October 2008 Dallas Class

Every now and again I get the pleasure of teaching a group of Pro Tools students that just seem to be a cut above the norm.

My October 2008 class in Dallas was just such a group. Maybe it was their yearn to learn or the speed in which they grasped all the engineering and editing concepts I kept throwing at them or perhaps it was something a little less tangible that just happened to make proud I donned my teaching robes that day. Whatever it was it did help to reinforce an idea that I harbor and always try to instill in my students.

By definition, etiquette is: "conventional requirements as to social behavior; properties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion".

Fancy, isn't it.

I'm mainly talking about Studio Etiquette. The common rules, guidelines, and regulation in place at every major studio facility. Believe it or not, most studio's have developed, over time, a common etiquette at that particular facility.

As a new intern at such a studio, a huge part of your day to day job is to become familiar with this etiquette. At least that was the way things happened when I managed to get my first internship over ten years ago. My how the times have changed. Not to make myself sound old, because I'm not too old, but I have seen a lot of people come and go. People that were talented, could have made a lot of progress, but couldn't understand the basic etiquette of how a studio works. I have spoken recently to several other studio owners I know and did an informal poll of what they would like to see from their interns.

It's no secret that the music mixing world has been overrun with insane apparent loudness.

Harsh, look-ahead limiters are the main tool for cramming as much energy in the upper dynamic range as possible. By squashing anything that approaches 0dBfs at an infinite ratio, you can essentially push your whole mix to the upper reaches so that your loudest snare drum and softest breath are competing for the same dynamic space.

The resulting sound is rather like a delicious meal...liquified in a blender. But don't breakout your straws just yet.

Once upon a time, a recording session would be held where little spots of downtime were unavoidable

The tape had to wind back for another take. The tape had run out and a new one had to be threaded. The muffins were done and everybody needed a break to enjoy some lovely confections. You name it, and short of being a complete catastrophe of a known person’s making, it was accepted as the price of doing business.

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The task of finishing one song and moving to the next is one where tape was very efficient; wind fifteen or twenty seconds past the end of the song you finished and start recording. You didn’t even need to change your console labels to do this! In the Pro Tools era, we have the task of creating our new session, tracks, labels, input/output assignments, plug-ins, and all that jazz when we go to the next song. Don’t get in a twist, though; there are lots of ways to do this very efficiently.

One of the biggest effects on your guitar tone is impedance.

With the vast array of pedals and effects in today's music stores, the temptation is high to run an instrument through 27,000 small, battery-powered boxes before the signal hits the cabinet, let alone even gets recorded. In a nutshell, the more processors the signal passes through, the dirtier it gets.

Where is the music being recorded today?

So where’s the Beef?

More like where is the music, or more accurately. Where is the music being recorded today?

Well for a lot of us I don’t have to answer that question. You already know the answer. And these first home recording studios appeared somewhere around the 1970s. The time had finally come where musicians and engineers were beginning to record their performances on tape machines which spun on reel to reels in their living rooms, bed rooms and basements.

The Teac 4 track reel machines, like the A-3340s (introduced in 1971) and the A-40-4 were popular and indeed very nice machines, to which could be added the Teac 2-A mixer and a Stereo or two track reel to reel for Mixdown. In the early days of the home studio, the recording combo was a dream come true. Add a powerful amp and some passive speakers like a pair of those snazzy NS10’s and you were all set. However , you did need more then a little bit of cash, try about $10,000 for one of these home rigs, just to get started. No midi ,virtual instruments, EZ Drummer, or Reason.