Well, it’s true – there doesn’t seem to be much point in denying it any more – after all, Radiohead are one of the biggest bands in the world, and they’re prog, right ?
So while it may not be exactly hip, I don’t think that enjoying progressive rock can be considered quite the crime against music that it once was.
And, being me, one thing I’ve always enjoyed about “progressive” music is that it almost always sounds superb.
And what a boat… well, houseboat. Watch the video and see.
Once you’ve finished wiping the drool off your keyboard, you may be thinking –
“Well it’s pretty bloody obvious why he writes on a boat, Ian – and, if I’d sold 50 million copies of Dark Side Of The Moon, I think I’d record on one, too.”
The message of this post is simple, short and sincere. In fact, it could almost be an open letter:
Dear Peter Jackson,
PLEASE ask your audio engineers to stop auto-tuning the dwarves.
Please.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Shepherd
PS. Please…
What the hell am I talking about ? Well, check out the first official trailer for the new film of the “The Hobbit”, above.
It’s a great trailer. As a massive fan of both the books and the films of “Lord Of The Rings”, I’m very excited. But after seeing this trailer, I’m also now very nervous.
- and there’s no need to repeat myself here. But this tip is about loudness – or rather, levels.
Specifically, gain structure.
Gain structure just means – how loud your audio is, at every point in the audio chain. Back in the days of analogue it was crucial to get the levels as high as possible at every point in the chain to get the best signal-to-noise ratio, but not so loud as to cause distortion.
These days, it’s not really an issue. With over 60 dB of signal to noise ratio in even a 16-bit signal, all we need to do to get clean audio is avoid clipping, and we’re good.
So far the tips in this series have all been about “less is more”.
From which you might conclude that my mixes and masters use minimal EQ, compression and effects.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth!
In fact, I find that as a mastering engineer I’m often more “hands-on” than many of my peers, and this may be one of the reasons I’ve been successful. In one case I remember adding 46 dB @ 42 Hz to a reggae master coming from analogue tape – and it sounded great !
The key is to process agressively – but selectively.
"Ian is that rare thing amongst technicians; a bona fide musician able to appreciate 'the major lift and the minor fall' - whilst simultaneously noticing frequencies only audible to dogs. He answers my queries, rather than presenting his own."
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