Written By: Tony Williamette
Date: 3/6/22
I was always the guy with his head down, collecting gear, and making records. I was constantly thinking about microphones and spaces and the sounds they foster.
I was never one to publicly pontificate about recording or give instruction. It felt condescending and I felt under-qualified. I’ve mostly kept my experiences and opinions to myself.
I’m a member and frequent lurker of websites like Gearspace.com and a myriad of wildly informative Facebook groups on recording, mastering, and acoustics. I’ve always been just that- a lurker.
Maybe that’s why writing about recording feels something like Frank Zappa’s dancing about architecture. The records themselves usually speak for themselves, and if you’re lucky the bass player in a band mentions you did a bang-up job on their last EP. If you’re really lucky that bass player tells other bands about you and you get to make more records.
I recently realized I’ve been doing this whole record-making thing for almost 18 years. I also realized that most of the thought leaders I follow are writers to one degree or another. It feels part and parcel with being any sort of authority on subject matter- you need to get your words on paper, then disseminate.
As our studio started interacting with other engineers, producers, and artists via social media, it became clear that we had a vessel that was of interest to some people. In this case, it’s a brick room full of cool gear with real musicians making real records.
I’m unbelievably lucky to have artists that trust me to work on their music every day. I don’t want to take that for granted or treat their songs like they’re on a sonic assembly line. I’m hopeful that in starting to write, I’ll begin to find more intention and mindfulness while working on music and running a studio.
I’m not promising any nuggets of gold or anything, really. I might touch on the technical or I may just throw words that best describe my experiences week to week. The best part about this is that I get to exercise my writing muscles that have largely been atrophying since high school.
I do hope a handful of people making music, recording music, or people thinking of making and recording music find this stuff somewhat interesting. If you like any morsel of what you’re reading, share it with your friends.