Production Advice

People loved this when I posted it on Twitter, and I thought it was well worth putting it up here, too.

If you think you put loads of effort into your recording and mixing – watch this, and think again ! Brings new meaning to the phrase “playing the studio”. No extra commentary is needed from me, I don’t want to spoil the fun – enjoy.

From the Production Advice Tumblr blog – originally posted by Bobby Owsinski

This is an enjoyable short film about the making of Amon Tobin’s excellent Foley Room – a great album which you may already know about. If not, I strongly recommend it.

I talk a lot about classic albums, recording live instruments and ¨real, natural sound¨ on Production Advice, mainly because in this time of virtual instruments and laptop recording studios I think it’s becoming something of a lost art that needs highlighting.

BUT I have always had a passion for electronic and dance music – Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene’ was the second tape ever played in my Sanyo personal cassette player (I couldn’t afford a Walkman !) and it would be hard to overstate the importance of Orbital in my music collection – to pick just two examples.

(What was the first tape ever played in my Walkman ? It’s too embarrassing to reveal in public, but ask me on Twitter and I’ll DM you the answer :-p )

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I have so much work to do at the moment I really shouldn’t be blogging, but this is just too good not to share.

The video above is number four in a sequence of song-writing tutorials posted by the awesome Artist’s House Music – if you aren’t already subscribed to their feed and Twitter account – do it now !

The post and videos speak for themselves – they contain a subtle but devastatingly effective songwriting rule:

Preserve the natural shape of the language

Watch the videos and see ! (Watch all of them, they’re great.)

But now comes the bit that made me laugh out loud and want to write this post. When you watch the video above, do you notice anything about the sound ? (Aside from what a great voice that girl has?!)

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There are plenty of moments to enjoy in this video with veteran mastering engineer Howie Weinberg – not least, proof that mastering engineers really do have a sense of humour !

I want to pick up on just one thing he says almost in passing though, and amplify it. People are always asking “What is mastering”, and it’s a question that lots of people have tried to answer, including me:

What is mastering ?

But Howie’s analogy is short, sweet, and very, very, deep. He says that a mastering engineer is like a photographer who specialises in retouching images in the darkroom to get the very best out of them.

I want to make that statement simpler, and explore the idea in a little more depth:

Mastering is like photoshop for audio

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Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends, We’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside…

I know, it’s been ages.

And, the way things are looking at the moment, it’s going to stay slow for a while longer yet…

So, stay tuned to the RSS feed for future updates, including a brief summary of all the goings-on of Dynamic Range Day – but in the meantime – enjoy this video about the recording and mixing of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

I was going to say “please enjoy this video”, but honestly, if there isn’t something to delight or amuse you in here, you’re reading the wrong blog.

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