Inspiration: Tape Op Magazine

Tape Op is a free audio magazine. I read every issue from cover to cover. I never fail to learn something or come alway inspired in some small (or large, sometimes) way.

Really struck by this bit from an interview with Shawn Everett, though the quote has more to do with Mark Ronson, who recently had the huge hit "Uptown Funk."

Yeah. I'll have a cool sound in one mic, but if I have all the other mics, then I'm going to turn them on. If I don't have them.... Years ago, some friends of mine did this record with Mark Ronson [Tape Op #105]. They called me in to finish engineering and mixing. He was there, and they had done the thing at the Daptone's studio. I opened up the session and there were four tracks: drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. Mark was there, and I was like, "Is this how you did the Amy Winehouse record [Back to Black]?" Mark said, "Yeah."

It was a big moment for me. I remember hearing that Amy Winehouse record, and I couldn't believe how good those drums sounded. I thought it was an old record. How did they do this? After that, I was like, "Fuck it. I don't need 16 microphones." Mark was showing me. He'd say, "We just EQ'd it like this." He'd crank one of the API EQs. "You want more kick drum?" Just wildly aggressively EQ-ing. "Oh yeah, there's the kick drum."

I love guys who are that successful, but so reckless. They're not thinking about it in this mathematical cut-and-dry way of approaching something. He didn't seem like he was working that way, at all. He seemed like he was a reckless, wild man who's a cool dude. He has a pop sensibility that the world recognizes, but he's not approaching it in any standard way at all.