We're not aiming for perfect

I subscribe to a lot of plugin companies’ newsletters; how else am I going to know when their plugins go on sale? Most of these newsletters are of the boring, rote “Here’s what we have on offer” variety, but there are a couple who have taken the opportunity to do something interesting with our attention.

One of those is the excellent Korneff Audio — the geniuses behind my favorite Alesis Microverb emulation. They send out an informal-feeling email each Monday that focuses on something that Dan Korneff finds interesting. It’s not unlike a once-weekly Jamie’s list!

Today’s Korneff email had this wonderful moment:

Cool, not perfect

Mixing can get very clinical, nitpicky, and anal, and far too technical. Often, my favorite mixes have something wrong about them that makes them more memorable.

It’s like a beautiful face: sometimes there’s a flaw on that face that makes it stand out and look even more interesting.

And may I just say: enthusiastic cosign! My favorite mixes always — always — are the ones that are a little bit unusual (or a lot unusual). And if there’s a whole album of that … those are the albums that I fall in love with the hardest.

I think my personal bias here is that I like when recordings transport me somewhere that isn’t literal. Pretty much everything in the world is extremely stressful at the moment; why would I want to listen to music that reflects reality? I want to be taken as far away from that shit as possible.

(Your mileage may vary! I’m only talking about my personal experience. Maybe making extremely realistic and/or naturalistic recordings is your passion; if so, that’s awesome, and I fully support it.)

Weirdly loud kick drums for the win — jamie