Ever listen to a cd or a live performance and think “Wow those drums sound so awesome I must immediately go out and buy all of the equipment that guy uses” ? Well, don’t drag out that platinum card and jump online to order those drums just yet. Something a lot of new drummers don’t take into account are the talents and equipment of the sound engineer.
The sound engineer has the power to make you sound crazy awesome or like a blurry, muddy mess. This is why for live shows it helps to befriend your engineer during sound check (a tip or some drinks won’t hurt either).
My band, Blaming Tim finished the tracks to our new cd several months ago. However, we kept finding that we weren’t entirely thrilled with the mixes we were getting back. Not to say that the engineer wasn’t any good – we just couldn’t agree on a sound. Our piano player, Tim decided that it might be a good idea to look else where for final mix and mastering.
And the best person we could find for our budget happend to be in Chicago. Since the windy city is so far away from Atlanta, we used the power of the internet(s) to send him the raw tracks. The results – an amazing mix that I am loving the more I listen to.
In the original mixes I felt slightly discouraged. My drumming did not sound confident. To me it sounded like I was missing parts, not playing loud enough, or just overall making a mess of the song… This was not how I remembered feeling during the initial recording sessions. I mean I was tired putting in 10 hour days behind a kit, but I still remember being much more confident in my abilities.
Now that we have re-mixed tracks I have that initial feeling of “You nailed it” while listening to the tracks. The point of this article is that, as the title states – The Sound Engineer Has The Power To Make Or Break You.
Anyone else have an experience like this or a sound engineer they would like to recommend. Let us know about them in the comments.
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