The roles of producer and engineer have blurred so much in recent years that the line between them now barely exists. What was once a clearly defined demarcation between two people that often possessed quite different skills is now, in the vast majority of situations, a single role. Whether you lament this evolutionary merger or…
I could count on one hand the number of recording musicians I know that don’t perform live. Virtually everyone takes to the stage at some point, and the vast majority are technically savvy. So why then do so many switch back to horse-and-buggy analogue technology when they hit the stage? Worse than that, why do…
There’s a balance every engineer/producer needs to strike in his or her working life – between good music, potential hits, day-to-day job satisfaction and decent earnings. Have you ever asked yourself the question: ‘how do I judge the success of my own career?’ GLITTER ROLL I’ve just spent the last five days turning a…
This was what I apparently told my mate Rick O’Neil a few years back when he asked me how long I thought it might take us to build a rear-wall diffuser for his Turtlerock Mastering room in Sydney. In the end the diffuser took three weeks, although in my defence the plans changed a few…
An extraordinary disparity has opened up between the musicians with recording budgets and those with barely two cents to rub together. Why there isn’t more investment in music by Australian record companies, government and private enterprise is quite beyond me. Some of the best music I’ve ever heard in Australia is currently withering on the…
“A good song will always cut through!” It’s an old cliché, that a good song is what first grabs a listener’s attention. But a great song? Not even bad mixing could ever prevent a great song from connecting with its audience. Rubbish. In truth, the opposite is true. Songs and their success are a…
What do you say to someone who values your work at zero? Do you laugh them off and tell a dismissive joke to avoid confrontation? Do you calmly explain that your work is as valuable as that of any other professional, or do you chuck a wobbly? If you haven’t experienced this insult first-hand you’re…
They say time heals all wounds but what it does to unfinished recordings is another thing entirely… There’s a disease gripping the world of singer songwriters that’s gone undiagnosed for ages now. It’s brought on by a combination of things: the natural desire to be the best, a determination to sound amazing, insufficient…
Do you have a favourite album, or albums? I suspect you do. Just about everyone I know in the music industry can point to a specific album (or albums) that defined their musical experience and inspired them to become part of this crazy and diverse industry. Question is, how do our favourites relate back to…
The trend towards D.I.Y. mixing, followed by ‘a bit of polishing’ from an audio engineer, is growing rapidly. But is this two-stage process really worth it? Does ‘doing it yourself’ really save you time and money or only cause grief, as you later try to ‘fix’ the mixes with a professional? I see it a…
There are times when a mix needs more work. There are also mixes that should have been signed off on yesterday. So how can you tell one from the other? Let’s find out. In other articles here on The Mill website I’ve talked about work ethic being one of the cornerstones of good mix outcomes….
No, this isn’t an article about making stuff louder with look-ahead limiters. This is a general warning shot across the bow of anyone who thinks there’s no downside to creating digital multitrack session files with 100, 150 or even 200 channels of audio. The downsides are many and varied. When it comes to album production…
When a song production leaves half its musical potential on the shelf, it’s disappointing. Some musicians don’t have this problem of course. They throw every conceivable overdub at a song, hoping something will stick, and sometimes things do… almost too well. But others just come up short, either because they fail to make things stick,…
Imagine what would happen if the car industry became the music industry. Vehicles could be downloaded for free, copied, test driven and replaced at the click of a button. Fewer and fewer people would own cars yet more and more would be driving brand new ones. Doesn’t make much sense does it? Welcome to the music…
If you clocked up all the hours professional recording studios lost to unforseen, inexplicable or outright baffling computer issues, multiplied this figure by a collective hourly rate, the amount would exceed the combined debt of several third world countries. Do we really need to send software manufacturers a bill before they stop adding unreliable new…
There’s a small mountain of music foisted upon the world on a daily basis… so much so that the earth’s rotation is slowing down under the weight of it. To cut through this verbose outpouring – assuming of course you want to cut through – you need to make a viable product, not just wear…
By rights, no-one should even remember the MP3 format by now, any more than people can remember Betamax or Hi-8 tapes in the video industry. Somewhere along the line the audio industry was sold a miserable lie that has all but poisoned our capacity to advance the hi-res digital cause. It’s time we woke up…
When it comes to audio production, one thing is certain; there are no rules. And for that we can thank people like Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame (amongst others). He used to break rules on a daily basis: put mics close to drum kits, feed line-level signals back into mic preamps, man-handle spools while the…
Yesterday I went to the memorial of one of my oldest and best friends, Calum Orr, who last week passed away peacefully after a 15-year battle with cancer. I’m still in shock and feel sick right now at the prospect of reducing my friend to a bunch of hopelessly inadequate words on a page. Sitting…
When there’s a problem during a recording or mix session, do you phone a friend, go 50/50 or rely on your experience to get the job done? There seem to be countless audio enthusiasts in Australia at the moment who seem gullible in the extreme to any old hype they read on any old forum…
People, it seems, are re-discovering analogue tape… again! Just when we felt certain the format had gone the way of the steam engine, it’s back! How long analogue tape will return for and how the machines used to spin it will survive another resurgence is another matter. When the analogue tape recording format went away…
If you’re working in an unfamiliar studio, what precautions do you take to prevent your mixes coming out sounding like dull, bass-heavy foghorns or thin slices of white bread? Have you made sure you’ve tuned your ears and your thinking to the new environment? Hope so. OFF OS There are two motivations behind the topic…
Sometimes the studio environment has about as much romantic attachment as a cold sore; so what do you do when your gear is looking old and tired? Chuck it out, sell it on eBay or just put in the back room and forget about it? I cracked the shits with some of my old gear…
Human performances are what make compelling recordings, regardless of whether it’s a singer with an acoustic guitar or a guy in a giant rabbit suit spinning discs. Does anyone really think a $15,000 microphone placed in front of a shit guitar or vocalist will really make things great? Have advertisers of pro audio equipment really…
If you think good recordings can only be achieved in a fancy studio, then you’re living in the past. It’s been a mad month here at The Mill. I’ve been flat chat finishing off album productions, single mixes, EPs and restorations of 50-year old ¼-inch analogue tapes in whatever order they attack me in after…
Producing albums takes many forms. Sometimes you’re the guy up the back of the control room pondering takes in lotus pose, at other times you’re upside down on the floor trying to find out why the foot-pedal on the piano squeaks like a rusty bicycle. There are also more times than you’re prepared to admit…
When is a vintage classic not a vintage classic? When it’s a poorly maintained Bakelite basket case. Don’t kid yourself or your clients; when a piece of gear – no matter how spectacular or rare it might be – is faulty, it’s time to pull it out of service and call your tech. You know,…
I’ve been talking to several mates in the music industry over the last few days and I’ve decided there are only two types of producer/studio owner/engineers: those expanding their equipment list and those downsizing. No-one ever seems content with what they have. One of my mates was even telling me that he’s contemplating selling his…
When there’s no room left in your studio for more junk, don’t clean up, just move the problem… into a shipping container. How does one acquire so much crap? Last week I made the momentous decision to build another overdub booth down here at The Mill inside a space that, through years of neglect, has…
In this blog I’d like to make one simple point: that large studios are not the dinosaurs they’re so often purported to be, nor do they all rip you off the moment you step through the door. Some of the remaining Australian studios represent great value for money if the bands you’re recording are well…