Get it together

Last night I was a guest lecturer at the Art Institute of Nashville. My friend is teaching a class on Music and Media Business and Law. I guess given that I have worked for a rogue law firm in LA on music royalty recovery issues for Major film studios combined with my foray into film producing and of course now launching TourSavant that at least I might be entertaining.

Fortunately for me and the kiddies she also invited another guest speaker (back up? plan b?). This was fortunate for me not because I didn't have to spend 90 minutes on my own history and grand illusions of the future of music, but because of some very profound things the other speaker said. I got something out of connecting with another business person in this crazy business. I mean I know the guy, but I haven't spent a lot of time with him. It was enlightening. and FUN.

I did get to spout off on my thoughts about the current situation and the future (shocking not a single student had even heard of Spotify! - and these are future engineers, artists and business people who want to be in music and media - actually made the old man here feel pretty good about myself - anyway.....).

I just want to encourage us to reach out and get together with our peers, be they artists, publishers, booking agents , business folks in the industry. I mean I have a very different opinion on certain things than the gentleman I was with last night (he thinks you need $40k to make a record - I know I have done great records under $4k and less even - BUT he owns a studio so he has his view).

That's not important, what was important was the passion this guy has for sound. Pure sound. He is an engineer by training and is a purist. We think there is no room for purists in this world and practically speaking, it is cumbersome to be that way. But he shared a wonderful analogy (applicable mostly to audio guys, but bear with me) about training yourself to know the real deal and the best.

He was lamenting all folks listening to mp3s when clearly the do not reproduce sound in a way he considers worth listening to and how if you want to be an audio engineer, you can't keep training your ears to hear that stuff or when you go to reproduce sounds in the studio you will reproduce that level of quality. Here is how he made his point:

If you want to study to be a painter, you don't look at paintings on your computer. You can't learn much that way. No you go to the museums where you can look at the brush strokes themselves, see the medium of the work. you look from the side and see how the light plays off of the canvas and paint and brush strokes. Its the only way to see the real thing and how it SHOULD BE.

Wonderful analogy. We need to know the real thing. I mean I'm not an audiophile (I like punk rock too much) but I do appreciate hearing a gorgeous recording for all it is worth. I mean think of Jellyfish and JJ Piug's recordings, Wilco's Sky Bluye Sky record. and hundreds of others you will write in to tell me to listen to (and I will!)

Give it up for Fred Paragano and Paragon studios in Franklin, TN. He is the real deal.