The More You’re In The Dark The Happier They Are

by Andre Gonsalves

I get tons of email from fellow audio engineers asking me, “Why do I give so many secrets away?”. My response, “Why not?”.

For pretty much the entire course of human history, people have made their living by keeping us in the dark. The less you know about law, the more you need to hire a lawyer. The less you know about your toilet, the more you need to hire a plumber. The less you know about cars, the more you need to hire a mechanic. The less you know about mixing and mastering, the more you will need to hire an audio engineer.

But I don’t believe this.

I believe the more you learn about mixing and mastering, the more you’ll say, “You know what, I can do all these little things myself but I’m going to let the pros handle this big job”. Because you know more about mixing and mastering, you don’t take it for granted. You know what goes into it. You know it’s not just about pushing this button that says, “Make This Sound Amazing” just as building a house isn’t about being able to hammer a nail into wood. Speaking of nailing into wood, I’m really into do-it-yourself home renovations and know a fair bit about it, the more I know, the more I realize I’m not capable of doing certain jobs because I appreciate the level of expertise that goes into doing them right.

What’s even funnier is that the people who nothing are the ones most likely to not get any help. They’re afraid. The light in their fridge isn’t working, they don’t know how to fix it or who to call, because they don’t know anything about electricity or light bulbs. These people are literally in their dark (at least their food is), because they’ve never empowered themselves to learn something new. These people only hire someone when they are desperate.

I don’t want to work for these kind of people. That is why I give all my secrets away.

 

 

Andre is the head audio engineer at ADG Mastering, which he helped found in 2012. For the last 10 years, he has made it his mission to empower aspiring artists and musicians from around the world. You can see more of Andre's writings on our Blog.

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