Cheap is in. Finally.
A trend in mixing tutorials you’ll find on YouTube focuses on a minimal approach. One guy might say something idiotic like you only need 1 plugin. Some goofball on this website here made a song with one mic. Folks seem to think cheap and simple is viable for everything. It’s not, but it is viable for a lot of music. Everything? Nah.
(The one mic song could save folks money. Why we did it! $20 Mic.) Code from GetMusic.
I like minimal, but it doesn’t always like me.
I like a minimal approach so this one is hard for me. But a minimal setup has limitations, I’m sorry to say. If it didn’t, wouldn’t be called minimal
I like work that flows. I like knowing what all the buttons mean. I like knowing where I fit in. That’s easier in a minimal recording set up. But it’s rarely (if ever) better than the pros with their millions in gear.
Ahh, Matisse!
In all art that I know of, there’s minimalist techniques. Some appreciate the simplicity of line like Matisse. I do. I saw an exhibit and he could somehow draw 4 or 5 lines on a page and you’d feel something from it. That’s a spectacular minimalist approach I can get behind. It shows how lines make imagery. Even a couple of them.
What would the musical equivalent to that be? Some might say a songwriter like Dan Reeder who does not use much. I kinda’ lean James Brown with 1 and 2 chord songs, silly lyrics. I don’t think there’s a wrong answer, but it does pose a question, what is minimal in music?
The technical and artistic aspects work together here. This week I received a minimal song and made a choir and some other parts. The song is still minimal, but I made over 20 tracks for it. 😂 choir!🤷.
The tech on camera bros.
The guys (always dudes) who say “you don’t need this or that,” don’t know what you’re doing. It’s irksome to me someone doesn’t know who the fuck I am and gets high fives for telling me what I need. I consider those folks talking to themselves while talking to everyone. I do this too. But I don’t know what you need for music I’ve never heard. I don’t even know what you play. (I’d love for you to show me, [email protected].)
Is it a fad?
We have to accept that a “minimal approach” is often a fad. It means we might want to make minimal music. Making minimal music doesn’t even require a minimal approach. Bro Country is the most minimal music I’ve ever heard in my life time. Worse than the elevator. But it’s not minimally approached. Bon Iver (everyone I know who knows him says “Boney Bear” pronouncing his name, if that helps) can make complex emotions with a guitar, a mic, and a computer. He can utilize a minimal approach. But it’s not minimal music.
Would you say the music in your brain is minimal? That might be your approach!
There’s no right or wrong answers to the minimal thing. But, and a big BUT, there’s music in our brains and we are the ones who get to decide how to make it. The song in the head demands my approach. Not a guru, not a genre, not popular method, not even a mentor. I want to make what’s in my head. Finding out how is the fun part. But it’s not the same from project to project. It’s different based on what I’m hearing.
Enter the producer.
Enter the producer. If you really want to know what a producer does in a historical sense, they help the artist to get from point A to point B here. The artist may not know how to achieve what they’re imagining. A decent producer probably does. They were made for each other.
When I feel locked in a song like twice this week, I feel confident in knowing the artist’s vision and working accordingly. They get to practice and perform like they need, and I get to help put it together to make some kind of “product.” Producers make products. They might start off with ideas, but they’re done when they become products.
Take time, (and pride), in your decisions. They’re you!
Going minimal is the artist’s decision. No doubt. If it was me deciding that, I’d be sitting on minimal music to record. If I don’t have a song in my brain to work on yet, I’m open to the song deciding my approach when it arrives, not YouTube!
Bonus thought: I am not eager like I used to be to rid myself of decisions. I enjoy the decisions these days as much as anything. Stuff is decided upon before I even ask anyone to help nowadays. My decisions beforehand help them help me. Music is loaded with decisions. I like deciding. Good thing!
Happy Saturday – return to home.
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