The client’s coming soon, you’ve made your choices for instrument placement, microphones, preamp.  And you’ve placed a pre-order for Pad Thai from the artist’s favorite Thai restaurant.  


What’s next? . . . 


1) Levels:  Make sure the level going to disk is conservative.  This is something a lot of people struggle with because they think the levels have to be just shy of the red zone.  Aim for peaks around -20 and -12 dBFS.  For more info on this, grab a coffee and read this awesome article.


2) Always have the “tape rolling”:  Once you’ve got everything set-up and ready to go, hit “record” even if the band / artists isn’t “ready”.  The first performance could be the best and that initial noodling may be the beginnings of a great song or hook.


3) Set it and Leave it:  After everything is set-up, you’ve hit record and the performance is on, don’t make any changes, especially for vocalists.  Any changes you’re making that you can hear are changes they can hear and will very quickly pull them “out of the zone”.


4) Ask the Artist:  Once the artist or band has laid down the first take, ask them how it sounds and if there are any changes that they would like.  


5) Mute the Click:  Not right away, obviously!  What I mean is sometimes at the end of the song there’s what classical musicians call a “ritardando”, or ritard for short.  It’ll be written on sheet music as rit.  At this point mute the click and let the musician(s) create a natural slowing of the tempo without the relentless sound of the click hammering in their ears.  They’ll appreciate it and you’ll shatter their preconception that engineers are Neanderthals with zero musicality.



Have fun!

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”, John Dewey

Welcome to the final part of the Attending Audio School series: the reward.  As promised, this will be 

the happiest part of this blog series.  I started with the bad news, so let me tell you the good news.  

Here are just some of the rewards of attending audio school:

Last time we looked at the risk involved in going to audio school and the reasons for attending school.  I hope you’ve already started your research and networking.

Today we’ll be looking at the the possible ROI (return on investment) of an audio education for the purpose of getting work.  In Part 1 I said, 

“If you're going to school to train for a first or second career, you're spending thousands of dollars on your education and you want a paid job afterward.”

I want to zero in on this because this is the reason the majority of people go to school.  And if we’re talking about the ROI of our education, we’re talking directly in terms of paid employment.  So the question is:

Are there any jobs in audio production?

Intro

You’re the kind of person who loves audio, recording, mixing, producing, sound, gear, technology, staying up late and eating pizza, etc.  So based on your skills and passion, you’ve decided to attend audio school.  You’re stoked, you’re ready, and you can already feel the wind blowing through you hair.  The thought of recording big-named artists and bands is giving you enough tissue-aliveness to power a city!

But, before you hand over your credit card, student loans or hard earned cash for audio school tuition, have you asked these three questions?

• What’s the risk? 
  
• What’s the return on investment (ROI)?
  
• What are the rewards?

In this three-part series, I’m going to answer these questions, beginning today with:

“I’m looking to have a mix done, and I don’t have a huge budget.  But it doesn’t have to take a lot of time, cause I need by tomorrow.  An agent is asking for it.  Oh, and he needs it to be really great quality.  Are you cool with that?”

If anyone has ever said this to you, you'll love this video:

___________________________
Gearslave872
Hey guys, I’m looking to upgrade my sound card to a nice usb or firewire audio interface.  I’ve been using Audacity and Garage Band, but I’m thinking I should buy Logic.  Any recommendations?  Thanks!

As I write this latest blog entry, I’m listening to Alison Krauss’ DVD recording ‘A Hundred Miles or More: Live From the Tracking Room’.  

I first heard this one day while sitting in my studio space.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day and a gentle breeze came through the open window.  I sat in the sweet spot as the sun warmed my skin, and listened to what I felt was probably the best recording I had ever heard.  

Looking at the video I see:

The Source: A studio full of amazing musicians and great gear  ✓

Acoustics: The Tracking Room in Nashville  ✓

Preamps: Neve, API, SSL, GML  ✓

Microphones: the Microphone as the next important link in the recording chain!  And it looks like engineer Greg Paczosa knows that, too.  ✓

Witnessing an Event

Think of a microphone as a person witnessing an event.   Each person present will experience the event in a different way and translate that verbally.  Likewise, a microphone “hears” the source in a certain way and relates that to your monitors or headphones.  The difference between one mic and another can be night and day.  

It’s important to pick the right mic for the job both technically and artistically.

Some would say that the next item in the recording chain hierarchy should be the microphone.  While I can understand why they would think so, my opinion is that the preamplifier (preamp for short, and aka pre) is the next item of importance . . . 

There have been at least a couple of occasions where something in the space in which I was recording came back to bite me.  If it’s true that “there is no failure, only feedback,” then the square room with drywall was certainly trying to tell me something!

Recently I had the opportunity to help out a friend with a recording he and a couple of friends did.  These are your average amateur musicians who love music, know a little about recording, and have consumer grade gear.  My friend uploaded his mix for me to listen to and I could tell it needed a lot of help to get it up to snuff.  I offered to help him out by mixing it for him and then show him what I did.

I received the files from him and loaded them into Pro Tools and got to work . . . 

Oh . . . .

Yikes . . . .

<sigh>

LOL!

Let me tell you what was wrong.  No it wasn’t the mic., it wasn’t the preamp, and wasn’t even the DAW; surprisingly enough.  It was the source.