hey everybody welcome to SMG viewers comments episode 129 this is my weekly
show where I try and answer your comments and questions about recording
to the best of my ability if you want to see your question featured on the show
make sure to comment early and ask a cool question ask your great question I
might just do a whole episode based on it before we get going here please do me
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you haven't hit that already as well let's get right to it
hey can a back next ruin a track if all the performances are amazing what
differences does a bad and mediocre and a great mix actually make I think we
kind of covered this once already but I'll reiterate just for the new guys
coming in I know the show's picked up a lot of new subscribers and went out one
of my favorite records that I listened to in college was this terribly recorded
punk-rock tape by a band called Mudd they were like Punk Weird Al Yankovic
and they were amazing and I listened that tape to death and the recording was
terrible you know the bottom line is you know a great recording can only hint
enhance a great song where is if the song is crap and you've got a great
recording well big fraking deal you're Nickelback I'm Glenn I'm Ken wah in the
recording world what's a preamp thank you well what I think you were trying to
say that question is that you're new and you want to know what a priapism and
that's absolutely fine I remember when I was you know playing guitar just
starting to get a recording game I didn't know anything about anything
either basically a preamp is what a microphone
plugs into they come in all kinds of different flavors and can get extremely
expensive for the very high-end ones basically you want to be able to amplify
the signal coming off a microphone and do it cleanly or you want to be able to
color it in a musically Pleasant way that's why you know some of the really
great preamps like you know api's and Neves and Ward BEC which you guys are
gonna learn about in the very near future
those are transformer based preamps and they color the sound in a very cool way
transformers aren't cheap though there's also some really great stuff out there
that's affordable from focusrite and like another little step up from that
would be the Audient preamps which are just in my
like maybe a slight step down from the api's but not really that much big fan
of the audience stuff you should really check them out anyway yes so you can
definitely spend an awful lot of money on prance but I don't know how necessary
it is you really got to ask yourself if you're planning on having Celine Dion in
the studio anytime soon quantized guitars I'll line it perfectly to the
grid is shit of course but not any guitars will make your song sound like
bullshit if you can't play it 100% tight yeah I get the world needs great
musicians but doesn't mean everyone else should not be allowed to have a great
sounding record nonsense I'd rather have a bad mix and get tight instruments it's
enhancing your perform it's not replacing it enhancing your performance
you mean changing it into something that never actually happened it's exactly
it's exactly the same thing as steroids in the Olympics and it's enhancing the
performance yes and it's not real it's a lie my favourite line in that comment
was but does it mean everyone else should not be allowed to have a great
sounding record well here's the thing it doesn't sound great it sounds boring why
are you guys so satisfied with good enough good is the enemy of great I want
great I want to hear something inspiring you know there was a reason why bands
like Queen were so awesome and did these records that stood the test of time is
because they were awesome musicians and they gave passionate performances we're
not getting that we're getting well good enough I'll just edit it that is total
crap here's the thing should everybody get great sounding records yes all you
have to do is practice don't lie to your audience
oh no Glenn it triggers my iPhone vegan Starbucks flannel shirt beard oil ear
spacer craft beer aesthetic vegan kale sandwich bro dude core ass that's
exactly what I was going for hey Glen how do I go about suggesting ideas to my
producer without being rude or obnoxious dude seriously just say what's on your
mind we can take it we're a tough bunch you know if you don't like something
speak up you know chances are you're gonna start a meaningful dialogue don't
be afraid of offending people just because you have a difference of opinion
difference of opinion is good difference of opinion is how we work together and
sometimes and it worked great this way we come together to a mutual
understanding and we can move forward and make some
thing better never hold back what's on your mind also your thoughts Jackson or
ESP and on George Lynch as a guitar player well I grew up in the 80s I
actually saw Dakin twice I saw them opened up for Judas Priest and 86 I saw
them open up for Aerosmith in 87 both times in Detroit and they were brilliant
and I remember in the 86 show I didn't even know who the hell they were they
impressed me so much you know we went out and found the records like the next
day and yeah George Lynch was a force of nature in the 80s and definitely didn't
need any quantizing whatsoever all you kids out there who think you're getting
somewhere and need a court quantize your guitars go put on a couple of Dokken
records and see how it's really done hey Glenn I know you don't believe in a
god but I just joined a band and I haven't said a thing about my religion
and then my band members asked me if I believe in a God I said yes now they
want to kick me out even though I've never brought up and it's never
interfered with rehearsals what should I do
keep up the good work love the Vince I think you should play this video for
your bandmates hey you idiots try not to be so narrow-minded just because the
guy's religious doesn't mean you have to be you know if he's keeping it to
himself that's absolutely fine truth be told I've got a lot of my friends are
Christians I mean like one of my absolute best friends in college went on
to become a minister don't get me wrong I love busting his chops every single
chance I get hey man when's your church gonna pay
their taxes oh yeah right as soon as God regrows a limb for an amputee I eat
never going to happen seriously though like I said if my
friends are religious and that's fine you know what
I respect their right to believe I don't necessarily respect what they believe
because well it's laughable but they have that right and that's fine can I
make can I work with people like that of course I can I've done I don't know how
many records with betrayer and those guys there's some pretty heavy-duty
Christians and you know what that's absolutely fine hey love your channel
and you stupid musician text series was wondering if you had examples of a
proper way to communicate with a sound engineer who looks like for all the
fuck-ups who think the studio is old day care for their bass player I think
showing the people the right way to talk to a sound engineer would open up their
minds and respect and engineers work that would already be I think I said
that somewhat correctly you know that's that's actually maybe a subject for a
video in the future that's pretty cool actually I mean like I don't know how
many sessions I've sat in here and you know said you know tried a few things
out if the band I'm like well do you like this No
how about this way now what do you want I don't know guys you know what are you
come in the studio you know try and have a goal in mind trying to try to put what
you're thinking into words okay I know it's really difficult and but the whole
telekinesis thing the whole mind-reading thing still hasn't been completely
fleshed out yet so we don't know what you're feeling you're going to have to
be able to express yourselves in plain English if possible that is a big plus
just helps the whole day move along a whole lot quicker and yes I'm talking
about the drummer who was in that Christian bed what is your favorite way
to tell musicians they suck go home and learn your part I've done that numerous
times now I've never actually come out and told the musician that they suck I'm
not I'm not gonna crush somebody like that but I will say okay look this is
painfully obvious you haven't practiced you don't know the part you're not
you're playing is not up to snuff go home come see me in a couple weeks go
practice go learn this stuff stop wasting your time stop wasting my time
and most importantly stop wasting your band's money dude just for curiosity's
sake what is your political skills when you're talking about taxes and unions
you sound like a leftist but when you talk about freedom of speech you sound
like a libertarian anyway keep up the good work been learning a lot from your
channel oh boy now this is a question I'm not gonna be announced and I'll
answer without at least somebody getting angry the truth is I see value in all
sides of the political spectrum I also see bad things in all sides of the
political spectrum I used to class myself classify myself
as one you know right-wing or left-wing but I've kind of moved past that and
realize you know what everybody's got something important to bring to the
table I don't necessarily agree with everything that everybody does but I
think people from all sides do have a lot of valid things to say I'm of course
I'm for free expression I rely on free expression to bring my message out to
you guys without free expression you know creativity dies so yeah there's
that I'm also completely against workers
being exploited I think workers should have the right to
form unions and bargain collectively and get the best possible deal they can get
for themselves I think that rich people should pay their fair share of taxes and
stop being able to hide their earnings and tax shelters around the world I
think they should should pay their taxes in them we can fund things like
infrastructure you know I try and keep things as fair
as possible generally this though I'm honestly I'm probably a pacifist at
heart more than anything I'm generally against things that hurt people the
whole medal is too timid and doesn't offend anyone is horseshit maybe we've
evolved past senselessly insulting others in our art you want to piss
people off put zebras whole our psycho stickman medal doesn't have to piss
people off necessarily to be good I'll agree with that statement to a point
medal doesn't have to piss people off to be great but metal has definitely lost
quite a bit of that whole danger quotient that you're getting at the end
of the eighties with bands like Guns and Roses and even Metallica to a point it's
just become way too safe the whole point of my argument there wasn't necessarily
gold and offend as many people as you can cuz that's kind of stupid in my
opinion what I was trying to say is an artist shouldn't limit what they're
trying to express themselves for fear of some kind of nonsense backlash an artist
should be able to make the art that they see fit without having to worry about
being thrown in jail or censored or you know some you know pressure group
getting their concert shut down because they dared say something that somebody
didn't like that's my point you know go make the art you want to make whether or
not anybody likes it well that remains to be seen that's the real trick isn't
it all right everybody that's it for this episode thank you so much for
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