Month: May 2024

This block of lessons on creative mixing techniques has taught me a lot and informed my recent work. The first blog focusing on reference tracks has become a vital part of my workflow, especially when applying finishing touches and mastering. If mastering is considered any finishing touches to prepare a song for distribution (to streaming or any other market), then it is vital to compare your work to other similar songs already out. Ive been adding to my reference list over the course of this term, finding songs that do one thing incredibly well and using that as a reference for how to achieve that in my own work.

The second blog about visualising a mix was a very interesting concept. The idea that no two things can exist in the same place was incredibly helpful, as something could either be pushed into the background (volume and reverb) or moved aside (panning, EQ). This is a concept I want to start using in my mixes as I feel it could be a brilliant way of making them less muddy.

Later, the discussions around surround sound and immersive audio started to push me out of my depth. While I understand its application in cinemas and perhaps audio/visual arts instillations, I think it’s a bit over the top. Outside of a cinema, I don’t think I have never once listened to a piece of music or even audio in surround sound or immersive audio. The equipment needed to listen to songs mixed for immersive audio is so unaccessible and expensive that many people just can’t. Similarly, coming from a rock/guitar music based background, it’s just not something that I see as necessary within my music. While I know it’s a closed view that I should probably work on, I feel as if stereo is good enough for what I need to convey. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to hear about the history of surround sound, learning about its early uses at live gigs and it has been fun to experiment with for this specific project.

Ultimately these 9 blog posts have allowed me to research further topics that I find interesting, for example finally taking the research deep dive into the loudness wars in the 2000s I wanted to take for a while. All the techniques i’ve learnt have been interesting and I hope to find ways to incorporate them into my future mixes.

Steve Albini is a mixing engineer whose career has spanned over 4 decades and has created a signature sound. He’s known for his use of exclusively analog equipment, and recording bands as live as possible, minimising overdubs. His production style is associated heavily with grunge, yet ideologically takes from a punk ethos.

Perhaps the most famous record Albini has worked on, the approach on ‘in utero’ was to capture the sound of nirvana in the room, with most of the songs being recorded in a few takes live. On some songs such as “Very Ape” the drums were recorded separately in a kitchen for natural reverb and Grohl’s drum kit had about 30 microphones on it. Albini refused to double track Cobain’s vocals, believing it to sound too polished, and instead recorded vocals with multiple mics in a resonant room. There’s a lot of natural reverb on the record as a whole, in a ‘rough demo’ sort of way. The band chose Albini specifically for this, Cobain stating his love for the pixies. While technically the producer of the record, Albini discusses in Dave Grohl’s sound city documentary that he refused royalties as he believed it was an insult to the artist, and prefers to allow artists to pick their own takes and have ultimate creative control in their work. While not technical, this last part reflects the punk ‘rough and ready’ ethos that Albini stands by while working In the studio.

Albini was also the producer chosen by PJ Harvey for her 1993 album ‘rid of me’. Similar to In Utero (and recorded at the same studio), most of the songs on the album were recorded live in as few takes as possible. Harvey was particularly fond of Albini’s drum sound, saying “He’s the only person I know that can record a drum kit and it sounds like you’re standing in front of a drum kit. It doesn’t sound like it’s gone through a recording process or it’s coming out of speakers.”. Albini discussed his drum sound in one interview, highlighting his use of many room mics in acoustically untreated rooms, prominently mixed in with the close mics on the kit.

This is the sort of approach I would like to take when producing and recording music. While I don’t make punk music, I greatly admire this punk ethos that Albini takes into the studio. The emphasis on capturing the chemistry and energy of a band playing all together is something I appreciate in Albini’s approach as well.

Cameron, Keith. “This Is Pop”. Mojo. May 2001

MWTM Q&A #23 – Steve Albini (2015) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQonl6exhNU (Accessed: 04 May 2024). 

Steve Albini’s ‘conditions’ for becoming Nirvana’s producer | Conan O’Brien needs a friend (2023) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGfloIbd7eM (Accessed: 04 May 2024). 

Recording Engineer, Steve Albini, on the making of Nirvana’s ‘in utero’ album. (2021) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHcmfzhxSm0 (Accessed: 04 May 2024). 

Tracking snares with Steve Albini (2020) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEoCNOdBIDk (Accessed: 04 May 2024). 

P.J. Harvey – Interview (1993) (2007) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhT4Kp828hs (Accessed: 04 May 2024). 

Immersive audio, similar to surround sound, utilises multiple audio sources to create a more immersive listening experience. While surround sound refers to specific examples of 5.1, 7.1 and 9.2, immersive audio is the umbrella term for this practice. However unlike surround sound, high end immersive audio typically utilises speakers from above and below as well, to create a 3D space.

Starting with stereo, the use of multiple audio channels meant sound could seem to originate from different places, allowing for more immersion while listening to music. The 60s and 70s saw experimentation with quadraphonics (4 channel audio) and the 80s saw the invent of surround sound audio by Dolby. In recent times, immersive audio has been used in cinema predominantly, utilising “3D” height speakers above the listeners head. Dolby Atmos is the main immersive audio system, used first in screenings of Disneys ‘brave’.

While Immersive audio is interesting and something I would certainly be interested in experimenting with, I feel its use is somewhat limited to cinema and audio/visual projects. The facilities to both create and listen to music which has been mixed and mastered in immersive audio are rare to come by, and not something that the majority of listeners have access to. While I think it does have great artistic merit, for example its effective use in the audio/visual display ‘Van Gogh Exhibit: The Immersive Experience‘, I think it’s mostly redundant within solely music due to its inaccessibility. Within audio/visual exhibitions and works, immersive audio can be incredibly effective at creating environments that reflect the work shown, such as Brian Eno’s exhibitions using projections and ambient music. Similarly immersive audio doesn’t massively grab me as I work predominantly with guitar based rock music. While immersive audio could be used in this setting with more psychedelic acts for instance, my production is usually a lot more in line with 80s post-punk and 90s grunge music, keeping production simple and rough. However I am still interested to learn about its capabilities and create a surround sound mix during this term.

Patel, M. (2023) Immersive audio explored – really, what is immersive audio?, audioXpress. Available at: https://audioxpress.com/article/immersive-audio-explored-really-what-is-immersive-audio#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20while%20Dolby%20Atmos%20is,not%20limited%20to%20Dolby%20Atmos. (Accessed: 03 May 2024). 

Definition of Immersive Sound (no date) PCMAG. Available at: https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/immersive-sound#:~:text=Immersive%20%22Sound%22%20is%20concerned%20with,create%20a%20true%203D%20effect. (Accessed: 03 May 2024). 

Brian Eno – Overview (no date) Paul Stolper. Available at: https://www.paulstolper.com/artists/56-brian-eno/overview/ (Accessed: 03 May 2024).