Production Advice

OK, I think it’s time to come clean. This may shock some of you, so brace yourselves…

I’m not a Pro Tools expert.

…I know ! How can that be ?!? I’m a mastering engineer, a pro audio geek and I write blogs on music production – HOW can I not be a Pro Tools whizz-kid ?

Well, before you unfollow me, block my email address and blacklist my RSS feeds – let me explain.

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Yes – another Brian Eno post ! But it’s completely worth it. This Arena documentary about possibly my favourite music producer is simply outstanding – partly because it contains plenty of Eno snippets for the enthusiast, but also because it’s beautifully made and put together – fascinating, intelligently chosen visuals and audio accompany the interviews throughout.

It’s also great for me to see Eno in his Suffolk habitat, because that’s where I grew up, too – and seeing the familiar serene, slightly surreal landscapes accompanied by his music and words somehow makes perfect sense in a way that hadn’t registered with me before.

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Happy New Year !

I’m sorry things have been a little quiet so far this year – it’s because there’s all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes that I’m really looking forward to telling you about… soon : )

Meanwhile, regular readers might like to check out my latest guest post on the RecordProduction.com site:

5 Reasons to be cheerful about audio in 2010

and, while I’m at it, here’s another great post from the same blog by the mysterious “Compressor”:

What Producers Do

Stay tuned here for more Production Advice very soon – meanwhile, you might like to check out the Popular and Recent post lists on the right, or

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This is a question I get asked a lot. But before I answer, the disclaimer:

Personally, I’m not happy mixing on headphones.

Of course I use them all the time, for an alternative perspective my monitors, and for listening in very fine detail for clicks, distortion etc. But for real judgements, speakers are the way to go. Headphones just don’t give me the visceral, physical feedback I want.

(So, don’t read this post, blow a couple of hundred quid on a pair of headphones, spend 6 months trying to mix on them and then come back blaming me for bad advice !)

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This site is about making your music sound fantastic. And in my last post I listed twelve of my favourite outstanding albums for sound. Lots of people replied with their own suggestions in the comments – so far, so good.

I agreed with many of the suggestions, but was interested in one album that was mentioned several times: “Rage Against The Machine” by Rage Against The Machine. Now, there’s no question that RATM sounds great. Let’s face it, it’s something of a classic. It sounds heavy, hooky, dynamic, hard-hitting, impactful and balanced.

But I wouldn’t have chosen it for my list, and I still wouldn’t. Why ? Because just sounding great isn’t enough – to sound fantastic, the audio needs to have personality.

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