I like the idea of viewing a studio and its use as an artistic device, something that's probably equally important as an instrument or a bunch of words formed into song lyrics. It's why I'm such a fan of bands like BOC, Radiohead, Squarepusher and to a lesser extent, groups like Botch, Deerhoof, Battles and Minus The Bear. All these little tricks that are used after the physical act of playing notes on instruments in order to shape the sound further seems to alter the character of the song from a group of seperate parts to something that sounds more complete. Simple things like EQing vocals, or panning two seperate guitar takes (one for the left channel, one for the right), or even messing with live drumming by adding delay or reverb for a couple of beats*, or even the entire take.
I often apply this to my own sample-based music, which I've started making again (yeah, the Cinsorium MySpace shall be updated with it soonish). It's basically one of the main ideals that I keep in mind when I make that kind of music - no rules whatsoever. If I can record it and make it sound interesting, then it's a Cinsorium track. Field recordings, white noise, manipulated sine waves, you name it, and if I haven't already done it, then I probably will.
I was pretty much not going to record They Came And Ate Us: The Musical tracks for public consumption - well, the idea in the early stages was get as many gigs as possible but don't put out any CDs. It was mostly an experiment to see how successfully we could develop a reputation without recorded material existing.
Things are a little different now. It took a while, but the obvious finally struck me by way of various band member fists: We'll at least have a Myspace/Facebook/Website. We'll need some recorded medium up there.
I've recorded my parts for all of our songs so far - some are better quality than others, but they're all intended to be working demos to help the rest of the band come up with stuff when they're not here and me to go over ideas when I'm not at home. I'm going to start recording the rest of the peeps as soon as they have stuff they're happy with, just so we can more easily remember our parts. It'll also help us get a more abjective*** idea of how we sound with the rest of the band when we have to actually listen back to our own playing.
Anyway, my point is that I may use these as demos to put online for folks to hear. I believe that I'm going to refrain from giving more than a cursory spit-and-polish and just leave tracks as they are - in order to keep the band sounding as it does, rather than tweaking things too much, accidentally bending reality in the process.
I think that as much as I respect production & engineering that gets creative, it detracts from the band's importance, and the focus shifts to the process that takes place after the music's been played. Unlike Cinsorium, we are a band who'll be playing live. If the recording/production process is as simple and as to-the-point as possible, then the focus will more likely be on the people playing. Simple, no?
*Squarepusher's a good example of this, and examples are especially blatant in tracks from Just A Souvenir. You'll find fragments, just a few notes, of reversed guitar or drums among an otherwise normal take on many occasions.
**Bribery/blackmail FTW
***Had to slot that in there. How could I not?