The recording is a piece of art, and the engineer should screw around and experiment in the studio.
And some of these things take decades to understand the chemistry of what’s going on – you spend your whole life trying to understand why that is. I’ve discovered that I’m not that exceptional with quiet music – not that I like it or dislike it. I think there’s a lot of things I can do, but the places I’m going to shine and add something a little indispensable are in small niches. To quote Dirty Harry, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”Īctually, I think a lot of professionals realize that they start working well in a niche, a specialty. Naturally, we’d all like to be specialists AND jacks-of-all-trades. Ironically, I’m actually not proud of the fact that there’s a signature drum sound that I get, but you can hear it on projects like Face of the Sun.īut if musicians have a distinctive sound, doesn’t it make sense that engineers and producers would as well? I’ve found that for either beginning engineers, or engineers that aren’t very good, the actual issue isn’t skill so much – the issue is hearing.įor example, I don’t say, “Everyone who records here will get the same drum sound!” although my ears obviously often take me to a point that I like, and sometimes I get similar results. What I say is, “Ears over gear.” What that means is that I use ears as the guide and the actual tool. You seem to have an uncomplicated philosophy about recording. And buckle your seat belts, because when the topic is music, Martin Bisi’s mind moves fast.
Or why not check out the man himself? He records plenty of his own tense, heady music with guest stars like the Dresden Dolls’ Brian Viglione.Įxplore the massive live spaces of his studio – the inner walls of some chambers date back to the 1840’s birth of this former warehouse – then sit down with him, the glowing controls of his early 1970’s MCI board close at hand. Experience the noxiously charged drag of Woman, the marching ska punk of The Stumblebum Brass Band, and the huge drums he recorded for Boston epic experimentalist rockers Face of the Sun. Things continue to sound very interesting to Bisi, as is evident from his current projects.
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