N T R E V O R S H A N D T R E V O R S H A N D T R E V O R S H A N D T R E V O R S H A N D T R E V O R S H A N D T R E V O R S H A N D
June 2008 Edition Hey headphone-soldiers
Trevor Shand is promo producer at KROQFM Los Angeles. He may be reached by e-mail at trevor@kroq.com
So, you’re a new producer getting your feet wet and are hungry for it. You have tons of questions, people you look up to, things you want to accomplish, and sounds and a vision you aspire to. How annoying is it when you ask more experienced producers how they do a certain thing or achieve a certain sound with their work, and they simply refuse to tell you? In my experience, this sort of thing happens wayyyyy more than it should between producers. Sound effect libraries, compression and eq settings, station voices and more, are treated like closely guarded secrets for many audio dudes.
A few months ago I heard a promo by a well-known production guy, who I’ll simply refer to as Mr. X. There was a single music bed that I really loved that he had used. Dude wouldn’t talk to me about it, saying those were his “production secrets”. Are you kidding me? Unless you made it yourself what’s the point of keeping it a secret? Get over yourself. Needless to say, I found the music bed on my own and posted an edit on an online production service for EVERYONE to use. Touche-ay (I can’t find the French accent thingy on my keyboard).My thought? YOU are the production secret. It doesn’t matter what music beds you use, the fact that you clean things up with reverse reverbs all over the place, or that you speed everything up a fourth.
It’s HOW you use those tools that no one can ever duplicate. It’s HOW you use these tools that define who you are as a producer. Issues like this are starting to plague our career field of choice with egos and arrogance, and it’s a lot gross. Producers who have been doin’ this for a while, especially great ones, should be more than willing to share a little love with the ones comin’ up out of broadcast schools, moving to bigger markets, etc.
When I moved out here, I had never even HEARD of the audio editor I am now using. I would sit in that friggin’ studio and stare at a blank screen that may as well have had Egyptian hieroglyphics labelling all of the confusing-ass controls. I had to ask questions and I had to ask them now, or then … well… STILL to this day! I relied on those producers around me to help me learn and to manipulate these tools into a way that I was comfortable using them. I would ask questions about the tricks along the way. What compression works best for our station voice? How do I get a cool phone filter sound? I would take these things and bend them into my own style and use ’em in my own way. Some people wouldn’t—and STILL won’t—tell me a thing.
Building a positive, thriving, creative environment is essential for people like you and I to survive in. We need enough positivity and support to let our ideas go and our imaginations run wild. Everyone in your department, and in our entire FIELD, benefits! At least, that’s how I see it. Share your ideas and recharge your creative battery with the juice that comes with inspiring someone. Sounds dirty, but it ain’t. Well, maybe it can be.
My “trick bag” is open to you on these pages. For what it’s worth. J Want to know some quick things that have really helped me as a producer that I have been doing since I started with this stuff, even while in college? One major technique for me is I build my sessions using all the voice parts first. Just helps me get the ball rollin’. To see what I have to work with. I then like to collect all my sound effects and music beds. At that point, I just start building the damn thing.
It really helps me to see a production element as a big jigsaw puzzle. The picture of the completed puzzle is in my head, but I need to see all of my pieces before I can figure out how to put it all together. Maybe that little morsel will help you, maybe it won’t work for you at all.
Oh, and about that music bed I stole from Mr. X, I’ll never tell, but damn it’s a great bed.
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