What Makes A Good Recording Engineer?

Good article. Being a recording engineer might be a good gig . . . except for all the possible reject as you're trying to get your foot in the door. I appears that recording engineers have to have a heaping helping of "gumption," and another heaping helping of persistence.
 
The secret to being a good recording engineer: record only good musicians.

I'm not being glib. If you know what you are doing, it's fucking easy to make a good recording if the musicians are top notch. The hard part is spending a decade or two recording mostly dickheads to get to the point where you can pick and choose who you work with.
 
El Borrachito said:
The secret to being a good recording engineer: record only good musicians.

I'm not being glib. If you know what you are doing, it's fucking easy to make a good recording if the musicians are top notch. The hard part is spending a decade or two recording mostly dickheads to get to the point where you can pick and choose who you work with.
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I'd laugh but I know how true this is.
 
El Borrachito said:
The secret to being a good recording engineer: record only good musicians.

I'm not being glib. If you know what you are doing, it's fucking easy to make a good recording if the musicians are top notch. The hard part is spending a decade or two recording mostly dickheads to get to the point where you can pick and choose who you work with.
Click to expand...

Totally true. However, another thing that would be really helpful would be to have a degree in psychology or background in hostage negotiation to deal with the borderline dysfunctional personalities most musicians have. After all, you can't record a killer guitar track if you strangled the guitar player for his insistence on only using microphones whose names start with the letter "Q".
 
Beyer160 said:
Totally true. However, another thing that would be really helpful would be to have a degree in psychology or background in hostage negotiation to deal with the borderline dysfunctional personalities most musicians have. After all, you can't record a killer guitar track if you strangled the guitar player for his insistence on only using microphones whose names start with the letter "Q".
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lol.

And from some of the stories I've both heard and experienced with El Borrachito in real life I know that is pretty true, too.
 
Kidding aside, a key skill is giving the client what they actually want, and not what they think they want. Like the guy who kept asking me for more "reverb" on his voice when he meant "delay". I figured there was something wrong when he sounded like he was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and still wasn't happy. This was a pop country tune.
 
Beyer160 said:
Kidding aside, a key skill is giving the client what they actually want, and not what they think they want. Like the guy who kept asking me for more "reverb" on his voice when he meant "delay". I figured there was something wrong when he sounded like he was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and still wasn't happy. This was a pop country tune.
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We usually reference other tunes or artists like "do more of a Brian Setzer thing on the guitar part" or something along those lines. Then we have a good starting point to start tweaking from. Its hard when the artist thinks they are a unique and genius flower though.
 
"Never get stoned during a session even if the artist offers it to you. If you make a mistake later it was because you're a stoner. No a way to start a career."




Looks like someone forgot something :grin:
 
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