does Audio Engineering experience ruin music-writing ability?

[electrocore]

Hey everyone, my name is Alex Coole, I am a 16 year old guy from Perth, Western Australia.
My real aspirations lie in music-writing, I wish to become a musician, but as it is an extremely hard industry to get into, I am interested in Audio Engineering as an actual career while I try to become a successful musician.
I do not actually favor the metal genre more then any other, in fact my idea for success is that I plan to play every genre I like (all of them) meaning releasing records sounding more like compilations then albums themselves. Track listing being something like 1. dubstep. 2. house 3. pop. 4. rock. 5. hardcore. 6. metalcore. Etc, etc.
The 'album sound' will still be there as genres are arranged on the album in a way they flow into each other.
Of course, a noticeable problem here is that any fans who may appreciate my pop tracks are not going to buy an album with any of that 'scary satanic music' on it, OR maybe, and hopefully, I will educate some of these narrow-minded music-lovers and expose them to some cool shit they wouldn't normally consider. Preach to the masses and whatnot, you know.
I am in my second last year of high school, and as I have several friends in a local metalcore band, and am becoming slightly involved in the local metal/hardcore scene, I wish to explore producing some metal for friends, merely for experience. I am also interested in pursuing a Electronica/Metalcore project myself, something between the trance-heavy album 'Take To The Skies' of Enter Shikari, and the slightly more br00tal, and breakbeat-ridden, 'Everything Perfect on the Wrong Day' by Sky Eats Airplane.
With only basic understanding of DAW's for beat-making, such as Fruity Loops, I need some serious education in the production of metal, and thus I stumbled upon this forum. I was all set to go, so I read the sticky thread directed at beginners ''Ermz' Production Tips Compendium (for the newer guys)'.
It gave great advice and I was a fine happy chappy until I reached this:

'As you start to gain a greater understanding of these sonics, you find that your musical enjoyment, or writing ability has started to deteriorate.'

This scares the shit out of me. I mean, the illusion and magic of music has already deteriorated since I was 11 and began playing guitar and realizing the basic composition of music. I could differentiate the instruments in my mind when listening to music, and suddenly it wasn't the magician's magic spell anymore. Much like learning the atom theory ruins the illusion of the magic of nature.
I am worried that if I go down the path of Audio Engineering I will become more of an Engineer then a musician. Just from that particular sticky threat I read, i've already assumed you guys don't get on incredibly well with musicians.

So my real question is, and please answer truthfully:

Has your indulgence in Audio Engineering made music more like a science to you then a magic?
And therefore, is this the right career choice for an aspiring musician?

Advice would be hugely appreciated.

 

[amarshism]

No.

 

[xFkx]

No.


But the first part of your post reminded me of a comic strip:

 

[electrocore]

that comic is a little depressing, but true enough.

so you wouldn't even say your music appreciation deteriorates in the slightest?

 

[electrocore]

also, amarshism, is abraxis hardcore or australian hardcore?

 

[ahjteam]

Music writing? No.

Music listening? Totally.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Getting better and more involved with engineering doesn't actively make you a less good songwriter, on the other hand, it's quite likely you become a better musician because you get a better ear for details and overall a better/different conception of music.

But what some experience is that they eventually reach a point, when producing and engineering becomes more interesting than performing. You stay creatively, just more from the other side of the window. And if you're aiming to take you're engineering above hobby level you'll also may simply find having less and less time to play and write yourself. But that may happen with any job...

All these things are down to the individual, that doesn't need to happen. But if it happens to you, you won't miss it as much as you think now because you're priorities have already shifted.

Don't fear engineering. If you strive to become a successful musician, good knowledge of the production aspect will come in very helpful on either side of the desk.

 

[abigor731]

Has your indulgence in Audio Engineering made music more like a science to you then a magic?
And therefore, is this the right career choice for an aspiring musician?

Yes/Yes

it does demystify it somehow, but you get a better understanding of how instruments work together to create a specific sound picture, but this isn't bad, it doesn't make you a less efficient songwriter, its progress

magic is something you don't understand, as opposed to science
don't you experience the same sing as a songwriter too? once you understand the theory behind a song its not magic anymore, because you anderstand, and can explain it
to me this happens all the time, but i call it progress

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Music writing? No.

Music listening? Totally.

+ a million

 

[Charlie E.]

I think if anything it has made me a better songwriter. I mean you can learn about counterpoint and stuff like that in school, but that doesn't take into account modern instruments most of the time and having the experience in working with those instruments and knowing their sonic characteristics lets you take advantage of them in the songwriting process.

What annoys me now is when my bass player doesn't see the big picture and wants to jam around instead of staying grounded on a low root note when the song clearly needs it because he gets "bored".

 

[madbutcher]

I think it has helped my writing a ton actually. Better recording became a better "notepad" for all my songwriting.

As for listening, it has ruined just simply enjoying recordings. I can't listen to anything w/o analyzing the production of it.

 

[bryan_kilco]

What annoys me now is when my bass player doesn't see the big picture and wants to jam around instead of staying grounded on a low root note when the song clearly needs it because he gets "bored".

+1

I'm noticing that with our guy as well. He sorta dumbs down some intricate parts, and there's one specific part where Im playing open chuggies at an odd time sig while the other guitar is in 4/4 and I really want the bass to chug along with me in this part but he insists on doing some higher triple note dumbed down version of the main riff.

 

[JeffTD]

Getting into audio engineering has improved my understanding of music a trillion fold - there's not a single facet of musical ability that hasn't been improved since I started. The only things that audio engineering have negatively affected are my respect for/opinion of bands and my wallet.

Seriously, I think the process has improved my life in most all aspects. My attention to detail, patience, ability to interact with various kinds of people, ability to 'see the forest' as well as each individual tree, and appreciation of both simplicity and technicality have all been improved since I jumped on this slippery slope 5 years ago.

 

[Ionei]

Only thing that its done to me is make me perfect things more.
Shit is so much more annoying now when its not how I want it to be.

 

[pipaguapique]

My attention to detail, patience, ability to interact with various kinds of people, ability to 'see the forest' as well as each individual tree, and appreciation of both simplicity and technicality have all been improved since I jumped on this slippery slope 5 years ago.

1 JeffTD 3:16

 

[guitarded88]

Hahaha this post just took me back about 5 years...

In my case... all i ever cared about was writing music. People loved the songs I wrote and I was best guitarist in my school. The world was my oyster.

Then when you're no longer in high school... its no longer "Wow this kid is amazing is FOR a high school kid"

You're now competing against professionals who have been doing it for years.

In order to be heard, you gotta sound more pro. Hopefully you have some musicians who are going to stick with you and play YOUR music, or else ur going to be in my situation: Friends went to university and so did I. No longer had a band to play my songs.


...Welcome to recording land. Where you can record your own music and write songs without relying on a band.

Now you realize when you record you don't sound pro. You realize theres no studio magic and to sound good you gotta start playing PERFECTLY. Zero slop, your guitar and amp should sound like its coming from an album. You're no longer the best... comparitively you arent even good! a lot of guitarists can HIT the notes but can you make each note sing?

So yeh. You won't have the same amount of time to write songs as you used to, but ur on the path! But your learning the studio will not affect your writing, indirectly you'll run into obsticles that stop you from focusing purely on writing.

Then you realize it's too much work for one guy, so you join a band. Unfortunately your playing with a bunch of talented technical metal guys and your songs aren't "brutal" enough. In fact NONE of those genres you listed fit thier style. So you just grin and play their songs hoping one day they'll appreciate what you've done.

I really like my band, but in terms of making my own music (which I stand behind 100% and personally believe is truly great), I'm completely on my own.

Good luck kid, it's a rocky road ahead!

 

[Trevoire520]

To be honest this bit of your post sent off alarms for me:

I am interested in Audio Engineering as an actual career while I try to become a successful musician.

This is not a good way to look at things at all man. Getting into audio engineering as a career is unbeliveably hard even when you put every spare minute and every bit of effort into it. It takes YEARS to deveop your skills, become established and get a steady client base. Not to mention a serious financial investment. Every penny you earn at your shitty day job will have to go into equipment for your studio.
It's not something you can just do while on the side you're trying to become a successful musician imo.

My advice would be to get yourself a basic recording setup for you to write and record on, and spend your time focusing on the music, which seems to be the thing that you really want to do.
Also, have a backup plan. Go to college/university and study something (NOT MUSIC/AUDIO ENGINEERING!) that will get you a good paycheck if the whole music thing doesn't work out (which it most likely wont to be honest)

Hope this doesn't come across as being overly harsh. Just being honest man.

 

[hurdy]

On my guitar, I was always full of songs & riff ideas until the day I met the satan (DAW)
Unfortunately, my songwriting has somehow become restricted as I spend more time fuckn around with recording instead of practicing writing skillz
Decent, fresh ideas do not flow thru me 24/7. They used to tho. Songwriting has improved though, just harder to get more ideas out
Maybe, it's just me & nothing to do with recording lolz

 

[dcb]

this is just my opinion :
demos sound more and more like the final product. the problem is a quad tracked guitar will always sound huge , only if you hit the low a string -> instant hugeness ->> BUT : this is called ARRANGEMENT and PRODUCTION
but the really hard part about writing is : COMPOSITION. sadly, most bands have no clue about that.
i tend to take a step back with my latest demos for my band.

i only do mono demos. why ? because this way i can clearly hear what each instrument does, every instrument can easily find its niche in the whole arrangement, so i can concentrate on the actual writing - COMPOSITION.
its just what i found out for me, but i think that listening to a shitty live recording of a great song will have more impact on listeners thatn overproduced nonsense....

hope that isnt off topic. ;-)

 

[briggz22]

If you wanna do engineering you've gotta have a passion for it. Don't think that it'll be an easy way to make a living while you're working on becoming a rock star. It's not gonna happen. You need to invest a lot of money and time into it or you'll never get any good at it and never make any money back. But if you really do have a passion for engineering you may find yourself writing songs just so you can record and mix them, not so you can be in a successful band etc. If you have a passion for both music writing and engineering and you have the time and dedication to do both at the same time then hats off to ya