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Brian Lange/ Engineer and Owner of B# Productions Studio
DeVry Institute Of Technology (Phx) 1978 High Tech Engineer, Silicon Valley (San Jose,CA ), 1978 to present. President, B-Sharp Productions Influences: Anything Blues Influenced. Loves: Tubes, Single Coil Pickups. Pet Peeves: Unnecessary Noise, Equipment that Doesn’t Work, or Is Poorly Constructed, Garage Band Aid Article #2: Play to Your Strengths Play to your strengths. Avoid the “Jack of all trades, master of none” syndrome. Have you ever started a project just to have it go from inspiring to overwhelming? Maybe it’s that you are trying to do too much. The modern recording equipment has made it too easy to overproduce or in some cases never produce. Start with a project assessment. Who is this meant for? What are you personally going to contribute? Do you need help? From where? Know when to stop creating and when to start listening. Leave room for others to contribute if the project exceeds your strengths.
Ways to get back on track. Take a break. Refresh and then come back later. If you are struggling it is probly because what motivates you is not there. Ask someone for feedback. They don’t have to be a musician. You are just looking for motivation. Change location. If motivation is not were you are at. Go find it. Save it and move on to something else.
Clapton, when recording the 'Back Home' tracks, had a deal with his band. If for any reason they got bogged down, they would move to a parallel project they were doing of Robert Johnson songs. He said the Robert Johnson stuff got done real fast while the 'Back Home' tracks took awhile. Stay close to your strengths in the beginning. Is it guitar, piano, lyrics. Pop, blues, rock? Start with a strong foundation then explore/experiment. With this foundation in place, don’t be afraid to bring in outside help. Your challenge may be some else’s inspiration and that may in turn motivate you back again. One thing that sets songs and artists apart is the feeling, or passion, coming from the song. Loose that passion and you might just as well be at… work. The song 'The Heart of Worship' starts with this line, "When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come''. This is a simple song, with minimal instrumentation as the lyric line suggests. In this case less is a lot more. Garage Band Aid Article #1: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum! The last ten years has seen the power shift from record company to the artist. What once were the chosen few has become empowered many. Affordable home recording technology has taken the music industry by storm. The “labels” have spent more effort trying to control change rather than embrace it. This brings to mind a saying “You either adapt, migrate, or go extinct.” Add to this the introduction and evolution of the Internet and you have your distribution channels. Many brick-n-mortar Record/CD stores…extinct. The greatest thing that the new industry offers is the “sweet spot “. You no longer have to record your best material, and 8 filler songs, and then duplicate albums to fit the distribution format. This does not mean that you can sustain success distributing anything. Talent still rises to the top. There are many facets to the new music industry. Determining what you want to accomplish, be it performer, writer, producer, or whatever is the first step. We will cover many topics in the time to come. These topics will take intersecting two paths: - Artist Development
- Technology
One topic that that bridges both paths is starting with the end in mind. This should be the first thought in mind when undertaking any project. Determine what you want to do, plan, and then execute. Here are some possible future topics for this blog: Artist Development o Play to Your strengths to avoid “Jack of all trades, master of none” syndrome. o Plan to Execute, Execution to Plan. o Course Adjustment Required. Technologyo One Man’s Garbage Is Another Man’s Vintage. o If a Tube Conducts in a Digital World, Will It Make a Sound? o A Few of My Favorite Things. o Respect Your Elders. o Taming the Beast. How to Record Your “Live” Sound. As a guitarist I love tubes and the analog feel, yet, the flexibility/convenience of digital recording can’t be denied. With the improved sample rates and increased computing power, digital recording is the foreseeable future. Plus I don’t have to splice another tape! Talent will bridge technology preferences between the generations. Don’t forget the music; I still listen to the Johnny Rivers- through an iPod. You can contact Brian for feedback or consultation at b-sharp@sbcglobal.net.
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