts of expensive equipment that I would have never been able to afford. On the other hand, technology keeps making it easier for a less experienced person to track their own songs. For a vast majority of musicians, a home recording will serve its purpose just fine. I can’t help but feel hypocritical to complain about all of this. The same reasons that I was able to get my start are the same reasons I can’t keep going.

The industry has quickly evolved into a pro-sumer market filled with emulations and sample-packs. No longer is an engineer required to know how to tune something as crucial as a snare drum. Can’t find that snare tone you like? Just download the pre-recorded samples of your favorite bands snare. Same goes for stuff like guitar tones. You can get emulations of virtually any amplifier these days. Everything is based on a some sound another engineer has already made successful. It’s made it so incredibly simple for anyone with a computer to get a semi-legit recording. I say semi-legit because for 95% of the population who have limited musical knowledge, it sounds like a passable end product. Most music is consumed through devices such as laptops and ipod headphones which have very little detail anyways. I can’t really blame someone for wanting to save money by recording their songs themselves. If it’s not going to matter to the consumer, what’s the difference?

But… I have a confession. I’m as guilty as everyone else for using these tools. I’ve used drum samples and guitar emulations in my work numerous times. For me to sit here and grumble over peoples use of these tools is beyond hypocritical, though I can’t help but feel the context I’ve used these tools were different than most recordings. I’ve never set out to recreate the sound of another song. I’ve always used these tools to translate the song the best I could from a live environment to a recording.

For me, the problem isn’t that these tools exist. The problem is the artists and labels know these tools are at their disposal. They demand to sound like something that has already been proven to be successful. Why take the risk and pioneer your own sound and style when you can go with something with a proven track record? From a business standpoint, it makes complete sense. This really isn’t a new problem for the music industry, it’s just been very accelerated as of late.

Audio engineering has quickly turned into one of those crazy math problems where you’re given the answer and you have to find the ‘X’ variable. Music isn’t math. I refuse to accept that there is an answer.

The end of the beginning and the beginning of the end.

I’m going to start by giving a few reason as to why I started this blog. I prefer not to talk about myself so this will be awkward at first. I’d rather listen about other peoples lives most of the time.

1. I’ve realized lately that I have a lot to say and decided this is the best medium for me to use. I’ve always felt as if talking to people about my life was odd. I don’t want to come off as if I’m talking myself up or that I am better than anyone, because I’m not.
2. I hope to make people think about things from a different angle. I’m not here to convince anyone that my opinion is right. I simply just want to make people aware that my opinion exists.
3. I want a place for me to collect my thoughts so I can watch how my perception of the world changes over time. I want to be able to hold myself accountable in the future.

So here it is, my first post:

I’ve been a ‘musician’ since the age of 16. For the past 10 years it’s pretty safe to say a huge majority of my time has been spent living the life of a broke artist. It has its ups and downs, just like everything. I got to see a lot of the country, I’ve met some great people, and I feel as if I appreciate the smaller things in life more than the average person.

Up until a few months ago, when people asked what I did for a living I usually responded with ‘music producer’. It always seemed like an odd answer to me and usually provoked more questions than I am comfortable with. That was my response only because I spent a majority of my time either working with kids in the studio or working on my own music. It just seemed like the right thing to answer with. It’s not like I woke up one day and decided that’s what I was going to do for a living. It just started to take up a majority of my time and it became something I did everyday. I never made substantial money from it but it got me by for many years. 

I never really had a plan. The closest thing I had to a plan was to make enough money helping people with their music until my own songs started making money. This might sound like poor planning but it’s not. I prefer to live my life this way for the most part. I feel as if plans force you down a path and you become unaware of other options that may come up in life. I like to leave things open ended. I’m not trying to live out my life like it has been written in a book. I’m here writing my book day by day.

As of the last few months, I’ve gradually moved away from working on music as much. I always told myself that I would never give up on my dreams and aspirations in the music industry. This is the day my 16 year old self dreaded. So here I am, letting my dream go. Funny thing is, I’m excited and happy about it.

So what’s the force behind me moving on? I feel as though the music industry is in limbo. I know this doesn’t come as news to a lot of people. It’s kind of the current trend to bash the music industry. I’m not upset or angry about it. I just don’t see how me being a musician/producer can fit into the current equation that is the music industry. There are tons of people who will still go on and have a successful career and make money. I’m not bitter because I couldn’t make it work. I have much respect for those who have or will in the future. 

When I first started recording, I felt like I was solving a problem. It was right when digital computer recording came out. It was cutting edge to be able to buy a digital audio recording setup and be able to record yourself without the need for a huge studio and tons of expenses. I worked at a pet shop for 4 years and saved up the money to buy everything I needed. I literally knew only of a couple other people in the area that was capable of doing what I did at the price I was able to do it for. Now it’s 8 years later and the landscape has changed. Costs have come down so much that pretty much anyone can afford to buy the equipment necessary. Yes, there is experience involved but anyone with enough time and dedication can figure it out like I did. Only difference is, I’m a few years ahead of everyone else at this point.

I’ve realized that there is no longer a problem and thus nothing left for me to solve. I enjoy creating solutions. When the problem no longer exists, it’s time for me to move on. So that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Lately I’ve returned to an old passion of mine that had been lost over the course of the last 10 years of music. I’ve been spending more time working on web development. Just like music production, this seems to be something that I’m gradually sliding into. I have always had a love for computers and programming in general. I’ve been brushing up on skills I had neglected and really getting into the swing of things. I’m happy to say that I’ve found a bunch of new problems that I’m eager to solve.

A few months ago, I went to a friend who has been running a concert promotion company in Michigan called ‘Fusion Shows’ for the last 3 years. They are not dissimilar from the company ‘LiveNation/Ticketmaster’ except that they’re looking towards the future of live music and have a far superior business model. I told him some ideas that had been floating around in my head for a long time. We both equally realize there are quite a few problems with the music industry and both want to change things. It just so happens our goals and aspirations line up perfectly.

I’m currently working on a web platform that will end up being the next version of fusionshows.com. I haven’t been more excited for any other project in my life. So what is so special about another music website? Well I don’t want to give away everything but I do believe this will be a big deal for the Michigan music community. I’ve set out to solve a laundry list of problems that have arose from the downfall of Myspace. The internet has become so fragmented for musicians and there’s no longer that central place for them to gather. I want to bring that back. I want Michigan’s music scene to have a place on the internet again. 

So here I am, with a problem that’s waiting to be solved. I feel like I did when I was 17 again. Funny thing is, I finally have a comfortable answer to the question ‘What do you do for a living?’:

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome.

So what am I an Entrepreneur of? Everything. As funny as that sounds, it’s not far off from the truth. So many things fascinate me. I’m constantly thinking of how I would do something different to make things better. That’s why I started recording music in the first place. I was 17 in a recording studio and was unhappy with the outcome. I felt there had to be a way for me to do it better. Looking back, ‘Entrepreneur’ should have been the answer to the career question all along. I wasn’t trying to be a music producer. I was trying to find a way to help kids make better music without spending a lot of money. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have no idea where this new venture will take me and quite frankly I don’t care. I just hope to solve as many problems as I can along the way. Hopefully I can give a kid the platform that is needed for them to launch a music career. That’s my goal. That’s the problem I’m solving.