The Secret to Audio Engineering

Are you ready for it?

I really should charge for this post, because this is the sum total of everything I've learned from the past year of reading a bunch of books and magazines, recording two albums, listening to hundreds of tracks, hanging out in a slew of Nashville studios, and talking with a bunch of professional engineers and producers.


No matter the song, style, or instrument, here is what you need to get a great sound recorded. In exact descending order of importance:

1) A great player
2) A GREAT PLAYER!
3) A quality instrument, properly set up and tuned (by the great player)
4) Your ears. Do what sounds good!
5.1) A microphone that's not garbage (a $250 AT 4033 is perfect)
5.2) A great preamp (this is the expensive part. Gonna set you back about $2000)
- If you're dedicated, you can acquire equivalent preamps for more like $500. It just takes patience, connections, and/or willingness to learn electronics and solder.

The end.

And really, 5.1 and 5.2 should be in smaller type or something.
Their importance pales in comparison to number 1 and 2.

Oh, and would you also like the secret to being an all-star producer and making hit music?
One thing.
This is it!

A. GOOD. SONG.

There.
That is the oxygen of music.
All the vitamins in the world won't help if you ain't got no air :/

I wish I could convey the mountains of books and articles and discussions and obsessions in the audio industry that are all eminently superfluous to what's listed above. It's so simple, but we all keep hoping that buying the right compressor will make the mediocre song performed by mediocre musicians sound like magic!

Perhaps some day I'll look back on this post and smile at my audacity. But this is what I've seen walked out in a thousand ways. And I think it makes sense, in the cosmic simplicity of the universe.

So there you go. I take cash and checks. Paypal is good too :)