"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 5 May 2009 10:36:03 +0300, "Iain Churches"
wrote:

"Professionals" consistently do terrible things to my music.

Laurence. What do you mean exactly by "your" music?
Is this music you have written or performed, or recordings
you have bought as a consumer?


Sometimes written. Mostly performed. In live performance,
"professional" sound operators are frequently clueless with anything
except rock music, and sometimes even then. Sad, but true, even at
good-class venues and theatres, I don't do pub gigs :-)

You need to strike up a relationship with a good concert
mixer - someone who is interested in your kind of music.
He will charge no more than someone not so good/
interested/talented. Not so many venues these days seem
to have house staff, so taking your own mixer, who knows
your sound, your material and is sympathetic towards your
objectives would be greatly to your advantage.

Recording engineers are usually better. But they aren't always
listening for what I know is in the music. Sometimes their angle on
it is illuminating. Sometimes not.

This is an area where chemistry is so important.

I can recall many sessions with singer songwriters
who thought they were the bee's knees. Frequently it
turned out that the studio assistant could sing and
play their songs better than they could!


Do you produce your own material? Having a producer
to work with a good engineer gives another subjective
brain, pair of ears, and source of ideas. Pre-rpduction
is so important.


Iain

You know it ain't easy (John Lennon)