Anyone have the feeling that your best productions ever was made with minimal gear?

[kritikon]

Deleted - double post

[Uncle E]

Yeah, no doubt about it. I remember A/B'ing an old track years ago. Pretty well the same mix with same instruments on the same mixer with A done on an Alesis quadraverb, B done on a Lexicon....night and day. For its time the quad was ok and nostalgia makes me think of it fondly, but no way I'd use it for absolutely anything now.

I sold my first Alesis Andromeda because the effects weren't working. The Andromeda I have now has ACTUAL problems (2 voices out and only half the keyboard triggers). Sure, the effects work...and now I know they're awful.

[codec_spurt]

nm,l;

[Uncle E]

Some people get great results by mixing in to a compressor on the 2-bus (FSOL did this a lot).

Deadmau5, as well. From what I heard, one of the gifts Steve Duda bestowed upon him when they formed BSOD was making the output chain that he mixed into for all his early hits.

[mumpcake]

Twenty years ago was much more productive for me. This probably has less to do with a more minimal setup and more to do with having more time and energy and fewer distractions.

[OzoneJunkie]

I just did a major plugin and sample library cleanup. Still have the install files if needed... but I'm seeing if the reduced set pays off...

[donkey tugger]

These days too many get stuck in the molasses of it all. There is a time for writing and receiving the gifts from the music gods. And there is a time for polishing turds.

Knowing what's what is the tricky bit.

..especially given that these days you don't even have to 'commit to tape' with your effects etc, even on guitar. Get a half decent sound and off you go - sort out all the fancy stuff later.

Writing wise, about 70% I reckon I do on the electric, unplugged. If it works like that it'll be fine plugged in, or on the acoustic..Can't get much more minimal than that..

[Scotty]

I think for some of us we separate the song from the production. I can write my best songs with minimal gear and equipment. Modern production, to which I aspire, creates a complete environment and presentation around the music, unless you are working in a well established style or genres each song might dictate an entirely different environment to be realized at least to the extent that my present skill and imagination affords. That takes a huge amount of effort. I have abandoned some songs because the ideas weren't special enough to justify the effort to bring them to full production. They are abandoned but not forgotten. I can steal an idea or a moment from some of the those songs and give them a place to live in something that has better bones with a more creative telling; something that justifies the effort. Some people are far more prolific than I am so that is a factor as well.

[BONES]

Not necessarily. I've been recreating a lot of our songs in Studio One, for a live set, using my new minimalist production methods and I'm getting great results across the board. Songs from our 2003 album sound better than ever and songs from our 2020 album lose nothing by stripping it all back to basics. It's really exciting and I can't wait to see how it works out for our next album.

My bandmate comes up with the majority of our musical ideas and he hands them across to me to do the production work. The very first thing I always do is go through and strip out all the bits that aren't contributing anything, instruments and effects. I try to make it as simple as possible, keeping the raw ideas but finding simpler ways of making them work.

I think the reason it works is that I am not at all precious about any of it, because it's not my work, so I can be far more clinical in my decision-making about what to keep and what to get rid of. It happens at work all the time - I start working on something in a certain way and, even when it's clear that it's not really working, I will try to fix it, instead of looking for a different approach. Then the boss comes along as says "why don't you try xxxx instead" and five minutes later it looks great. It's the power of collaboration, I suppose, but if you can learn to be ruthless about your own work, it has to be to your advantage.

[jancivil]

I don't believe in divine inspiration or in keeping turds, so as attractive as that unnecessary dichotomy may seem it isn't for me. I believe in making things sound good, and sources which sound good are a good bet IME.

[DrGonzo]

A Digitakt & Moog Mother 32 and my creative juices started flowing again
Record the stems and then mix them with some API compressors + EQ, then move on to the next track.

[BONES]

I don't believe in divine inspiration or in keeping turds, so as attractive as that unnecessary dichotomy may seem it isn't for me. I believe in making things sound good, and sources which sound good are a good bet IME.

Sure but pretty much everything can be made to sound good these days so that mindset doesn't really cull your options too much.

[jancivil]

speaking of separating song from production, I just heard Greg Lake's account of the first time Emerson used the Moog.
They didn't have enough to fill the album for their debut and Lake finally brings out this song he made at 12, Lucky Man.
They thought it was dross but 'it's better than what we got which is nothing' so it gets recorded and production ensues.
Emerson comes back from tea or the pub or that and finds this big honking production of the stupid song done and says "I guess I should play something".
and does the solo at the end which everyone else deemed a keeper.

[jancivil]

as to the separation of tasks, I don't need *gear* to write the song; production, OTOH cost major bank in the day and generally meant there was a definite avenue for release and distribution in mind.

[BONES]

Not for me. I spent thousands on studio time with nothing more than my own savings and a contribution from some of my supporters. I got my first single pressed in 1986 and did the distribution myself, driving around to record shops in Sydney and Brisbane and sending copies to magazines and radio stations. I even spent 20 hours each way on a bus to take some singles to Melbourne and put them in a few shops there. The really stupid thing was that I was diligent in getting the records into the shops but I never got around to going back and collecting any money from sales so I have no idea how many I sold and I never made a penny back on the investment.