Producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin says there is no “right way” to make music.
The 61-year-old, who’s produced everybody from Slayer to Adele across his 40-plus-year career, offers the insight during a new interview with YouTuber Rick Beato.
Rubin explains that he’s never one to write off particular equipment or a way of recording, explaining that what works for one artist may not work for another. “I think, in general, all of the philosophical ideas of, like, ‘It’s better to make music with a click track, it’s better to make music without; it’s better to record on tape than digital’ – whatever they are, it’s always case-specific,” he states.
“There are no right answers. Sometimes, it’s nice to record on tape, sometimes it’s nice to record digitally.”
The producer later adds: “There’s a real freedom in knowing that none of the rules about ‘the right way to do it’, none of those are real. Those are all made-up rules. You can discard all of them. You can use them if they’re helpful but, as soon as they get in the way, discard them. There truly is no right way to do any of it.”
Rubin continues by citing Linkin Park as an example. Rubin produced the nu metal stars’ third studio album, Minutes to Midnight, which came out in 2007. The album topped charts around the world and spawned such fan-favourite singles as What I’ve Done and Bleed It Out.“
I remember, when I produced Linkin Park the first time, the idea of them playing together as a band was so alien to them,” he remembers. “I think they’d made three records before that [sic]. Not only had they never played together on any of their records – they never played their songs together until they played them onstage! They were always made in the studio. That’s how they worked.”
Rubin set out to challenge the band, and was curious to see if it would yield any new or interesting ideas. “We tried playing together in the studio and it was interesting sometimes, but it didn’t have to be that way. It’s always interesting to test the way you’ve done it before. Is there a new way?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rubin admits he still doesn’t know “the right way” to program an 808 drum machine. “I still don’t really know the right way to program it,” he says, “I know how I programmed it, because I didn’t have the instruction manual, so I just found a way to make the sound come out.”
See more from Rick Beato via his official YouTube channel.
