Every week in the “Shhhh-it!” AnonIMous Super-Secret Music-Biz Interview Series (S-I!AS-SM-BIS for, uh, short) we interview a grizzled music industry veteran via the letter thunderstorm of instant messaging software. Last week, we had an illuminating chat with Joe The Engineer, who has worked as an assistant engineer for five years at a major NYC studio, and whose credits include quite a few big-time pop and hip-hop records. We decided to bring him back for another round, and in this edition, Joe tackles overcompression, underwhelming Autotune usage, and whether hip-hop has lost its fire:
StumpyPete1975: someone asked if you had anecdotes that are examples of hip-hop losing its fire
JoeTheEngineer: how about an artist interrupting his session to meet with the designer of his new line of jeans?
StumpyPete1975: HAHA
StumpyPete1975: amazing
StumpyPete1975: yeah, I’d say that’s not entirely street
JoeTheEngineer: I guarantee Biggie didn’t do that when he was making Ready To Die
Your questions answered after the jump!
Every week in the “Shhhh-it!” AnonIMous Super-Secret Music-Biz Interview Series (S-I!AS-SM-BIS for, uh, short) we interview a grizzled music industry veteran via the tumbling word parade of instant messaging software. We talk about the person’s job, the state of the industry, and whatever else comes to mind. This week, we spoke with Joe The Engineer, who has worked as an assistant engineer for five years at a major NYC studio. Joe’s done some rock sessions, but most of the artists he deals with are big-time pop, hip-hop, and R&B acts–artists that sell lots of records, and artists that we all know. As an engineer, he has a unique perspective on the current recording processes, whether big studios and producers are worth it, and whether pop stars are really as unimportant to the final recorded product as we think they are:
StumpyPete1975: today’s pop stars
StumpyPete1975: I think there’s the impression that they just show up for a day or two
StumpyPete1975: lay down some vocal tracks
StumpyPete1975: and then it’s autotune away
StumpyPete1975: true?
JoeTheEngineer: right
JoeTheEngineer: well, most pop artists don’t write their own stuff
JoeTheEngineer: so they come in and I play them a reference, which the writer laid down with all the vocal parts
JoeTheEngineer: then the artist goes piece by piece re-singing whats already on tape
StumpyPete1975: are you serious?
StumpyPete1975: so it’s like Pop Star Hero?
JoeTheEngineer: yeah
JoeTheEngineer: I mean depending on the artist sure
JoeTheEngineer: but this is common
JoeTheEngineer: I’ve certainly seen a few big ones that were spoon fed all the lines they sang
The whole thing after the jump!
