Perhaps it's because I'm of a certain age, or maybe I spent many years denying the truth that I'm inherently lazy? It's a bit like the debate about taxes. Many wax lyrically about how they would willingly pay more taxes for better public services, but come polling day, that rarely translates into the vote we cast. After all, who wants to pay more taxes… really?
In the same way, who wants to make a job harder than it needs to be? Especially when we are in the middle of getting down a great idea or up against a broadcast deadline. Few of us at that moment are thinking; "hey, I wonder if the convertors in this pre-amp are as good as X?" Or; "This is a great moment to audition the 700 plugins I have in my folder."
Be Brilliant… NOW!
I'm often faced with having to show 'brilliance' in the face of insufficient budget or time… the debates raging in forums or on social media about the minutiae of gear aren't going to help me at that moment. Time is a luxury many professionals don’t have.
Whatever it is, one of the things at the top of my list of gear choice priorities is workflow. When I find a piece of gear that ticks that box, 'You had me at hello.'
I was recently in one such situation on a project where I had to get some recording done; it needed to tick the brief, impress the customer, and come in on time and on budget. I recently acquired an Avid Carbon audio interface. Julian, our Editor, had been waxing lyrically about how wonderful the Avid Carbon is for about a year. If you know Julian, you will know he's not the most excitable person in the world. Despite that truth, even with him telling me how good the Carbon is, I ignored him. I'm not even sure why I decided to buy one… perhaps it was a need to write off some tax… see there it is again!
Anyway, I took delivery of it, plugged it in and fired up Pro Tools. I plugged in a guitar, and the Hybrid engine did its magic. On this occasion magic is the appropriate word. It really was a Holy F**K moment. It made me feel like when I first used a Tascam 244 in the 1980s. Plug in, and go…
Anyway, back to last week. I fired up the Carbon again to get these tracks down and was reminded of the magic, I smiled again. Anything that means I can do my work and not have to think about other things that can get in the way makes me happy. I'm sure it makes you happy too? There was no launching a separate application to use as a front end to reduce latency. No, "I must remember to press this button." Or "I've forgotten the last time I opened Pro Tools, I was mixing a big project, so the buffer is set to 1024." None of those things; nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Until I used one I simply didn’t get it, I carried on with my “but I don’t have ‘that much’ latency’ mantra.
A Short Lived Celebration
However, this is where the story just begins. It made me so happy that I posted my joy on Facebook. Yes, I'm old; the little things like this make me happy. I'm not jet-setting all over the world or at trade shows or awards ceremonies, so there are fewer sexy pictures for me to post. But joking aside, it was a genuine moment of joy. I was able to do my work with zero inertia. Perhaps that's as much an indictment of modern recording and the promise versus the reality. Still, whatever the reason, I was genuinely happy.
Then the comments started arriving;
"You know that X has lower latency?"
"I'm sure the convertors on X sound better!"
I then knew that in posting a moment of joy, I'd started another one of those pointless debates. Worse still, the discussion was moving onto something I wasn't even talking about.
When he first told me to try a Carbon, Julian compared the difference of using it to a buzzing fridge. He said we often get used to things in life, be that latency, an extra layer of software to mitigate it, or making sure we've set the buffer correctly, they become just part of the landscape, so we stop noticing them. Then one day, the buzzing stops, and you think, oh, the buzzing has stopped. It's a good analogy. By the way, if you have any HDX interface you can get the Hybrid workflow. I’m also sure you can get a similar workflow using UAD Apollo with LUNA… just for the record.
I wasn't posting my joy about the interface's latency or the convertors' sound. I'm sure there are equally impressive interfaces on both counts, with some provisos.
I was posting that I could do my work without having to think about it, that the technology is, in fact, invisible. Someone in the comments suggested other workflows are close, but my response is simple; close isn't the same. I don’t want close.
Let Battle Commence
By writing this, I will spark more debates in the comments about how there are faster, better-sounding interfaces. That may well be true; you pay your money, and you take your choice. I'm not here to convince you to buy anything, but I want to convince you to make sure you buy things that help you get the work done and stay out of your way. Some of you might be thinking, doesn't sound matter? Of course, it does.
But given that we live in a period where gear is so good, the debate is different. I couldn't write this in the 1980s when I first got into recording; the difference between pro, semi-pro, and home gear was worlds apart. However, whenever I'm asked which audio interface is the best by someone these days, my answer is, "All of them!" You've got to work really hard to buy a bad interface these days. And it can get silly when people start debating convertors or pre-amps in interfaces at the same price point. In some cases, they are using near-identical components. At that point, you are in the realm of diminishing returns when making comparisons, created by marketing departments to distract you from what really matters.
What Matters More?
Given that, what matters more? Sound or workflow? Both do, but don't let debates about the micro details of sound, which frankly don't really matter, derail you from finding gear that helps you get the work done.
This article could have been about numerous things; Seventh Heaven, Auto Align, Studio One, Shure SM7, stuff that just works. An intertia free studio is my dream.
But isn’t it only real work when it’s hard? Doesn’t real craftsmanship only happen when we dig deep? Not if you are trying to carve some wood with a blunt chisel, or worse still, with a screw driver! The easy equals lazy argument is a bad one. It’s hard enough to come up with a creative idea and to execute it, without having to battle with tools that don’t work.
Only today I started to try and work on what was a relatively simple project only to be met by technical roadblocks around a plugin licence (which I DO own), but suddenly it decided I didn’t, and then struggling with a MIDI keyboard that decided it wasn’t connected to Pro Tools, which it was only moments before. Who needs this sh*t? Not me. If you’re against a deadline it’s costly and if you’re trying to be creative it’s a buzz kill.
What's the best gear in my studio? The stuff that gets out of my way and helps me get stuff done. Every time.