Interested to know what people have the most difficulty with in their recordings: The computer technology? Inspiration? Knowing what's the 'right' way to do something? Knowing when to stop?
We're confident the series will help in many specific ways but we're also going to be setting up a whole range of features on this website to continue to provide help with 'the big picture,' the overall process of recording.
Currently Alan is on tour in Germany (check out his website www.alanparsonsmusic.com for dates in you live in Germany and want to catch a show) but he'll be checking in regularly even when he's away.
Some times the most difficult aspect of recording can be the folks you have to work with! As an engineer/producer, getting the best performance from someone with out pushing them too far, and convincing people that it's time for a break. Or dealing with a cocky guitarist who pushes the guitar track faders up every time your back's turned :)
Hope Alan's enjoying the tour. He very much inspired me when I was a kid, with the work he did with Pink Floyd especially. It's his creative, imaginative and inventive style of recording and production that sparked my own sonic exploits. Thanks Alan!
It goes without saying, I am a fan of your songwriting, composition and audio engineering. The idea that you are providing "engineering and recording college courses" via yourself and your bevy of talented and professional guests, is a generous offer by you, at any price.
Currently my project studio is located in a 27-foot class A motor home and is entitled NASAV_Studios which will is my label name. My artist name is HappyHarryNET which coincides with my website where I will be authoring both my music and NASAV_studios websites in Q3 2010, in preparation for my 1st record album release sometime in 2011.
My rig consists of an LG37-inch LED monitor used for MacOS, LogicPro9, Cubase 4AI and most recently, displaying lyrics on the screen! My consoles are Yamaha 01X and Yamaha AW4416 with Y56K DSP, jacked into a 2009 polycarbonate MacBook|500HDD|4GB RAM and is a joy to use with mLAN and LogicPro9 Studio. I use two mics: RODE NT1A LDC mounted on a QM-50 pro arm boom with a QM-25 9-inch curved pop-filter; mic2 being a wired AudioTechnica ATM175 head-mic. Until I purchase a UA Solo 610 mic preamp, I am using a ART Tube MP Studio V3 when needed. My vocal processors are TC-Helicon VoiceLive1 and VoiceLive2 and actually the VL2 has a very nice onboard mic pre and "adaptive EQ" which I can vouch for it really does a wonderful job in real time continuously [quietly] monitoring and adjusting EQ, compression, de-essing, etc. My instruments include Yamaha MOTIF_XS, Korg_i3, QY_100, Ibanez AEL2012, Dean Boca 12 electric "cherry" and a 4-string banjo.
I look forward to your entire series of videos and training. Thus far already what I have watched is very fulfilling, educating and helps me tremendously. Moreover, I truly enjoy the comradery of spending time listeing to you [Alan Parsons] as well as the various producers, mixing engineers and artists you spotlight. I shall include you in my liner notes.
All the best,
HappyHarryNET
http://happyharry.net
OSX|Logic9|01X|AW4416|Y56K|MOTIF_XS|RodeNT1A|VoiceLive2|Ibanez_2012
I have enjoyed the DL's so far. Looking forward to the rest.
I would like to learn more about "finding & removing" mud from tracks and full mixes.
Thanks
Eric
I would have also liked to hear Simon's Kick mic (speaker) vs. a normal kick mic recording. :)
For me, the hardest part about recording is convincing my artists/clients to put in the work to make a great, classic recording. I started doing a per-song or per-project rate so that I could focus in on quality without them worrying about budget, but it seems that most just want to rush everything regardless of getting quality takes or tones. Personally, I think one solid single is worth way more than a full album that sounds mediocre..... I am starting a record label soon so I can focus more on quality and seek out those that are willing to put in the work. It is way easier when I am producing hip-hop or pop because I only have to worry about the singer/rapper, a band can be a great deal of work. But, great music is well worth it.
*☆*
I think some thought on creating space for instruments in a mix would be helpful to many.
Acoustic "mud" and instruments stepping on each other is a major problem with most folkes when they first start doing mixing. the musicians i have known over the years tend to "hear" only their contribution and focus on its placement (in your face) in the mix.
I realize some of what i am saying is psychology and some is audio spectrum.
Some comments on how these issues have been dealt with by Alan and others would be helpful.
Ronald Finnerty
The hardest thing for me is knowing what route to take with recording when there's so much to consider. Firstly I've invested in some decent mics (Shure, AKG, Sennheiser, Audix). I have a reasonable mixer for the price range (Mackie 1640 Onyx) but from there I'm having a nightmare wondering if I should go into an expensive Hard disk recorder (Tascam x-48) or shell out for pro tools HD. The AD/DA convertor argument is bugging me. How important is it to have very good convertors? And when does quality go beyond being able to humanly differenciate? At the minute I record onto a Mackie SDR 24/96 but I don't have anything to compare it to.
Then I'm in a fix about monitors. Whats best for around £1000 a pair?