When I married about ten years ago, my wife drew up a list of priorities for how we spend the wedding budget. At the top of the list was the photographer, above the dress, the venue, flowers or food. Her reasoning was simple, the photos were the only thing that would remain after the taste of the food and drink, and the flowers had faded. It was our way to keep memories forever, and we wanted to make sure we captured the moment in the best possible way.

You might have heard the horror stories of people shelling out vast sums of money for a professional photographer. After the event, the images are terrible, or even worse lost! Or some well-meaning friend who has a DSLR and plenty of snaps on their Instagram account offers to do it and you say yes. Then the results are bad, and you've lost your memories and possibly a friend.

You can't re-run the day; the moment is gone.

This week in a conversation about recording I found myself drawn into a debate about which was the best plug-in, I think there were three in the running. One established producer said that in reality, it didn't matter that much. I threw in the line, attributed to Al Schmitt "no one buys a record because of the snare sound." People are attracted to a great tune, and the passion captured when the magic is happening.

So let me ask you a question - if you wanted to capture moment would you want a photographer with a great eye and the skill to do it without you having to worry, or someone who grabbed something said 'that will do' and then touched it up in Photoshop? It's a rhetorical question; we want someone so good at photography that even with an iPhone they could get a better shot than someone obsessed with the technology but with no eye for those magic moments. It is said that the best camera is the one you have at that moment, you see the magic, click and it's done.

In an ideal world, a pro photographer is going to want to have their camera bodies, lenses and filters to make sure they get the best images possible. At that moment they are not thinking about how they can fix it later in Lightroom or Photoshop, they know an average picture is the same even after spending hours with it in touch up.

It's the same with recording and mixing. What an artist or a band need is for you to capture their great song played with brilliance and energy... there is nothing else like it. Often our obsession with endless edits, tweaking, quantizing, tuning, and plugin overload says more about us than them. In reality, there's nothing you can do in a mix about the vital missing components of a great song played well with energy and passion. There isn't a DAW or a plugin on the planet that can add those later. I recall once been sent a track to mix and when I opened it up it was so well tracked that there was very little I could do, apart from perhaps ruin it. That’s what we are aiming for.

You might think it's easy to do this when you are in a big studio with a fantastic room, vintage mics, desk and tape machine. Even these things can't make up for the deficit of talent on the part of the artist or the recording team.

Conversely, watch this video where Bob Clearmountain gets a great drum sound with just two microphones - in fact some of the most iconic drum tracks on records are just two mics, in many cases mono.

When we are presented with those limitations and refuse to treat the mixing process as some kind of 'get-out-of-jail' card then we work hard at getting the right place in the room, the mics set up right so when we hit record we know we've nailed the sound. In some cases, you'll get a better record throwing a couple of mics up in a room and recording the band like that than embarking on some technical gymnastics of 500 over-produced tracks that you spend weeks trying to find an ounce of energy out of. Just because we can record with limitless tracks and a multitude of plugins it doesn't mean we should - there is a freedom and power in simplicity.

Since lockdown began I've been photo journaling my daily morning walk along the coast with my dog Buddy. It is this exercise that has been challenging me about my attitude to recording. All I have with me is my iPhone, no other technology. I walk the same two miles each day and I am beholden to the weather. This has taught me that I have to spend a great deal of time finding the right place to shoot when the content and the light is just right. I learnt this when I took average shots and then tried to touch them up afterwards. What I got was an average shot that had been touched up and not an unrepeatable moment.

Take the two examples below, both exactly the same place at the same time of day and using the same equipment, but when I waited for the right light and then took my time to compose it to get the best possible picture the results are world’s apart - there’s nothing I could have done later to make the first shot any better than it is. The shot on the right has been touched up afterwards, but that was because it was worth it. In fact I call the second shot ‘Basking in Glory’ just imagine if I called the shot on the left that!

Recording music is exactly the same.

In a world of homogenous music, it's the moments of magic that let the artist shine in all their glory that stand out. We best serve the end goal in making records when we try and capture the sun as it rises and not try and paint one in afterwards.

Nashville based Engineer/Producer Vance Powell;

“When I tracked the Stray Cats we set them up at Blackbird Studios as the band and then spent time getting the sound just right. What's important is that the band know the tracks before they get to the studio and they arrange the tracks so that when the vocals come in there is space to hear them. I had to mix another band recently where so many instruments were crowding out the vocals it made mixing so much harder, so I said to the band that I need to mute about six guitar parts if this is going to sound any good. Listen to any of the old Sinatra recordings, a masterclass in how to arrange songs for a live recording session. You get the big band blasting at the start and then when Frank came to sing the dynamics dropped down to give him space."

Capitol Recording’s Steve Genewick;

"Anytime I'm recording a band I want to get as many of the players in the room, and playing at the same time as I can. By having everyone playing together, you can create and capture that energy. The parts are worked out as a unit, and more importantly, the dynamics are worked out naturally. Players can commit to sounds and parts because they know what everyone else is playing, and they can hear and react to one another.

A lot of what we do today as mixers is adjusting the dynamics within a song that was pieced together. When everything is recorded at once, or a majority of it, mixing is a much easier, quicker and enjoyable process.

Lastly, IT'S WAY MORE FUN! What's better than hanging out with your friends making music, laughing, eating, drinking and generally having a good time."

If you want to know more about what top recording engineers said about this then you can read that here.

The right moment and attention to detail is where great recordings start. You can’t make the magic happen but you can be ready when it does, that’s about having a keen ear and the experience, skill and talent to get the best possible recording when it happens.

Now go capture some moments of musical history!