TECHNOLOGY DOESN’T MAKE MUSIC

“I never walk over to a recording machine until I know what I’m going to do.  I don’t expect the machine to create a hit, because it only records what I have to say.  This means I know what I’m going to do in the song’s intro, I know the tempo I’m going to play it in, I know what I have to say, and I know I have to say it in so many minutes and so many seconds.  I know how the song is going to start out, and how it’s going to end.  I know where it has to build up. I know the microphones I’m going to use, and I know the arrangement, and the instrumentation.  And, with me, it’s from beginning to end.  I invented multitracking, so I know that you can record parts separately and punch things in, but I don’t do that.  My thinking is that a song has to have one feeling, and when you punch in, you’ve got one feeling over here, another feeling in the middle, and something different near the end.  When you piece it together, that’s what comes out—pieces.  The feeling doesn’t flow.  Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t punch in if you missed a note.  I’m just saying that, generally speaking, a song sounds better and more alive as a continuous performance of how you’re feeling.” —December 2005

AND THIS IS 14 YEARS BEFORE PRO TOOLS…

“Modern recording equipment is much more complicated than it needs to be.  One of the first things I learned in the multitrack business is that the machine can run away from you.  It can run you, instead of you running the machine.” —December 1977