Want Amazing Sound Quality? Quit Trying!

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I have a new theory:The only way to achieve extreme "quality" or "fidelity" is to pretty much forget about quality and fidelity and go for maximum creativity. When you go intoa new recording project, if your #1 ambition is "quality" it's natural to reach for expensive gear. By default, you have already (if only subconsciously) turned off your ears just a little bit and are now just a little more biased towards using the expensive gear based on hearsay you picked up on stupid recording forums and not so much on what you are actually hearing. However, when you are thinking about maximum creativity, the "quality" rules get thrown at the window entirely. Instead of grabbing something because it is "good" or "expensive", you grab something based 100% on what it sounding like exactly what you envision. If the mic or gear isn't satisfying your vision, you'll find something that does. It really doesn't matter if your vision is totally off the wall or quite "normal". This is what I keep talking about when I say engineering is a quest for music and not a quest for higher sample rates or whatever. You can get away with tones that are dramatically different in the same genre of music as long as the ending "vibe" is the same. That "vibe" is when music is effective. Most of us tend to love the sound of our favorite records. Most engineers think X record that came out when they were 14 is the best sounding record of all time. This is because the music was most effective to us and so we attribute some of that magic (probably more than is really do) to the engineering. What not try a kick drum mic on vocals? I would never assume that a kick drum would be the right mic for a vocal, but if a track came out sounding cool, then it was the right mic. No rules. If the "kick drum vocal sound" was RIGHT for that track, no non-kick drum mic is going to work even if it costs $20,000. Lastly, it's easy to confuse fidelity with well-executed creativity. Who's to say that your favorite vocal sound of all time didn't use a kick drum mic? Brandon

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