A Creative License for the Bypass Business?
Something bugs me. A difference of opinion. Well, it’s ok when it’s someone else had a different opinion than me, but when I start to question my own opinions it’s a hard feeling to shake. What am I wrestling with? The idea that every instrument cable is good for someone, somewhere. That a “hierarchy of quality” does not apply to any tool used in the creative process.
I wasn’t conflicted until I recently built a new cable and offered it out for feedback. I am well aware of the strengths and additional weakness of the new model compared to my better models… to other cables… let alone compared to perfection which is no cable at all. The thing is however, one person told me he liked it more than my better, “less-compromised” design. How can I be happy about THAT?
You see, I’ve always had this notion that there must be an absolute reference with regard to how a cable performs. That reference is perfection. Perfection is passing a signal without changing it. Perfection can not be achieved, so the goal as a designer is to come as close to possible and be deliberate in one’s errors. Errors are deviation from perfection, resulting from less than ideal materials or design. These deviations result in coloration of the sound. Error a few specific ways and you can color the sound bright or obnoxious. Error another way and you color the sound by collapsing dimension. Error another way and you color the sound by making it dark and rolled of. Hell, error enough ways and you’ve got yourself a cable that’s so bad that it stinks up the room before you plug it in.
What I do is the best I can for a given budget of materials and construction. I sure as heck don’t shoot for something ideal for Jazz. Or Rock. I don’t even design for guitar – I design for analog audio’s entire bandwidth. When I make errors I do so knowing the errors I make are going to be friendly and honest to music. They’ll serve the music in a way that doesn’t fatigue, doesn’t annoy -- doesn’t make one stop making music and go check email, clean the garage, think about the bills while playing on stage, etc. But the fact is, the less money I have to spend on a cable, the more errors I am forced to make -- and the farther I am from away from (unattainable) perfection.
This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I’m surrounded by people making choices on what to build and what to buy who have NOTHING in common with me. The guitar market is filled with everyone making products that have a unique voice. People buy pedals that are designed to have a signal output that is fantastically transformed from the signal input. People pay good money for amplifiers which don’t simply change voltage level from a low level to a high level; but they impart their own sonic signature during the process. Woods are chosen for guitars and pick ups are wound in precise fashion to sound different from one another. And it’s all good! Every artist (builder) gets to throw his paint on the canvas and every critic (player) has a valid review -- positive or negative.
Yet I can’t participate in this dynamic so fundamental to the industry! Or could I? Could I just start building one cable to sound dark and warm for crowd “A”, and another that’s lean and sterile for crowd “B”, and so on? I’d have something for everyone and a bunch of new stuff to sell, right? Then when a guy decides to move from crowd “A” to “B” I get to make another sale to the same guy.
No. Get thee behind me Satan.
Ever hear of true bypass? Buffered bypass? Either way… when people press that bypass button they are counting on something. I need to be counted on the same way as people count on a bypass. You step on the button and you want to be damn sure what’s coming out of that box is the same thing going in to it. I can’t think of any other product in the signal path for a guitarist with the same universally demanded mandate as a bypass switch -- besides cable!”
So, as long as I’m in the “bypass business”, there must be a hierarchy of transparency and neutrality which I strive for. When a person swaps guitars for a song, or steps on a pedal to play lead, I owe it to them to let them hear the choices they have made and reflect those choices in their music.
Trying to bring this full circle to my conundrum… as I introduce new cable products for the same application, I get nervous about feedback where someone likes my “less good” model more than my better model. While I appreciate it, I feel as if I’m staring down into a trap. One where I’m supposed to agree with the musician, and violate my value system. How on earth can I strive for a reference with my designs, and sell something two steps short of it as better than something only one step short of it? Unless perhaps, I can apply the notion of “creative license”. Not so much a creative license that I take with my designs, but one that a musician takes with his gear.
Perhaps therein lies the answer. Perhaps there are two worlds where different rules apply:
1) Creative Process: Anything goes. Whatever tools you use or attach to your guitar that float your boat and let you FORGET about the tools, are the best tools for the job. Use a coat-hanger if it touches your soul.
2) Studio Process: Here the job has far less to do with creating the sounds but capturing and mixing them in a way that preserves them to be shared with others. In this application there is an absolute hierarchy and a careful evaluation methodology must take place in order to choose cables which are as neutral and transparent as possible. The artist had his chance to get creative and manifest whatever sounds were right for the time, and now the job is to make sure those don’t get messed with.
With this justification I suppose I have greater comfort providing different answers on the same issue. If someone is plugging a cable into in his guitar; I should relax and embrace the idea that in some cases “more wrong” might be right. But in the studio between a mixer and tape deck? Hierarchy applies!
Let me know what you think. Me? I still think I’ll stay in the bypass business.
Tony
