I need to get back to the songwriter meetings.... all the good stuff happens when I'm not there.


Yeah, I've had that battle... uhhh, I mean "discussion", in the Sonar forums a few times. I'd post a song done with BB and when people asked, I told them who was playing and the war would commence. Everything from I'm cheating to ....well you can imagine. It would usually end up stating that recording itself was cheating and disingenuous since it wasn't organic and live. Oh well, you can't please everyone. I eventually stopped including the info on the players and PM'ing anyone who asked "who played the steel, or the fiddle" to kind of keep the conversation on track regarding the recording crits I was seeking.

I had one guy over there who runs a few professional studios in another state make the comment that the fiddle in one of the tracks sounded so real that he could "hear the rosin on the bow".... quite a compliment knowing who this guy was and the quality of the work he was capable of doing.

I think most people are threatened by the quality of the sounds when compared to what they can personally do. I'll be the first to admit that the studio players are way beyond what I could conjure up trying to play B3, fiddle, piano, and yes, even some of the guitar work. Especially if I try to emulate it with midi and samples. The biggest thing is the quality of the sounds. I might be able to play a more interesting guitar part..... lead or rhythm, but nailing the quality of the recorded acoustic guitar.... hard to do.

My main argument point to the ones who were against using BB was this. If you can't or don't play a particular instrument, you have to hire someone to do it for you. What's the difference between hiring someone in a session and using BB? Do you consider hiring session cats to be cheating? Of course not. For me, it is essentially the same thing. The big difference is that if I'm writing and recording a lot, I don't have the budget to be hiring top quality musicians to do demo sessions on my songs. And we all know that the folks listening to the music don't want to hear amateurish sounding players and bad quality music. Financially, BB works better for me in that regard. Furthermore, you couldn't afford to hire Brent Mason and some of the other top players for your sessions anyway, or wait until they could schedule your session. If I need Brent at 10pm or 10am, BB makes him available instantly.

David, did you ever tell the guy the truth about the session players and break his heart?

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.