Well, it’s true – there doesn’t seem to be much point in denying it any more – after all, Radiohead are one of the biggest bands in the world, and they’re prog, right ?
So while it may not be exactly hip, I don’t think that enjoying progressive rock can be considered quite the crime against music that it once was.
And, being me, one thing I’ve always enjoyed about “progressive” music is that it almost always sounds superb.
And what a boat… well, houseboat. Watch the video and see.
Once you’ve finished wiping the drool off your keyboard, you may be thinking –
“Well it’s pretty bloody obvious why he writes on a boat, Ian – and, if I’d sold 50 million copies of Dark Side Of The Moon, I think I’d record on one, too.”
- and there’s no need to repeat myself here. But this tip is about loudness – or rather, levels.
Specifically, gain structure.
Gain structure just means – how loud your audio is, at every point in the audio chain. Back in the days of analogue it was crucial to get the levels as high as possible at every point in the chain to get the best signal-to-noise ratio, but not so loud as to cause distortion.
These days, it’s not really an issue. With over 60 dB of signal to noise ratio in even a 16-bit signal, all we need to do to get clean audio is avoid clipping, and we’re good.
The great thing about modern technology is you don’t need to get the performance perfect in a single take.
You can just pick the best bits of multiple takes, loop the difficult sections, and in fact you can even build an entire song note by note, if you like – no-one will ever know the difference.
"I am very impressed by your feedback, it is spot-on... this has indeed been a fruitful coaching session and I am looking forward to working more with you!"
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