Ed Szymczak's Blog (4)

It was a different time-- a brief stint of artists 'cleaned up', if you will-- what I mean is, while it was my control room the talent flowing through were watching what they eat and what they put into their veins... it was mineral water and vegetable trays, fresh lox and bagels, hard to come-by herbal teas and high-dollar imported water. I only heard the stories of mounds of coke on the producers' desk about the years prior: the continual tweaking that became commonplace in the studio sessions.… Continue

You see, I had it nice. I rented a fantastic house in the historic district mere blocks away from the most incredible control room attached to one of the very coolest tracking spaces I've been in... not a typical tracking space found in Nashville, USA, this one was just the right size to accommodate a 5 piece rock band-- not gobs of session players like the other World Class Spaces in or around Music Row. You see, a typical country tracking session has the five plus fiddle, pedal steel, wurly, a… Continue

How did I know that on that night, my obsession which would ultimately put me right here where I am today, would begin? --an obsession that would, in retrospect, lead me to the conclusion that I just plain don't have the moxy to thrive in the music industry as a component of commercial record production? I stumbled on the song. A song that was once right there-- right under my nose two years earlier-- a time when I was too busy living the life of the RIM student to notice that there was a diamon… Continue

Idiot Boy is my first commercial production as producer, recording engineer and mixer. From preproduction to final mix-- Long story short, I heard the demo for the first time years after it was recorded at my house in Murfreesboro, TN. You see, at the time -- 1996 -- there weren't many folks in the Recording Industry program (some of you may know as RIM) that could afford their own gear. I had my own adat studio even before I started MTSU... this coupled with a nice size house I rented with two… Continue