A producer today is like an island and to me nothing epitomizes that more than the topic of automation. It used to be extraordinarily difficult to produce music by yourself. Those of you who remember, remember leaving the studio bleary eyed as the sun was coming up and you were hoarse because you had been shouting for hours.
Not because you were angry, but because there were four or five pairs of hands on the console and an elaborate script that everyone had to agree on and follow together and you had to pick and choose. The chorus is coming. Pan the shaker to the left.
Bring up the reverb on those backing vocals. Gate the toms. It was stressful and fun.
Great friendships were formed and you learned to prioritize the important stuff in your song. Everybody knew when the song was done because you’d look at each other and have to admit that you couldn’t get it any better. Today we can automate anything and everything and it’s wonderful.
I’ll follow up with some thoughts about automation, but the too long don’t read. I really never use anything other than read and touch. The hard part is doing it alone.
So I made a school because automation is more than just knowing how to do it. It’s deciding what’s important and recognizing that sometimes we’re better when there are more hands on the console.
