I was a part of an interesting e-mail thread a while back. This guy was looking for a home studio and he was asking around for where to go.
An acquaintance of mine chimed in with his answer, with some details about studios and such but there was one comment that really infuriated me:
You might want to have someone who’s recording onto protools.
Ugh…
Now, I know that not all musicians are engineers so I should really let that slide. And this person is actually a really great musician, but he’s a little off in what makes up a great studio.
The thing that bothers me is that software companies are so good at brainwashing the public into believing that their software is crucial to the makings of a good record.
It Fucking isn’t.
It doesn’t whether you use Pro-Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar Producer, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, GarageBand, Live, or any of the other software that’s for sale out there.
It’s the least important thing in the grand scheme of:
“hey I want to know how to record my songs or have someone do it for me….what should I buy first?”
The software isn’t going to tell you what sounds good. It’s not a robot that knows how to engineer a great guitar sound. It can’t tell you if you’re overcompressing your drums or flooding your vocals with reverb. This is something that the engineer needs to know. This is the skill of the engineer, regardless of what software he’s using.
Pro-Tools is not going to make your music sound any better. We could argue that yes, software has a specific sound, but I think it’s such a trivial argument compared to the necessary skills needed to engineer a great sound.
Ask yourself:
If you install (insert preferred software here) onto your computer, is it going to make the acoustics in your room any better?
No.
Is it going to make the sound of your pre-amps any better?
No.
Will it walk out of the computer, look at your monitors and say, “gee, maybe you should space those monitors a little further apart for better imaging.”
No, it’s not some mega nerdy Cylon engineer.
It’ll just do what you tell it to do. And if you feed it garbage it will give you trash.
Skills Make Sounds – Not Software
So think more about what skills you need to actually record a great sound than the software that you’re told you desperately need to get.
Yes, you need software. But any software is great if you, or the engineer you hire, is great at using it. I use Logic, do I recommend Logic to everybody. Not really.
My philosophy is that any software that you’re comfortable using is the best software for your situation. The skill and knowledge of engineering is infinitely more important than any audio recording software that’s out there.
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29 Comments on "Why the Fucking Software Doesn’t Matter!"
I Thank you for all the advice you gave. you have pleasant weekend, Thank you once again.
You’re welcome. Thanks for the comment.
i love this more than you know
I like this one.
Its truth, a lot of new musicians and other music involved people like radio and tv
producers say, “if you dont have protools your not pro”, even if you have 30 years working and
a bery decent analog digital studio, i read some were “pro tools” is for dumies, if you dont
have any experience and good equipment, ok pro tools is for you, but, it is bery usefull,
i us it for some tasks that only digital can do like time stretch an re tuning and is ok,
but it suks when some one says ” if you dont work with pro tools, your not pro” or the
other i heard from other colleagues, “you can only post produces in pro tools, if not its no good”.
Oh don’t get me wrong. Pro-Tools is a great software that has a lot of great features. But those features aren’t going to do much for you if you don’t know how to record music to begin with
Oh don´t get me wrong too, i don´t intented to say somthing wrong about
Pro Tools, waht i wanted to say, like you wrote, about the bad informated
or new people in music busynes that are brain washed with the idea that
the fucking softwere maters.
thanks your welcome.
I chose live 8 because it was the first software i tried that put up the least resistance to getting out my ideas. I heard so much conflicting advice, that hardware is better, software is better, this program has the best plugins or the best built in instruments – it wasted a lot of my time. The important thing is just sitting down with any program or piece of hardware. Learn to express yourself with it, and through that exercise you will find what you like or don’t like about it and actually have learned something substantive about what works for you and how you think. Only with that exercise will you learn if you have a voice, and if your setup is getting in the way of it. If you spent all your time and money acquiring all of the equipment and software you “need” to sound good, you would be broke and have a garage full of equipment you barely know how to use and no musical ideas to express. Will you always come out with the “best” sounding setup? Most likely, if you’re making good music, people will be distracted enough by the music that they won’t notice the “brittleness” of your reverb tails. Good engineering practice and good musical practice will make good music on any platform. The only people who would care to quibble over the details would be bitter critics who put too much time into criticism and not enough into craft.
To musicians: learn music. You don’t need to study classical piano at Berklee, but study the music you like to listen to. Let it permeate your life. Figure out what makes it tick. Sometimes lessons or formal schooling is appropriate. Shadowing someone who works and plays in the genres that touch you is good, too. How else to learn art than from the people actually doing it? Writing good music is a seamless application of technique, knowledge, and feeling. Without any one of those, it won’t be comprehensible, or there will be nothing there to comprehend.
Absolutely! Like I said, whatever works for you is the best for you
I gave up classical piano a long time ago since I wanted to play rock guitar. That’s what I decided to learn, and I don’t regret it.
well said
I agree. Besides if you suck at playing and engineering maybe cooking would be a better hobby. I myself use Logic, CuBase and Digital Performer only because they all have different sounding instruments on them. I have learned each one of them so I can be up and running right away. Thanks for your article, and I hope it helps all those musician/engineer types become better at what they do.
I cook when I’m tired of engineering and writing
I can understand why a lot of people choose Pro Tools as it is sort of the industry standard at the moment, but I completely understand your point.
I use Ableton, Digital Performer and PT. Neither ones helps me with my speaker placement.
Hehe, no they don’t. Yeah Pro-Tools is good but it doesn’t really matter in the long run. I mean if you have a session that you need to work on in a big studio that’s using Pro-Tools then it doesn’t matter which software you started it in, you can usually find a way to export it out and into Pro-Tools if needed.
Damn straight. The software is just a means to minipulate the audio that you have recorded to your hard drive. Period. I’d focus more on the converters and last on the software
I wouldn’t even focus on the converters. I would focus on what you’re doing yourself. It’s actually not about the equipment, it’s about your skill.
Agreed. My friend uses cubase and gets AMAZING results yet he can’t do what I can with logic. Love logic by the way…it’s the only DAW I’ve known that helps me along musically. I actually enjoy writing WITH it as opposed to struggling with clunky pro tools!
wow, You opened my mind and you answered a important question. Thanks for this input. I appreciate it very much. I see your point & agree.
I agree 100% . Better to learn a software, or hardware, extensively. Than to but it, just because it’s the latest, and supposedly the greatest.
I have Pro Tools 7 but, I tend to use Digital Performer 5, and Pro Logic, on my Mac, and Cubase 5, and wavelab, on my PC. It is true that a certain piece of gear, or a certain plug-in can really make a difference , used in the right spot, but for every piece now days there are several others that can come close to doing the same thing. Just like software, lots of different ones out there, and they all can record. edit, and mix audio and midi. Now days they can even do video. Better to just get the software, and interfaces that best fit your needs…. and your budget. Then learn all the benefits of what that software brings to your mix. I still have a G3 mac, with an old version of Digital Performer that works just fine for small band recording applications. I usually run an older Yamaha O1V into older Motu 2408′s into that box . As I have developed my skills over the years, I tend to move files back and forth through different software, or hardware, because I am seeking a specific sound, or result that I know that that piece/software will bring. Having the knowledge of what each plug-in can do , or each outboard piece can do. Then knowing how to apply it to enhance your mix, without taking away from what the music is trying to convey….. Is way way way more important than owning buying software/hardware, just because others may use it.
I’ve heard a couple of mixes from some guys that used Audacity(free) and got a good mix out of it.
In the end the ears are the greatest asset you can develop.
Absolutely. If you can record great audio onto Audacity, you don’t need a fancy piece of software. You already have great audio from your skill of recording.
It took me a year to learn ProTools and sometimes it still takes my nerves, because it sometimes not working probably with my computer (sorry, I’m not a Computer Nerd).
But since I’m working with ProTools, my mixes get better than the mixes I did in Logic. Probably it got something to do with the simplicity workflow and the Shortcut Commands… which I love. But it’s true, it’s not ProTools that sounds better than Logic – it’s just ‘the’ me, who gets better results in ProTools than in Logic. For a different person it could be the other way round. So, use whatever you feel most comfortable with – I still use Logic for programming and all the instrument stuff. With a little tweaking, there a very adorable.
greatz morryz
Exactly, you’re better suited at making Pro-Tools sound better since you can use it faster and more efficiently. Logic has great programming options as well, so it’s also good not to pigeonhole yourself to one program.
Agreed.
Bravo….Encore….
I used protools, logic and Cubase because I had to. Now I have my own studio I now use Reason because a)it looks and behaves like the hardware I worked on before and because I like it. If anyone wants me to mix anything they can just send me the stems or go elsewhere. The record buying public knows nothing about what songs were recorded on what. The 2 most important things in my book are a clean signal and a great performance, then you can start polishing because No matter how much you polish turd it will still just be polished turd.
It would be interesting to “prove” that software (without plug-ins) has a “sound.” I suspect software is transparent, unless latency, buss distortion, and data error handling are considered a “sound.” If they are and you like those characteristics, use the oldest, least reliable software you can find.
There have been debates about software having a specific sound, Logic and Pro-Tools having a separate sound, but in the long run I don’t see how it matters.
I studied Pro-tools in audio engineering, but I used the cubase the whole time. The price was way better and I personally liked it because it seemed more for a producer. Now I got cubase 6 (love it), waves plugins and all of that. I’ve been buying outboard gear because I have more control of my signal before it even touches my daw which I love but still learning. I’ve gotten into debates, arguments, and etc with friends about the right software. Ive always told them all software is the same just different colors, brands, and plugins. It matters if you’re a good engineer/ producer/ artist or whatever and how good u have mastered your craft
Awesome. Seems like you got the right idea
I’ve only just come accross this post (fairly new to Audio Issues) and have read all the comments. I think it has gone slightly off-topic. The issue wasn’t whether or not a piece of software is easier to use than another, or whether or not the (sequencing) software will help with monitor placement. The issue was: does one software sound better than another. I have to say yes. (sorry, but there you go) all software is based on algorithms (spelling notwithstanding) and simply put…some algorithms are clearly better than others. I know of home studios using Digital Performer and they have used it for years without any issues, but then heard (for example) the latest Cubase version – through their own converters I might add – and were knocked out by the difference in quality! I’m not talking about ease of use here, I am only talking about recording a signal and playing it back for the purposes of evaluation. I personally use some very old (by modern standards) software: Nuendo 3 (only because I was offered it cheaply some years ago, not because it was my software of choice), I have heard Nuendo 5 through the same converters as mine (RME) and the difference is enormous. Again not talking about functionality here. As an old engineer once told me when explaining different compressor settings: “if you can’t hear that…. (after tweaking) you’re in the wrong business” Actually, at the time I couldn’t hear the difference :0) but I have learned!
So, speaking from personal experience, when talking about ‘sound quality’ the software DOES matter, this is then impacted upon according which converters you are using, bottom line! Yes, microphones, mic pre’s, cables, state of equipment etc all have a bearing on the recorded signal, I accept that and so does anyone else who is serious about recording, and yes, the difference between a bad mix, a good mix and an excellent mix does come down to the individual engineer’s skills, no question……but…..that is not the same as saying the software doesn’t matter when talking about audio quality. It does. But don’t take my word for it, do the A/B yourself, and remember: “if you can’t hear that………” :0)
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