Larry Coryell speaks out about modern recording

Larry Coryell

From MySpace

I think I officially gave up on the music biz as I knew it about a year ago.

I’d been hired to play guitar on the recording of a very successful artist’s CD. This artist’s prior CD had done very well, selling in excess of millions. Being asked to participate in the follow up was an honor to say the least. Not just because of the predecessor’s stellar sales, but because the other people involved in the new record, namely the producer, engineer and other musicians, were among the best in the industry.

I arrived at the studio the first day of tracking, full of excitement at the prospect of making music. I made sure to be there with plenty of time to be set up and ready to go when the down beat came. The other musicians were also arriving when I got there. After saying our hellos, we all loaded our gear into the live room and made small talk while getting ready. I finished setting up with plenty of time before our 11 a.m start, so I double checked my equipment, and mentally prepared myself for an intense and exciting day. At 11 a.m, the artist still hadn’t arrived. No worries, the artist reserves the right to show up late (or not at all as the case is sometimes). As long as I’m being paid for my time, I’m okay. Around noon, the artist ambled in and after the requisite introductions, we all jumped into action learning the new songs. I was thrilled we had begun and was really enjoying listening to these fantastic new tunes. What a privilege! The process lasted about an hour, after which a song was chosen from the batch to start our maiden voyage. Hooray!

It was decided that a drum loop would be made first. We had one of the best drummers in the world on the session, so he and the producer set out to make a loop out of his performance on an exotic percussion instrument. Cool, I thought, this will sound great and shouldn’t take long. Several hours later, the desired effect still hadn’t been achieved. Problem was, it didn’t jive so well with the programmed drums on the demo. Moving on, they brought in the bass player to overdub on said demo, which had now been dumped into Pro Tools. He picked up his bass, played a few takes and that was that. Then, I was asked to add some guitar. Now we’re cooking! I thought happily. I picked up my axe, and the producer, artist and I discussed some different ideas and approaches. After agreeing on the direction they wanted to go in, I played a few passes. Seemingly, the producer was satisfied. Then he proceeded to “correct” my performance with a plug-in. Now, I’m a pretty humble guy when it comes to record making. I’m there to do whatever is needed, and I’m the first to admit when something I played isn’t happening. But it was puzzling they wanted to alter this particular performance, because to me, and to other people in the room, it sounded… good. When I asked the producer about it, he said something like-

“Your performance was 95% perfect. This new plug-in will take care of that last 5%.”

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