It just so happens that there is a producer who grew up not too far from my hometown who went on to become a real producer. He has done a number of records that I'm aware of and one or two that I even own, but he never quite hit the big time with a multi-platinum album. If case you haven't noticed, most engineers and producers do not hit the jackpot often. There are a lot of pro level engineers and producers who never quite got their hit. It's kind of like Charles Barkley never getting his NBA championship.

Either way, this producer decided that he wanted to work some very close friend's of mine. This gave me the opportunity to watch Mr. Producer go to town when it came to writing and arranging with the band. I must say that without a doubt, the fastest way for an engineer to improve his work is to hang out with a big dog for a little while. There were so many things I picked up that made all the difference in the world.

The first one was the way that the drummer played the drums. I must say that I've recorded this drummer probably 10 times in the past 5 years. Over time I've coached him to beating the living crap out of his drums. The first time the drummer started playing (which I considered to be very hard) Mr. Producer jumped up and said ?Are you going to play drums like a pussy? KNOCK THE HELL OUT OF THEM!!!?. Then about one minute later, Mr. Producer, stopped again. He said, ?Hit that rim and pointed to the snare drum?. Drummer wasn't exactly sure what Mr. Producer meant.

It turns out that Mr. Producer made his drummers hit the rim of the drum as hard as they could. The stick hitting the rim would catapult the stick into the head of the drum. The difference is amazing. It's no wonder I was never impressed with my Neve preamps on my snare drums. The drummers were never properly hitting their snares properly on my rock recordings. This technique gives the drums so much more crack and attack. I've been boosting the high end of the snare drums for years and cutting out the boxiness. I can guarantee you that I will never need to use near as much EQ ever again.

This one technique will save me thousands of hours and cuss words in the next few years and it took about 20 seconds to learn. This technique changes the source which is always more important than the gear. From now on I will make every rock drummer that I record do this trick.

The monster snare smashing rim trick is just one of many tricks that I picked up when hanging out with a real producer. I wish I would have known this back when I started. I used to think that you could learn pretty much everything online or in forums, but this is proof that you can learn so much simply by being there.