The creative side of sound engineering

In a previous post I mentioned Jim Sullivan, recording engineer at The Hideout Studio, and promised to write more about him in the future.  Since this will probably be my last blog post, at least in this particular forum, I wanted to make sure he isn’t left out. 

Jim said he started as a musician, and became interested in recording at an early age because of the possibilities of multi-tracking and layering of different sounds.  “I kinda got hooked on it,” he said. 

“A lot of engineers have a creative side,” he said, “while some others are more technical.”  Jim says he debates in online forums about technical expertise versus creativity.  What makes Jim’s approach to recording so interesting is that he approaches it less as a nuts-and-bolts craft and more as a creative art. 

He said one of his favorite things to do is to “go out there instead of reaching for a canned effect.  That stuff stands out.” 

To give an example of what he means, during one of our recording sessions I asked Jim if we could get some “robot sounds” for the introduction to a song.  Jim recalls enjoying the process of going around the room looking for sounds, rather than using whatever pre-recorded samples might have been available. 

We ended up with a montage of a grinding refrigerator ice machine, a cymbal stand being hit with a screwdriver, and chopsticks being scraped across a speaker grill.  It worked great. 

“I’m really hands on,” Jim noted.