Introducing SIDney
Howard the opinionated. Last millennium, in the late part of the last decade of
the last century, my nearly lifelong friends and collaborators (Mark Drummond
and Aljay Boyd) launched an unfortunately now defunct full-interest music website: streetjamz.com. The invited me to pen an editorial corner. The following is
the one that started the ...and SID Sez column that became the eaSS blog.
Indulge and enjoy.
"Lettuce Produce" or "Producer
or Reducer?"
by SIDney Howard
Welcome to this first
installment of SID Sez. I'm a producer. Show of hands out there…Who's old
enough to remember when that actually meant something?
For those of you who
raised your hands, what did you name your pet Pterodactyl? But seriously
folks… It seems today that everyone today is or will soon be a producer. It has
become as ubiquitous as some plague where if you’re not directly affected, you
have a friend or family member who has been so.
Going a bit further with this perhaps
"ill-fated disease" analogy, let us strive to locate and define the
"illness."
What a
"producer" is has changed so drastically over time and technological
evolution that we must start with what a producer was.
Back in the day when a
studio was a hallowed hall of adventure where the wafting fragrance of warm Mylar
spun onto massive two-inch multitrack master reels set the mood of serious
artistic endeavors—as well as the three digit per hour no-mercy rates, time
wasted was serious money flushed away. [run on sentence #1] Then in those days,
anyone without a major label budget would brave these territories with the aid
of a guide who would manage the sessions from an artistic and logistic point of
authority. …not unlike Han Solo on the Millennium Falcon (maybe a little unlike
it).
Anyway, the main thing
this person provided for the artist was guidance and usually objective input
and direction. To do so the brave producer had to know a little of everything
going on: the music, the technical, the business side and record industry side.
Said person didn't need to know it all, just enough to delegate authority to
the proper authorities in the midst.
[Cue harp playing
whole tone arpeggios]
Fast forward to
present: A studio today is more likely to be a thing at one's place than the
one place with all the things. A good analogy is the train/automobile
comparison. With the coming of the Transcontinental Railway in the 1800's,
Easterners too timid/too smart to travail the frontier in order to experience
the other side of their own massive country were now able to do so without
worry, muss or fuss. All one needed do was simply board a train, relax in one
of its cars, and in a near-eternity Californie
is the place they'd be.
With the coming of
viable automobiles and the interstate highway and byways, the car was something
individuals owned and operated. Each one became his own conductor.
MIDI, modular digital
multitracks, and hard disc recording are the new "highways" by which
each man can become his own island. "Island" records as such, have
become acceptable and have given more and more the right to vote for their own
taste. Now we have Hip Hop and Electronica, Techno and House, New Age and a Sue
age if in any of these idioms idiots sample without clearances.
There is still
the old brand of producers. They are what we new guys hope to be one day when
we grow up and blow up. Until such a day comes your way, come and see me so we
can talk production. Stop in again and see what SID Sez.
SIDizzout!!!
2014 UPDATE: Fifteen
years after this writing, a studio may well be defined as a smart phone with
the proper app. And unfortunately concepts are as like so compact.
No comments:
Post a Comment