Last of the presentations

3/5/07

Even more presentations.
Producer’s covered: Steven Wilson; Trent Reznor; Phil Spectre; Groove Terminator…..

An interesting blend, to be sure!!
The things that struck me this week include:

Some of the equipment used by the Producers ‘at home’ was mentioned: Steven Wilson apparently has a home studio based around Logic 6.4 and a Mac G4. (He also has Digidesign TDM plug-ins and Apogee A/D D/A converters).

I was very inspired to hear that he’s still running a G4 and logic 6; but of course he has spent the big bucks on the high quality converters and the finest plug-ins. So there is a huge statement in all of this: yes it’s possible to do it all at home on your less than state of the art computer, but don’t cut corners on the audio fidelity!
This all seems to reinforce the point that the most exciting things in this audio game are often not the big bells and whistles items. As much as something inside me wants to go out and get the new 8 core Mac Pro (..because it’s there, why else??), I am learning to ignore these primal urges and strive instead for the fidelity.

Trent Reznor’s unique style was discussed.
Lisa made the point that he tends to be something of a niche producer – having such a distinct sound that people tend to come to him in order to get some of this sound in their material. This is an interesting point. His signature sound is obviously in demand, or else there would be no work out there for him. His sound tends to be aggressive, industrialised pop. And I would venture to say that he is good at achieving the balance that Steve commented on. His work does not tend to be so abrasive as to be overly painful. Rather, there is a balance of the hard with the soft and melodic: Abrasion is so much more effective when framed within something that contrasts it. (Like everything else I suppose…)