Epic Sounds: Jimmy Page’s Production Strategies
Guitar Player : The Complete Electric Guitar Package
I took guitar lessons once but I don't play. This article is about sound, recording... the art of noise, so to speak. Audio production remains one of my strongest interests, though I haven't practiced it for years now due to lack of time and equipment... and of something to record. I prefer to focus on subtle things, not the notes themselves, but the tonal quality of the notes, the ambience of a sound.
Sounds (not words right now, just sounds alone) have the ability to paint mental images (mostly abstract), a la segments of Disney's Fantasia*.
In the old days, before Windows XP, I spent quite a bit of time making custom audio clips for use as my system sounds and as chatroom sounds on AOL, and a few bits for use as background sounds on my AOL web pages. I would make minor tweaks, sometimes obvious tweaks, and spend a lot of time getting a clip to start and end at just the right spot for loops. It's just something I enjoy doing.
I like the idea of post-production, effects, and other audio manipulation, but only once you've got good source audio to work with. I don't like wasting time trying to hide flaws with effects and tricks. My philosophy is very similar to that ascribed to Jimmy Page in the article linked above. Capture the natural, organic perfection of your subject and use that sound as your source. Tons of effects are graceless, more often than not, but can be used if they serve the purposes of the project... if they help deliver your message.
*Fantasia was one of the first films produced with audio that made use of a multi-speaker system, but few theaters could afford to equip themselves to show the film as it was intended. The 50th Anniversary Laser Disc version
Side note -- "When The Levee Breaks" http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/a-short-history.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)