Duncan Sheik Quotes

My very first records, I was very interested in how you get the particular quality you want out of it, and I began to learn about the engineering and aspects of production and things very early on. I got hands-on with the process and taught myself how to engineer, as opposed to just being a producer who asked the engineer to make it sound nice.

Our job as producers is to make the music sound as good as possible.

Darrell is really good in the studio. I mean, he has a real working knowledge of how the process works, and what sounds good coming back over tape, and how the stuff works together.

I usually make records very quickly. I usually go in and record them and mix them, and I'm done within a couple of weeks.

I've been more and more into production lately, and I really, really love that. I love recording.

I like making sounds and putting it together, I'm not just a singer or a producer.

A lot of times, when you record something, the album becomes less about the music and more technical.

I think, with production, I pay very close attention. 'Cause that's my favorite thing in music. That's the whole drive. That's the reason.

I think I make good beats, but when it's not mastered correctly, it can definitely make it sound like it's not a good beat, and that has been an issue sometimes with me in the past.

Analog, electronic, whatever it happens to be, I simply love and adore literally every aspect of making music.

The actual producing, mixing, and mastering is hard work, harder than what I do.

I'm not really a knob-twiddler. I always work with an engineer; I'm not super hands-on when it comes to mixing boards and computers. I'm much more about what I'm hearing and what it needs to be like. I deal with songs and ideas and instruments.

I've always been interested in what happens in the studio.

The studio that we mix in is still in Chicago.

I realized I liked being in the studio and working on translating the ideas into recordings.

When I went into the studio I created a sound that I wanted to hear.

I don't think we'll ever use the same sound techniques.

A lot of our tracks have sounded a lot better than I thought they would because of recording, mixing, and because I probably didn't hear it that way. I'm not a songwriter.

I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.

I sequence during the entire recording process. The sequencing changes as I'm recording and as I'm listening. From when I'm, like, four songs in, I start trying to figure out which song should come after which. Which is important, and it changes as the album goes.

Every time we go into the studio and use a different engineer or producer I try to look, listen and learn their approach. That has helped with the gear I look for to use live and in the studio.

Creating a record on my own and deciding who plays and how the songs were structured, it was fun to do.

When you finish a record, I look at it like a photograph. It's already taken. You got it the way you wanted it to be. You edit it, make sure the light and contrast are right, then you just put it away, and that's your photograph. Then you don't really think about it anymore.

I'm not somebody who can tell if the song is good enough to be pushed until I hear what it sounds like after all the bells and whistles are put on it.

You get the beats. You write to them. You go in the studio and lay it down. Hopefully, a song comes out sounding good. If it comes out sounding good, you put it to the side with the rest of the other good ones, and you try to decide which ones you're gonna use on the album.