In the creepy back room of my studio is an old plastic mail tub that we've nicknamed the "money maker". Why the "money maker"? Well, this tub is full of percussion instruments, like tambourines, Eggz, maracas, vibra-slap, zils, cabasas and more. But why is it called the "money maker"? Because it makes me money. If I leave it out in the control or tracking room, one of the band members will invariably decide that one (if not every) song needs percussion. Of course, the band has never agreed on whether or not any of the songs need percussion, so a long discussion will ensue about the relevance of adding these instruments or not. Then the choice has to be made about which percussion instrument will fit which songs best. Eggz or maracas? Everyone in the band will have different opinions, of course. Once an instrument has been selected the process of figuring out who can play it begins. Many people seem to think playing percussion instruments is easy. It's not. It's not "just like playing drums". It's really hard to do right. So then we suffer through most of the band giving it a shot. During this trying experience we also realize that some of the band members think that they are playing percussion solos, with weird accents and time signatures. More discussion ensues as the members usually decide (with much prompting from me) that a real simple part will work quite fine. After all this, plus a few punch ins and comping, a new track will exist that probably took three times longer to accomplish than the original drum take.
Beware of the “Moneymaker”
