Greetings and salutations, friends!
In an effort to get the studio’s blog going, I’m going to grab some low hanging fruit and draw on some local star power. It is with this in mind that I bring you to Ric Probst. I had the pleasure of hosting Ric this Thursday when he came over to see the place and afterwards, we kicked it about gear, mics, marriage, healthcare, and the local recording studio community.
Now let me begin by stating that Ric is one of the people I have admired greatly from afar. He owns Remote Planet Recording and his experience alone is worth listening to him talk, much like I did when I was in a band recording with Pat Lilley at the now defunct Nexus Recording Studios in Waukesha a number of years ago. Some guys you run into in your field and they just have so much knowledge and experience that everything they do and say is worth remembering. It’s like free education. As I expected, Ric was quite polite and very generous with his opinions on newer mics, outboard gear, UAD plug-ins, etc. But it was the things we had in common that struck me.
I’ve always tried to be true to the craft and learn the ‘why’ before the ‘how’. Listen to your ears and if they don’t lead you to the truth, spend more time training them ANY WAY YOU CAN until they do. Over the years, as I grow into my relatively new role as a local recording studio owner, I’ve had to completely scrap mixes and start over because they just weren’t going where I wanted them to go. It’s very similar to when I was just a guitar player forever ago and had to completely abandon a style of playing because I was too close to it, focus on something else in the field, get out of my ‘wheel house’ and when I came back to it months or years later, it made more sense and was easier to manage because my ability had matured.
After talking to Ric, I realized that my journey is far from over, but yet here’s a guy who cut his teeth in LA, came back, runs a successful studio and as we talked, we were agreeing on things I took for granted because of my pursuit of what I’ll call ‘the truth’, yet these points have been road tested by someone who has been doing this for so long, he’s probably forgotten more than I currently know about recording. However, with regret, I find it harder and harder to hear local artists as they are supposed to sound. The few that I can remember at the moment include Hayward Williams, The Great Lake Drifters, and Nora Collins (2 of these cats used to play in bands with me, but it’s their current work that is inspiring). I never want to own a studio that stamps out recordings as fast as I can, making as much money as I can. I never want to advertise how cheap it is to record with me or how I can offset those costs by licensing the music and get clients that way, just the same as what I tell people who want me to play live for ‘exposure’. The ‘why’ is what people should hear when they listen to your band, not the ‘how’. It’s quality over quantity, trying new things, techniques, experimenting, having the core ability, gut instinct and trust in your ears and the ability to know if you try something you’ve never tried before, it adds value to a project because the studio is as much of an instrument as drums, bass, guitar, keys, and vocals are and should be used in that way. Sure I could add reverb to your vocal, but wouldn’t it be WAY cooler if you doubled that vocal through a green bullet going through a clean guitar amp with just the verb on?
Any engineer/producer a band works with is as much a part of the band at that moment than any other band member, just as your live sound guy is at a show, so try not to piss those guys off, either. Music is art and my job is to make it as affordable as I can while delivering a product that the band, myself, or anyone looking to do business with me would be proud to play in front of the most hostile critic. The lack of work in the local scene may have caused some studios to get too protective of their client base, but I can’t fault them for that. We’re all in business to be in business, but the community is what propels us all forward. We all succeed when we all succeed. Everybody wins when more people make more music more often.
As for Ric, I’m sure I’ll stop by once or twice in the future and just watch him do what he does because guys with that many reps under their belt are rare and their knowledge should be recorded. He knows the craft and the product is what’s important. We have a duty to create something special every time. Take pride in that.
Cheers!
Mike
musicmannstudiosblog 