This week was a tour of internet information on the manufacturing of CD's. I was not physically present, but dutifully googled 'CD manufacturers' to attempt to get an insight into what I missed.
What I can report is that I am very excited about seeing how cheaply one can mass produce runs of CD's.
For a few grand, I can flood the market with my very average tracks, rather than just spending my time being reassured by friends and family that one day, I'll 'make it'. Is the world ready for even more mediocrity?? I hope so.
Much more significant is the issue of mastering. I am still a little dazzled by this black art. It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I feel somewhat insecure about this exercise! Fortunately, our next tour is to a mastering facility - so we will soon see what all the fuss is about.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Forum Week 3, Semester 2
Paradise Studio tour.
It was pretty cool again, to get to another studio! The one remaining question must be: how do we spell Devault's name?
It was a beautiful facility - and a few of us imagined that they must have a limitless budget. It just had that 'money no object' look and feel about it. And they'd just spent 50 Grand on outboard gear.
Which brings us to this week's dose of analog versus digital propaganda war. We had another very healthy dose of analog forever sentiments. I must confess, that I'm still a little skeptical. Although it is hard to argue with the fact that most of the people with the real 'golden ears' are inclined in the same way about this.
I received some very encouraging feedback on my mixes - again. I need to get more bass in my mixes. Which is pretty cool. Because my first generation of mixes were all way too bass heavy. I'd play them in the car and be blown away (in a bad way) by the bass. So I've now come to a place of overcompensating and making my mixes too bass-light. This actually fills me with some sense of optimism - because surely the next generation of my mixes will be at that middle ground of well balanced bass.
Cheers Folks,
Ken
It was pretty cool again, to get to another studio! The one remaining question must be: how do we spell Devault's name?
It was a beautiful facility - and a few of us imagined that they must have a limitless budget. It just had that 'money no object' look and feel about it. And they'd just spent 50 Grand on outboard gear.
Which brings us to this week's dose of analog versus digital propaganda war. We had another very healthy dose of analog forever sentiments. I must confess, that I'm still a little skeptical. Although it is hard to argue with the fact that most of the people with the real 'golden ears' are inclined in the same way about this.
I received some very encouraging feedback on my mixes - again. I need to get more bass in my mixes. Which is pretty cool. Because my first generation of mixes were all way too bass heavy. I'd play them in the car and be blown away (in a bad way) by the bass. So I've now come to a place of overcompensating and making my mixes too bass-light. This actually fills me with some sense of optimism - because surely the next generation of my mixes will be at that middle ground of well balanced bass.
Cheers Folks,
Ken
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Week 2: Tour of Mixmaster Studio
A liberating experience indeed! My highlight wasn’t even the fact that it was the first time I touched an SSL (…I’ll never forget – or wash that hand again..).
It goes without saying that it was great to get into a pro room and hear from a working producer.
What really blew me away was the lack of pretence. Here was a guy standing in a room full of classic analog outboard gear that said: ‘None of this matters!’ Of particular note was his admission that he has patched in a channel with nothing on it before and thought to himself ‘Yeah, that sounds much better…’
Thank goodness! It’s not just me.
I was very impressed that in a room full of great gear, his focus was on getting the balance of the mix right, rather than telling us how great the gear is. But I suppose that is one of the perils of being an amateur: one spends far too much time around other amateurs!
Next major revelation… how did the control room sound? Frankly: not too different to my office at home. This has been another one of those areas where I have let urban audio myths creep into my psyche. I imagined that when I heard my stuff in a ‘pro room’ I would be hearing something entirely different to what I had hear at home or in my headphones.
To summarise: I think the experience helped me to start to get past some of the self imposed psychological hurdles that stand between me and good mixes. There is a lot of them to get over – but I can see that much of the psychology that is working against me is of my own making, and not reflective of a world stacked against me!
A liberating experience indeed! My highlight wasn’t even the fact that it was the first time I touched an SSL (…I’ll never forget – or wash that hand again..).
It goes without saying that it was great to get into a pro room and hear from a working producer.
What really blew me away was the lack of pretence. Here was a guy standing in a room full of classic analog outboard gear that said: ‘None of this matters!’ Of particular note was his admission that he has patched in a channel with nothing on it before and thought to himself ‘Yeah, that sounds much better…’
Thank goodness! It’s not just me.
I was very impressed that in a room full of great gear, his focus was on getting the balance of the mix right, rather than telling us how great the gear is. But I suppose that is one of the perils of being an amateur: one spends far too much time around other amateurs!
Next major revelation… how did the control room sound? Frankly: not too different to my office at home. This has been another one of those areas where I have let urban audio myths creep into my psyche. I imagined that when I heard my stuff in a ‘pro room’ I would be hearing something entirely different to what I had hear at home or in my headphones.
To summarise: I think the experience helped me to start to get past some of the self imposed psychological hurdles that stand between me and good mixes. There is a lot of them to get over – but I can see that much of the psychology that is working against me is of my own making, and not reflective of a world stacked against me!
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