Category Archives for "Engineering"
- in Engineering , Video by Bobby Owsinski
Listen To The Sound Of A Neutron Star
It’s funny how life presents unusual opportunities that can sometimes lead us down a path that becomes our life’s work, yet we never had an inkling about it previously. That’s what happened to Mark Ballora. During the first year of his PhD, he was asked to turn heart rate data into audio, and he’s been turning […]
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Sylvia Massy Explains The Dick Mic
Producer/engineer Sylvia Massy is well-known for creating outside-the-box recording techniques, and one of them is the “Dick Mic.” Essentially it’s a mic positioned in the middle of the drum kit and pointed at the drummer’s crotch. It’s used to fill out the sound of the kit, only it provides a somewhat closer sound than a […]
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Mack On Recording Queen And ELO
With a who’s who list of credits such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Electric Light Orchestra, Rory Gallagher, Sparks, Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer, Billy Squire, and Extreme, the producer/engineer who goes simply by the name Mack has made his living making superstars sound great. Having recorded so many big […]
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Sam Okell talks about remixing Sgt Pepper
Abbey Road Studios senior engineer Sam Okell had the unenviable task of remixing one of the most listened to and beloved album of all time – the 50th anniversary release of The Beatles seminal Sgt Pepper. Sam and producer Giles Martin (son of original Beatles engineer George Martin) were tasked with a job that many […]
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Eddie Kramer On Recording Jimi Hendrix
Engineer/producer Eddie Kramer has a resume that’s a mile long, but the credit that he’s forever tied to is Jimi Hendrix. I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with him a few yeas ago, and he gave me this great interview for The Recording Engineer’s Handbook. Here’s an excerpt from his […]
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The 8 Constants Of Vocal Recording
By my count, there are 8 “constants” that we find in vocal recording. These are items or situations that almost always prove to be true. Just keeping them in mind can save you a lot of trouble in the search for a sound that works for you and your vocalist. Here are a few tips […]
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Geoff Emerick On Recording The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper
Geoff Emerick is one of the 5 engineers to work with The Beatles and is probably the one most identified with the group. Other than his great book (Here There And Everywhere: My Life Recording The Beatles), you don’t hear him speaking very much about the experience. He goes into great detail in this recent interview for […]
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Spotify Drops It’s Loudness Target So No Need For Loud Mixes Anymore
Artists, producers and record labels have been obsessed over final mix volume levels for over 30 years now, as mix levels are raised to ridiculous levels where even distortion no longer matters. The problem is that we’ve known for a long time now that severely compressed low dynamic range mix levels are counterproductive and can even hurt it […]
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3 Techniques For Recording Bass Guitar
Just like the acoustic bass (and just about all instruments), a great bass sound is dependent upon the instrument itself, the player, the amp, and the room. The player has to be able to achieve the tone you’re trying to record with his fingers first and foremost. This excerpt from the 4th edition of my […]
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Engineer Neil Dorfsman On Miking A Drum Kit
This is one of the best drum miking walk-throughs I’ve ever seen. In the video below, Neil Dorfsman (Dire Straits, Sting, Paul McCartney, Def Leopard, Bruce Springsteen to name just a few credits) covers how he mikes a drum kit, and he has several unique approaches that I’ve rarely heard before. Actually I’ve heard of most of […]
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3 Ways To Position Your Room Mics
Room mics bring an overall finish to the drum sound and help to glue it all together. In many cases, they’ll fill in the sonic holes in the drum mix and make all the individual drums sound more like a complete drum set. That said, many times they are positioned rather randomly without much thought. […]
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Sylvia Massy’s Glowing Pickle Filter
Producer/engineer Sylvia Massy is fearless when it comes to trying things in the studio, especially if it involves guitars. Guitar players are usually willing subjects for experimentation since the search for the perfect sound continues seemingly forever, but how many players have ever considered a big fat dill pickle to use as a filter? Sylvia (who will […]
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5 Easy Steps To In-Phase Drum Mics
Phase is important to a great drum sound, but often overlooked. That’s why some drum recordings just don’t sound right, and no amount of processing can make them sound better. Here’s an excerpt for the 4th edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook that outlines 5 easy steps to getting those drum mics in-phase. The chances […]
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5 Tips For More Realistic Pitch Correction
Depending upon how much of a purist you are, pitch correction is either the worst thing to ever happen or a godsend. Regardless of how you come down on the issue, it’s at the very least a necessary evil in today’s music. Here are 5 tips from the 4th edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook that […]
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7 Simple Tips For Improving Your Drum Sound
When it comes to a live drum sound during a tracking session, sometimes the smallest details can make a big difference when you consider that there are usually multiple mics involved. Changing one thing can sometimes make a difference, but sometimes it’s the fact that many small adjustments have a cumulative effective on the overall sound. […]
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