Island Studios in Iceland on Volcanic Island

Record An EP In 2 Days [Part 2]

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:07:00 +0000

In part 1 of this post we discussed how it’s possible to record a full band production 7 song EP in just two short days. This was predicated on a lot of intentionality and prep, but that goes without saying. I record band’s EPs in this 2 day time frame a lot so today I wanted to give you more of the practical side of how I tend to work and make it happen in such a short time.

Day 1 – Drums, Bass, Core Instruments

Assuming we have our guide tracks in place for each song and the band is ready (see part 1 of this post), I like to start with drums. As the both the foundation of the song instrumentally and the most complex instrument to track well, I prefer to get this out of the way. Here is how a typical Day 1 breaks down…

8:00AM – Setup gear/drums in location. This assumes you are location recording drums, for more space perhaps.
9:00 – Begin mic placement and “get sounds.” This the most crucial point of finding what is the best way to capture this kit in the given environment and with your microphones.

Record An EP In 2 Days [Part 1]

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:07:00 +0000

What did you do this weekend? I just recorded a 7 song EP for an artist and his band. That’s right, 7 complete songs with drums, bass, guitars, keys, vocals, and everything in between. I don’t bring this up to simply talk about myself or brag. Rather I mention it because I want you to know that it is possible to record your next EP in 2 days!

Most home studio owners subscribe to the never ending process of always recording a project. You know those songs that you piece together little by little over the weeks, months, and years? The project takes forever to be recorded, if it is ever finished at all. We all need some pressure or deadlines to help us make things happen and recently I suggested to you singer/songwriters that you could and should write, record, mix, and release a 6 song EP in the next 6 months. But what about you bands who already have some songs written? Could you do it any faster? You sure can.

Forget What You Know About Mic Placement

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:02:00 +0000

There is a problem plaguing many audio engineers around the world, myself included: we think we’ve got mic placement down. Oh, sure you may have recorded a bunch of albums and found some success with your mic technique, but the problem lies in your stubbornness to actually listen to the source instead of relying on past experience.

What Worked Once, May Not Work Again

Everyone I talk to wants a quick fix. “Just tell me where to put the mic to record _____ and I’ll put it there.” I’m sorry to say people, it just doesn’t work that way. Oh sure, there are some ball park ideas that have worked for me in the past, but that’s irrelevant information to you if that is all you go on.

There are simply too many variables in a recording environment (source, room, performer, mic, placement, preamp, etc) too easily replicate a sound over and over again. You have to start from scratch each time.

Pro Tools 9 The Mixer?s Toolkit Giveaway

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:01:00 +0000

Want some killer Pro Tools mixing training for free?! Today is your day. One of my new good friends, Kevin Ward ofMixCoach.com helped co-write a brand new mixing book for Pro Tools users, Pro Tools 9: The Mixer’s Toolkit. I’ve read it about three times completely through now and it’s awesome.

The Mixing Book I Wish I Had

There are so many books out there on mixing, but most of them are either boring or theoretical. Kevin’s book is neither. It is a fast, funny, and relevant read. In The Mixer’s Toolkit, you’ll learn how to edit and tighten up drums, bass, and guitars using all of Pro Tools’ handy features like Beat Detective and Elastic Audio. You’ll discover to how to quickly create depth and clarity in your mixes with EQ (the built in free plugins) as well as how to get punchy radio ready mixes with compression. The book even takes you through some basic pre-mastering so you can get your tracks out in the real world.

It truly is the book I wish I had read when I started this whole mixing thing. You follow an actual mixing session (session file download is included) so you can follow along yourself! It honestly can’t get much easier than this people! I even learned some killer tips and tricks I had never known!

Why Your Drums Sound Weak In The Mix

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Have you ever been mixing drum tracks in a session thinking they are sounding so huge and raucous, only to find once you bring in the other instruments in the mix that they disappear and sound weak as a baby? Yeah, I thought so. I used to get so frustrated with this phenomenon. Thinking for a moment that I finally had a killer drum sound only to have my dreams dashed when I un soloed them. The solution, my friends, might be simpler than you think.

What You Don’t Hear Will Kill You

There is a reason why EQ plugins (and outboard boxes) exist. Not every instrument needs every bit of frequency information to be as prominent as the next. In a very specific way, all of your guitars, keyboards, and even vocals are pumping out sound at certain frequencies in the low mid range that are dominating your mix, even though you don’t hear it.

Your guitar may sound perfectly fine by itself, and it likely is. But that’s not the goal of a mix (to have a great guitar sound by itself). The chief aim of a mixer is to get all the tracks to sound huge and exciting (and clear) when played together. So how is this relavant to your weak drum sound? This un heard, extra low mid build up in your tracks is actually what is covering up your drums and sucking them dry.

3 Mixing Hacks

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:56:00 +0000

If you’ve tried your hand at mixing, then you’re aware that it is a complex process. It’s never really one or two tricks that make a mix standout, rather it’s hundreds of small decisions that snowball into a great (or bad) mix. Today, however, I want to give you three mixing “hacks” that are sure to almost force you into delivering better mixes!

Mix At Low Volumes

That’s right, you need to turn down your monitors while you mix. Anything can sound big and exciting at a loud volume, but a good mix is one that holds together even at low volumes. In fact, by simply mixing a low volume you force mixing decisions that make things pop at that volume, which will give you a better mix overall.

Chris Lord-Alge is famous for mentioning this many times in interviews. He mixes at a volume low enough to have a normal conversation with someone in the room (and even low enough to hear his assistant typing on the keyboard!). If you can get the drums and guitars to sound slamming at such a low volume, you are guaranteed to have a rocking track at louder listening levels. Simple!

The Case For Fewer Plugins

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:54:00 +0000

I have a theory: one huge reason so many home and project studio mixes sound amateur is because the mixers are using too many plugins. Sound like a bizarre correlation? Well if you’ve read my free eBookthen you may have a hint as to why I believe this is the case.

Time Wasted Chasing Tails

Many young mixers have grown up using a DAW (digital audio workstation). They have access to all the bundled plugins, plus have been told by the many magazines and web forums available that they “need” some “better” third party plugins if they really want great mixes. So the average mixer buys a bundle of two from some respecatable companies and then they try to get to work; shiny new plugins in hand.

The problem arises when it comes to do things like EQ or compress. Which EQ plugin should you use? The few that are bundled? The third party ones? The same goes with compressors. Which one is best for which type of track? These questions are really as pointless to the average user as a hamster running in a wheel. You’re asking the wrong questions. You should instead be focused on learning how to use these tools to mix, not which one to mix with.

Randy Staub Recording Evanenscence

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:54:00 +0000

The multitracks for Evanescence’s third album were so big that they required two maxed-out Pro Tools rigs to play back!

Paul Tingen

The way the music business works,” says Randy Staub, “is that you get pigeonholed as an artist, a writer, a producer, an engineer and as a mixer. If you’ve had some success with heavy rock, like I had, people will naturally think that that’s all you do. I do like rock music, but I don’t like music because of its genre. I like it because it’s good. It can be extremely heavy, or it can be Hank Williams, or 50 Cent. I love all kinds of music, but sometimes, when I’m 13 tracks into mixing a heavy rock album, I find myself wishing that I was mixing a girl singer with an acoustic guitar!”

While Randy Staub’s sentiment is understandable, it’s also understandable that he’s regarded as a living legend in the world of rock, having worked with Mötley Crüe, Nickelback, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Iggy Pop, Alice In Chains, Bryan Adams, Hinder, Lostprophets, Evanescence and many more.

Getting Too Technical With Recording

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:43:00 +0000

There is a looming problem in the recording world: people are over complicating the recording process and getting too technical. Yes, there are so many intricacies and details to learn and you never feel like you’ve “arrived”, but at the end of the day I personally believe too many of us are focusing on the absolute wrong things when it comes to capturing great sounding tracks.

As Joe Gilder and I are gearing up for the Simply Recording Academy (our first ever 2 day workshop) in late September, I am getting totally amped to sit down in person with a handful of you guys to teach you the simplicity and the art of recording a live band in the home studio. Part of the philosophy of the workshop is to focus on what matters and forget the rest. Let me give you a few examples…

Mandy Parnell Mastering Bj�rk?s Biophilia

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:53:00 +0000

The mastering engineer’s role is changing as artists explore new formats. And as Björk and Mandy Parnell discovered, what works for the iPad might not work on CD...

Sam Inglis

Mandy Parnell.

Mastering is supposed to be the simple part of making records, right? You bring your stereo mixes along to someone with a fresh pair of ears, a nice monitoring system and a bunch of gold discs on the wall. He or she checks that there’s nothing wrong with your files, runs them through some specialist equipment you can’t afford in order to make them sound ‘finished’ and then generates production masters. Simple.

Simple, that is, unless you’re Björk, and your latest album is Biophilia, the ‘world’s first app album’, released in conjunction with Apple. All of Biophilia’s 10 tracks are being issued as apps for iOS devices in collaboration with Scott Snibbe, an interactive artist who combines his visuals with images from National Geographic and narration by David Attenborough. They explore a variety of music- and science‑based themes, forming a multimedia collection “encompassing music, apps, Internet, installations and live shows”.

Getting Too Mechanical With Editing

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:42:00 +0000

Glamorous or not, editing audio is a crucial part of the recording and mixing process. Beginning long before computers were around, the art of dicing and splicing wave forms together has grown into the beast that modern DAWs allow it to be.

In fact, with so much of the power of non linear (i.e. non-committal) editing being thrown around, many of us engineers are becoming too mechanical in the process. Part of what we’re going to cover at myupcoming workshop in Nashville next month is how to edit simply, musically, and quickly. You want to do the same!

Too Much Of A Good Thing Can Be Bad

By way of preface, I believe whole heartedly that a good mix stands on the shoulders of a great edit. I have a whole video product dedicated to proper editing and I edit audio all the time. In fact, many of the mixes I have critiqued from readers like you over the past couple of years have lacked in the area of editing. Whether it’s timing issues or mouth noises in between phrases, I hear lots of distractions and it takes away from the polish and the energy of the song.

Jake Gosling

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:52:00 +0000

Ed Sheeran’s phenomenal success depended on hard work, a few lucky breaks, and the talents of long‑term co‑writer and producer Jake Gosling.

Tom Doyle

Photos: Carey Sheffield

Few artists in recent times have experienced the kind of vertigo‑inducing rise that Ed Sheeran has enjoyed. When, in September 2011, his debut album, the symbolically titled , entered the album chart at number one, enjoying first week sales of over 100,000 before quickly going platinum, it seemed as if the 20‑year‑old singer‑songwriter had appeared from nowhere.

But Sheeran’s back story is actually one of an impressive level of dedication and dogged determination. As a teenager, inspired by Irish singer Damien Rice, he picked up a guitar and began writing songs while still at school in Framlingham, in Suffolk. As soon as he left, he hit the road, appearing at open mic nights around the country and hawking CDs out of his rucksack. In 2009 alone, as the legend now goes, he performed a staggering 312 gigs.

En route, he showed real bravery in stepping on a plane to Los Angeles at the age of 19, to perform solo in low‑life bars, before by chance encountering his sometime mentor, actor/musician Jamie Foxx, who took him in and recorded him at his home studio, with Sheeran kipping on the Hollywood star’s sofa.

However, none of the recordings Sheeran made with Foxx were to make their way onto . Instead, the album’s sessions were rooted in Sheeran’s relatively long‑term relationship with producer and co‑writer Jake Gosling, who runs his own Sticky Studios from a converted barn situated in an apple orchard in the small Surrey village of Windlesham. “It’s a great location,” Gosling enthuses. “It has a real country vibe. People love coming here, ‘cause it’s cut off and you’re not interrupted by anything, so it’s great for writing and all the rest of it.”

Getting Too Timid With Mixing

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:41:00 +0000

If you want a good mix, you must mix with confidence. To mix with confidence you have to both trust your ears and your mixing decisions. To trust your mixing decisions you have to have some experience and know a bit about what you are doing (to say the least). Where am I going with this? If you lean too heavily on things like presets or settings you read on an audio blog (like this one) then you’ll always mix timidly, which isn’t mixing at all.

At our upcoming recording and mixing workshop in Nashville, we will be teaching the students how to mix quickly with purpose and confidence. Like I will show them, when time is short you can’t be timid, nor can you drag along crutches to lean on. Here are two reasons I see people mixing timidly.

Leaning Too Much On Presets

Honestly, I am a fan of plugin presets. I believe that they can be a very useful starting point for the mixer. Especially when working with an unfamiliar plugin. But that is about it, a starting point. They can show you what an engineer might do for a given situation. They shed some light onto the mixing process. But there are two reasons why you can’t continue on mixing only with presets.

Dae Bennett Recording Tony Bennett

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Tony Bennett’s continuing success showcases the value of old-school recording techniques — and the talents of his engineer son Dae.

Paul Tingen

Tony Bennett recording his first number one album, at the age of 85!

Photo: Josh Cheuse.

It is never too late to have a first number one. Tony Bennett recently managed the feat at the tender age of 85, when his album Duets II topped the US Billboard album charts in the Autumn of 2011. Even more impressively, the album also made it to the top five in almost every other Anglo-Saxon nation, including the UK, and reached the higher regions of the charts in two dozen other countries.

Not only is Bennett the oldest living artist to have a number one album, but he’s achieved it with a style of music — the pre-WW2 popular song crooned in jazz band, big band and/or orchestral settings — that was, for several decades considered a relic of the past. Bennett first achieved success during the ‘50s and early ‘60s, before undergoing a resurgence in the late ‘80s, flanked by his sons Danny and Dae, respectively his manager and recording engineer. His career has been on an upward curve ever since, as has classic big-band and orchestral vocal music, so the success of Bennett’s Duets, An American Classic, released in 2006 to celebrate his 80th birthday, was not altogether surprising. Produced by the legendary Phil Ramone, it featured an A-list cast of guest singers, including Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Elton John, Michael Bublé, Sting, Bono, Stevie Wonder, Diana Krall and more.

6 Common Home Recording Mistakes [Part 3]

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:38:00 +0000

We all make mistakes in life, especially when it comes to recording. Yes music is creative and an artform, but there are still some legitimate things that aren’t wise to do. If you can eliminate the mistakes, you can get better recordings. So forget your pride, spend 5 minutes of your life learning and get to making better music in your home studio right now!

If you missed the first four recording mistakes, catchPart 1 and Part 2 of this series and then come back here. I want you to avoid all six of these bad boys. Your recordings will thank me!

Mistake #5 – Recording Too Many Takes

If you’ve read my free eBook, you know I’m all about setting limitations in the studio. In my opinion, they are the key to unlocking creativity. The problem with modern recording studios and our all powerful DAWs is we can easily find ourselves recording a ton of takes for each part.

Dallas Simpson

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:49:00 +0000

Why would a rock band play live at talking volume, and in a separate room? To give their audience the unique immersive effect that only binaural sound can provide...

Sam Inglis

Dallas Simpson manoeuvres a ‘voice pipe’ around his head, while Swimming frontman John Sampson plays on.

It’s Friday night, and the packed cafe bar at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema is curiously silent. In the semi-darkness, a constellation of green LEDs shines forth. Projected onto the wall is what looks like a band rehearsal, except that a man is apparently performing t’ai chi moves with lengths of plumbing pipe.

In fact, the 150 or so audience members are enjoying a unique spectacle: a binaural gig. The band, local heroes Swimming, are performing in the same building, but in a small lounge at the other end of a corridor where they can’t be heard from the bar. Instead, the only connections between Swimming and their audience are the microphones in Dallas Simpson’s ears. He’s the man prowling the centre of the performance space, now standing still, now bending over or spinning round or placing his ear to a suspended sheet of metal. A hundred and fifty sets of wireless headphones, LEDs glowing, are conveying exactly what Dallas hears to every single audience member.

Mixing Live Legends

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:47:00 +0000

With a stellar client list that now ranges from Sir Paul McCartney to AC/DC, Paul Boothroyd has risen to the top of the live sound industry.

Mark Cunningham

Over the last 30 years, live sound engineer Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd has worked with some of the world’s greatest artists, including one of the ‘fab four’.

Paul McCartney’s return to touring after a 10-year break was big news back in 1989. With his best album in years on sale, the most successful songwriter of all time previewed his hot new band at an invitation-only pair of shows, in London’s compact and bijou Playhouse Theatre.

It was at the second of these previews, on July 27, that I first shook hands with Paul Alexander Boothroyd, also known as ‘Pab’, Paul McCartney’s new front-of-house sound engineer. He would not only soon embark on a world tour — the first of many with the later-to-be-knighted icon — but also go on to mix AC/DC, Michael Jackson, the Eurythmics, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, P!nk and country star Faith Hill.

More than 20 years on, Pab continues to push the faders for his fellow native Merseysider, a length of unbroken, loyal service that few professionals have equalled, let alone surpassed. Given McCartney’s status, it’s easy to see how the hysteria surrounding each stop on a tour schedule often compares to that of a state visit.

6 Common Home Recording Mistakes [Part 2]

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:37:00 +0000

I want you to make the absolute best recordings you can. That’s why this blog exists. One way to get better is to stop making dumb mistakes. We’ve all make them, but it’s time we make a course correction and get to better recordings. If you missed Part 1 of this series, head there now to see the first two big home recording mistakes. Then come back here and read on my friend!

Mistake #3 – Out Of Phase Stereo Recording

It took me a while to figure this out when I was getting into recording, but if you can understand this concept you will have crisper, and punchier sounding recordings every time. If you use two (or more) microphones to capture a certain source (drums, acoustic guitar) as opposed to one microphone, you introduce a potential threat: your tracks being out of phase.

The idea is simple, without proper attention to placement the sound from your source could easily hit one microphone a few milliseconds before the other, causing it to be slightly behind in one track than in the other. The audio wave forms are therefore smeared as it were and you can have actual sound cancellation happening, causing your tracks to become hollow or thin. Not a good thing.

Big Fish Audio | Brush Artistry 2

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:46:00 +0000

ock drum collections are plentiful, but as soon as something slightly out of the ordinary is required, such as a comprehensive selection of brush samples, the options die off rapidly. The first Brush Artistry collection plugged a hole in the market, and the second builds on its success, being produced by the same team, comprising composer Kent Carter and drummer Patrick Campbell.

Campbell claims that he found other brush samples to be bright, tinny and thin, so he based his on warm-sounding jazz albums of the ’50s and used vintage kits.

Supported formats include Acid WAV, Apple Loops, REX and RMX, with the WAVs alone amounting to nearly 3GB. The samples, which are categorised as fills, intros, endings, loops and snares, form as many as 68 construction kits. As is the way with construction kits, everything therein shares the same rhythm and bpm speed (there are 20 tempo variations), so that it can be combined in various ways to form coherent compositions.

The number of samples in each kit is about 18, on average, which is enough to make a composition without it sounding too repetitive, particularly if a little DAW editing is brought into play here and there.

6 Common Home Recording Mistakes [Part 1]

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:36:00 +0000

If you’ve just recently gotten into home recording, you’re probably making some of your worst recordings ever. No offense, but that’s just how it goes. You’re brand new to an artform that requires both technical skill, talent, and experience. You’re probably making a lot of mistakes along the way. But guess what, so did I! In fact, I still make mistakes. It’s all part of the process.

Houston We Have A Problem

That being said, if we can learn somethings that will minimize our mistakes and the pain involved, then chances are good we can get to some better recordings faster, right? Don’t worry, I’m here to help. While there are so many things that CAN go wrong in a recording session, today I want to highlight six of the most common “mistakes” I see home studio owners falling prey to and how if you reverse these, you can improve your recordings right away!

Vocal Production

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:45:00 +0000

Just how do you achieve that extra bit of professional polish for your vocal parts? Find out with our in-depth guide...

Paul White

Any attempt to explain the process of vocal production in its entirety, with all the different genres, styles and subjective opinion that this would entail, is, to some extent, doomed to failure — there’s just no way to pack all that we have to say about this topic into a magazine article. But so critical is the role of the vocals in most contemporary music styles that we thought we should give it a go anyway — so whether you need help with arranging or performing, recording or mixing, there should be something here for everyone.

One notable contemporary production fashion is to keep vocals sounding relatively forward and free from obvious reverb without allowing them to dry out altogether, and that’s one area we’ll focus on. However, along the way we’ll be throwing in a few other tips and tricks that will allow you to add variety to the vocals in different parts of a song while still retaining the illusion of minimal processing. I can guarantee that you won’t learn everything there is to know about vocal processing, but at the same time I’m sure that you will take away something useful that can be applied in your own mixes.

Get On Pitch Vocals Without Software

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:33:00 +0000

I don’t care what the “purists” might say, a true mark of professional recordings is a singer who is on pitch and in tune. Now just how MUCH in tune the vocalist sings is completely subjective. But let’s be honest here. If your vocalist is off pitch in your mix, listeners are simply going to move on.

That being said, the solution to on pitch vocals isn’t always pitch correction software, although it is a legitimate tool. With some simple fixes and sneaky moves you can help your singer deliver a great on pitch performance every time!

It’s All In The Monitor Mix

Plain and simple, the singer’s monitor mix determines everything about the outcome of his or her vocal performance. Obviously the better the vocalist can hear herself, the better she will sing. You want to spend as much time as necessary to help your singer feel comfortable. But here’s a dirty secret: you can control how on pitch your vocalist is without her ever knowing it.

Studio SOS

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:44:00 +0000

This month’s challenge was to turn a heap of boxes into a fully working studio!

Paul White

In the box: there was plenty of setting up to do before Bill could call his room a studio!

Bill Price took up guitar playing and singing later in life, to discover that he was actually a very capable singer/songwriter. After making a few recordings in home studios belonging to his friends, he decided to set up his own studio in a spare bedroom in his house in Stourbridge, in the West Midlands. After he’d sought advice from various quarters and checked the suitability of his proposed shopping list with me via a couple of phone calls, I agreed to help him set up his studio with a Studio SOS visit.

So it was that, some weeks later, Bill called me to say that he had a pile of boxes sitting in his spare room, and to ask me to come and help him turn them into a functioning studio! He’d settled on an Apple iMac, Logic Pro and a Cakewalk UA25 EX two-input interface. He’d also bought a pair of Alesis Monitor 1 MkII active monitors and an Audio Technica AT2020A mic for his vocals. However, he hadn’t yet got a mic for his acoustic guitar, so I took a spare mic and stand along just to get him started.

Bill’s room turned out to be fairly small, at around two by three metres and not much over two metres in height. He had a desk set up at one end of the room facing down the three-metre length, with a window to the right and a mirror-fronted cupboard to the left. A few guitars and other instruments inhabited the rest of the room, but first we had to deal with that pile of boxes!

Should You Mix With A Limiter?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:29:00 +0000

I seem to get this question a lot, “Should I use a limiter in my mixes?”. Usually what people are asking is whether or not to mix with a limiter on their master fader (mix bus). Some of the confusion may even come from people like myself who tell you to use a limiter for reference mixes. But that is very different than mixing through a limiter or limiting your mixes before mastering. Let’s clear things up.

Why A Limiter Is Helpful

In case you weren’t aware, a limiter is basically a compressor with a super high compression ratio. It is built to really turn down peaks, limiting the dynamic range, thereby allowing you to turn up the volume of your track. At it’s core, a good limiter can help make your mixes nice and loud. Sweet!

Speakers In The Spotlight

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:43:00 +0000

Of all the factors that go into a great recorded guitar sound, the loudspeaker is the least well understood — but the right speaker can make all the difference.

David Greeves

When we talk about recording the electric guitar, we tend to focus first on things like mic selection, mic placement and how to position the guitar amp in the room, all crucially important parameters when it comes to capturing the sound we want. On the other side of the glass, meanwhile, guitarists have their own priorities. As the only group of people on the planet who can rival recording engineers for obsessing about their equipment, they will tweak and tinker with the settings on their amp, effects pedals and guitar in search of the perfect tone.

A loudspeaker is born in the Celestion factory. Here, the cone assembly is being constructed.

Yet in the centre of this little scene there is one crucial factor that is often completely overlooked by both parties: the loudspeaker that is actually making all the noise. In practical terms, the speaker is the voice of the instrument, the source of the sound we’re trying to capture. But how much do we really know about it? In this feature, we’ll be finding out how the speakers found in guitar cabs and combos actually work and discovering how much influence speaker choice has on the sound of the electric guitar. Hopefully, when we understand a little more about what makes guitar speakers tick, we can put this knowledge to good use in the studio.

Don?t Settle With Your Drum Overheads Sound

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000

Next time you record acoustic drums, do me a favor: don’t settle on the first place you put the drum overhead mics. Your starting point for mic placement is rarely the best place for the mics, but you’ll never discover the optimal place if you simply settle with your first move.

80% Of Your Drum Sound

I record and mix with the philosophy that the drum overheads are 80% of your drum sound. Consequently I believe they deserve 80% of the time and attention in the recording phase. All to often we’ll throw up all the mics (overheads, close mics, room mics), record a bit, listen back, and say “Yeah, that sounds like a drum set.” If you’re just doing a demo, that’s a reasonable approach to take. But if you are trying to do real recording, then my friends, you are only at the beginning of your drum sound.

Recording The Cajon

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:42:00 +0000

This quirky instrument’s versatility is making it popular — but how do you best record it?

Paul White

If you’ve ever seen a percussionist sitting on a small wooden tea chest, beating out rhythms on its surface with hands or brushes, the chances are that the chest was a cajon. Originally an improvised instrument made from packing crates, the cajon has been used for traditional musical forms in various cultures, including flamenco, Afro and Cuban music, but its portability and modest volume has also made it popular with other musicians.

Tom Elmhirst: Recording Adele Rolling In The Deep

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Adele’s second album, 21, has broken sales records all around the globe. Mixer Tom Elmhirst and producer Paul Epworth explain how they created its multi‑platinum lead single, ‘Rolling In The Deep’.

Paul Tingen

Tom Elmhirst

Adele’s record‑breaking sales feats are so extraordinary that she’s been credited with single‑handedly reviving the music industry. In case you’ve just come back from another planet, the singer‑songwriter achieved an impressive lift‑off with her first album, 19 (2008),which sold nearly three million copies worldwide. However, it was its successor, 21, released in January 2011, that took her into the stratosphere. With seven million sales and counting, 21 is by far the best‑selling album of 2011, having reached the top spot, often for weeks on end, in two dozen countries. This included a record‑breaking 13‑week stint at number one in the UK, which resulted in the album going 10 times platinum. 21 has also gone multiple platinum in the US, where it spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart.

The achievements of Adele’s two albums were galvanised by several hit singles, notably four multi‑platinum worldwide hits: ‘Chasing Pavements’ and ‘Make You Feel My Love’ from 19, and ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ from 21. ‘Rolling In The Deep’ reached number one in at least 13 countries, including the US, where it sold over four million copies.

Nicolas Godin

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:37:00 +0000

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Interview | Band

French pop music was once as uncool as you could get, but over the last 15 years, AIR’s distinctive, retro‑tinged electronica has conquered the world.

Franck Ernould

Jean‑Benoît Dunckel (left) and Nicolas Godin, behind the Trident desk in their Atlas Studio.

Photo: Dominique Tarlé

At its outset, AIR — an acronym for “Amour, Imagination, Rêve” (love, imagination, dream) — was a one‑person project. Nicolas Godin, then an architecture student and amateur musician, was asked by a childhood friend to write a song for a compilation to be released by Source, a small French independent label. ‘Modulor Mix’, a tribute to Le Corbusier, was recorded on Godin’s Portastudio, and appeared on the Source Lab album in 1995. With several remixes, it was re‑released on British label Mo’Wax in 1996.

Following this small success, Godin asked his friend Jean‑Benoît Dunckel, a classically trained pianist and then a maths student, to join him in AIR. Together, they produced further ‘maxi‑singles’ for Source, with titles like ‘J’ai Dormi Sous L’eau’, ‘Les Professionnels’, ‘Casanova 70’ and ‘Le Soleil Est Près De Moi’. Mainly instrumental, downtempo and nostalgic, all of these were still recorded at home, with vintage instruments: Rhodes electric piano, Solina String Ensemble, Moog and Korg MS20 synths, vocoder and organ. Dunckel, Godin and their friends added drums, percussions, guitars, bass, tuba…

“We had no money at this time, so we bought the most affordable instruments available: analogue synths from the ’70s. We completely missed the ’80s/’90s ‘digital synth’ period, in fact. So it’s true we had a very personal sound, but it was by default,” says Nicolas Godin. All of these memorable songs, reminiscent of artists like François de Roubaix, Jean‑Jacques Perrey and Ennio Morricone, were originally released on maxi‑singles or on compilations, but have since been reissued on the Premiers Symptômes compilation CD. Godin and Dunckel also worked on remixes for artists such as Neneh Cherry and Depeche Mode.

Welcome To REthink Mixing

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:26:00 +0000

Edit: REthink Mixing was formerly known as Mixing Boot Camp

Looking for the ultimate mixing video series? You just found it people. Today I am launching my most comprehensive tutorial product to date, and it has one simple goal: to get you mixing like a pro! Welcome to what you’ve been missing. Welcome to REthink Mixing.

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The absolute best way to learn how to mix is simply to sit down with someone who knows what they are doing and watch them do it. Nothing will improve your mixes faster or more dramatically than by watching a mix come together before your eyes from start to finish.