Don't be precious about things — a reader response

I got an excellent response to the recent post about not being precious about things, from our friend Mick Quain. Mick said:

No matter how good something is, how big it sounds, how much work and effort it took to make it that way — if you have the slightest doubt how it fits with the feel, mood, groove or general overall perception of the song, let it go. Don't be attached to it!

I recently worked on a piece that was not too heavy, sentimental and emotional. I had a great drum sound that suited the song perfectly.

The next song was an upbeat blues number, and the first thing I did was copy the drum sound from the previous song, because I really liked it and thought it might help. It took some work to get it in there and it sounded great, on its own. On playback with the song I thought, hmm, maybe I can make this work. This is when I should have ditched out, but it took me several hours to realise what I already knew: it was wrong and I was attached to it.

Soon as I realised this I reset the sound, and minutes later I had a nice, and very different, new drum sound. 

Attachment is the word. There are times and places for it, but there are times when it is a bad thing.

Emphatic cosign — jamie