First off, this is not an official work by Rick Rubin, but a collection of a ton of interviews from both Rubin and all the artists he's worked with. Actually, I find this to be a good thing because when guys this big attempt to make a “how to” kind of thing, they always get lazy and never make it as comprehensive as it should be or lose perspective on just how much they know.

Of course, this book wasn't intended to be all-out everything-you-need-to-know about producing kind of book. It was intended to be a fun read that gives some huge insight into the way Rick Rubin works. I plowed through it in two days.

It's very easy to forget just how much Rick Rubin has done. Being a guy born in 1980, I'm very familiar with his work. However, it's easy to lose track of just how expansive his catalog really is. Yeah, his work with the Chili Peppers is obvious. Everyone knows he started out with the rap thing. Most people know he got Slayer and System of A Down going. When you factor in Johnny Cash, Dixie Chicks, Linkin Park, Mick Jagger, Danzig, and The Bangles you start saying, “Oh, he's done EVERYTHING!”. Hell, he even produced “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix A Lot. Awesome!

I did find it slightly annoying (not too bad) when the artists themselves are describing the recording process. You see, I hate bands and don't trust anything they say. When Anthony Keidis starts talking about the band being one energy, I have no idea what that means. Not one. There is a significant amount of that sort of thing in this book, but again, it only gets slightly annoying and I am the kind of guy that is easily annoyed. So most of you guys will have no trouble. If you LIKE bands talking about nothing, you'll love this book If you are used to drummers looking for a “blue snare sound”, you'll handle this just fine.

What this book has done for me is given me a huge kick in the butt and reminded me why I do what I do. It's reminded me to get aggressive with my band and eliminate all the busy playing and that sort of thing. It's pointed out many things that I already known, but pointed them out in ways that are so aggressive, you'd have to be a nitwit not to be a better producer after this book.

The producing lessons in this book (implied as they may be) are absolutely indispensable.

I didn't realize just how absolutely successful Rubin has been. It's one thing to say, “Yeah, he's done a 30 big records.” It seems that 9 out of 10 records he does end up being astronomical successes. I didn't tally up how many diamond records he's done, but it is absurd! It seems that everything he touches does extremely well both in artistic and commercial terms. This was the big point for me.

As you'll read, Rubin's approach is to not care AT ALL about album sales and just getting the artist to max out what they do, remove all gimmicks, and make sure the core is as badass as it can be.

I see so many bands who think that if you are selling your albums, you are doing something wrong. They've went so far off the artistic deep end that they believe that if you sell 10,000,000 records you've sold a part of your soul in order to do it. This has never sat well with me. I've always felt that the best artistic statements sell the most records. There are exceptions out there, but this book's theme has been that great music makes money, not record label Milli Vanilli crap.

I come from the school where the ultimate album has maxed out artistic merit and commercial merit. To me, they are one and the same. So when these two sometimes differing worlds end up at the same point, you know you are on the right page and that's the main reason I highly recommend this book.

Read it!

The point of this article is not to dog music theory. I realize that technical junk (such as music theory) is a vital part of certain aspects of the music creation and I have the utmost respect for those individuals have chosen to dig deeper into the technical side of music as long as it results in music I can relate to. With that said, a part of me has always felt like a musical....what's the word.....dumb ass. I'm a musical dumbass.

Let me explain.

I know what I like when it comes to music. It's easy to tell. When a song is amazing, my body starts to act funny. Goosebumps pop out of my skin. The back of my neck begins to tingle. I forget about my bills and the song consumes me. When this stuff isn't happening, I clearly don't like the music. I can't explain it with math equations (there was a guy whipping out talks of Pythagarus on the forum the other day) and I have no idea what scales and all that junk were used. I wouldn't know where to start. All I know is that I'm a “music fan” and when I hear something I like, I like it.

A part of me kinda feels guilty for being such a musical dumbass. I sometimes feel like “I'm a music guy and I should know this stuff”. I have to admit that there has always been this gut feeling to not want to dig any further on the technical side of music.

A Common Ear
When I attended the Michael Wagener Workshop back in 2006 I asked him what the secret was to having his name on 60,000,000 sold albums. I asked him if he had a golden ear or anything like that. He essentially responded with “Hell no! I just have a common ear.”.

In other words, the stuff, the sound, and the music that Michael Wagener likes tends to be quite similar to that of what a big section of the music buying public likes too. This felt comforting to me to say the least.

The Rick Rubin Method
There is 10 page article in the New York Times about Rick Rubin that everyone should check out. Even though he's discovered or worked with stars as diverse as LL Cool J, Slayer, System of a Down, The Dixie Chicks, and Johnny Cash the rules are always the same. Make the music as effective as possible. He admits that he's essentially an engineering dumbass. He simply wants to feel the music. He has no technical understanding of preamps, Eqs, etc. He says he's not a “knob turner”.

I especially enjoyed the part where he talks about how he was a big Beatles fan growing up. He learned the power of the song. (That's what I call it). When rap music began to take off in the early 80s he jumped on board and started working with LL Cool J early on. He didn't understand the unstructured nature of most rap music at the time. It just felt right to have hooks. Instead of having 5 minutes of rapping over a beat, Rubin suggested the idea of making songs more along the lines of the Beatles.

Engineers and Producers Who Don't Play Instruments
Of the years I've encountered several engineers and producers who have made important albums and can't play a single instrument. In the latest Tape Op issue, Kevin Killen discusses how he can't play a single instrument even though he's worked on some of the important music of the past quarter century (in my opinion). The same could be said of John Leckie who produced Radiohead's “The Bends” (my favorite Radiohead record).

So what are these producers doing if they can't even play an instrument? They are obviously bring SOMETHING to the table! Right?

Conclusions
It seems that technical understanding whether it be of advanced music theory or multi-band compression isn't excactly required to create a magical audio recording. It's something else and this certain something if fairly difficult to write about because I'm not even exactly sure what it is.

So while us home recorders unfortunately do have to do deal with more of the non-musical stuff than we'd probably prefer, it's important that each of us takes a step back every once in a while just to ponder on we need to do in order to make a recording that gives you and me goosebumps. After all, we are all music fans. Right?