Week 1, Semester 2

Well it’s a brave new world (or semester, at least)….
We listened to some of the Studio projects from semester one this week. I continue to be impressed with my fellow students’ passion and attention to detail.

This semester seems to be really geared towards us putting our work on display – to each other and at some of the commercial studios we’ll be visiting. This is way cool.

One of my (many) insecurities is about the quality of my monitoring environment and the result it will be inevitably be having on my mixes. I’ve done my best to turn my spare room into an acoustically friendly environment for mixing, and I have some decent monitors. But is it enough? Have my room modes deafened me to the truth about my mixes? All shall be revealed when I take some tracks to pro studios with professional quality monitors and spaces.

There are several key areas I hope to address with the opportunities in this topic this semester.
I am probably most concerned about the bottom end of my mixes. While they have improved (I used to have the bass up to stupid levels…) I still have some suspicions that my bass might be a little too heavy handed on account of my monitoring set-up.

I am also insecure about my vocal processing. Am I over processing? Almost certainly, I would think. So I’m looking forward to bringing some of my vocal processing under the professional scrutiny it so desperately needs.

And last but not least: Analog versus digital. If we’re going to be spending some time in places with many grand worth of analog gear, I want to see what all the fuss is about. If there really is such a warmth to be had we should be able to hear it in these high end facilities. Or.. is analog warmth just a 21st Century urban myth propagated by the power hungry studio owners (jealous that their thunder has been stolen by some 14 year old kid with a copy of Garageband)? Only time will tell.