My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn

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What if you were suddenly confronted with recording an instrument you had never had in the studio before? Or one you never heard before? Or one you never knew existed?

How do you figure out how to capture its sound? Where do you place a microphone? What microphone will you use?

In this episode I suggest various ways to evaluate an unfamiliar instrument or sound, using some examples from my own experience, and a few rules of thumb to get started.

This topic was suggested by a listener. If you have ideas for a episode, let me know. [email protected]

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

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Our perception of frequency balance varies with loudness, a fact documented by Harvey Fletcher and Wilden A. Munson, two scientists at Bell Laboratories. In 1933, they published a paper called, “Loudness, its definition, measurement and calculation.” It was groundbreaking science in the field of human hearing, and has implications today for how we perceive music. This is especially important when we are mixing.

In this episode, I explain the basics of the Fletcher-Munson Curves and how we can use that knowledge to make better recordings.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

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This is the second of three episodes on the Art of Producing. In this one, I talk about the mics and equipment I use in my studio, and the reasons why.

The example used for this series features an album project for singer-songwriter Corrie Lynn Green. It is an acoustic-based project, although there are some electric guitars and bass on some songs. I explain why I make certain decisions for this project, and how a recording with a different artist or genre would require a different approach.

Corrie’s album, “Time To Be Brave,” will be released on Outer Marker Records on September 6, 2024, and distributed by Native DSD as a download purchase only. But you can listen to all the songs for free (in mp3) on the Native DSD web site. https://www.nativedsd.com/label/outer-marker-records/

The third and final episode of this series on producing will look at mixing and mastering.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

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The typical music consumer these days is listening on earbuds or headphones. Or maybe on the tiny speakers in their smartphone. Few are listening on speakers, at least none of any reasonable quality.

It makes sense for us to take this into consideration when we mix a song.

Engineers have always had to make adjustments and compromises in order for their mixes to translate well for the public. Since most of your work will be heard on some sort of personal listening device, it is often good to either mix using headphones, or at least check the mix that way.

In this episode, I talk about my personal preference for headphones for mixing and listening, which goes back decades. Sure, I use the studio monitor speakers as another reference, but when it comes to details, I just hear more with the headphones. This is especially true when editing.

Everyone has to develop their own approach to this, and I expect many people prefer monitoring and mixing through their expensive monitor speakers. And there are times when speakers are the way to go, such as when more than one person has to listen, or when you want to get that visceral experience of feeling the bass.

Many people in the world of recording were saddened to hear of the death of Joe Tarsia, founder of Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Joe was a pioneer, always on the forefront of new technology. Many successful engineers came up under Joe’s mentorship. I know I will miss the interesting conversations I had with Joe, going back to the late 1960s.

You can listen to my conversation with Joe Tarsia from 2020 in episode 26. Here is the link:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/942952/5418067

There is also a YouTube video of the same conversation, with some extra content, including a series of photos from Joe’s career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMwTQ8XhY9c

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

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In the previous episode, I asked listeners to send me their recordings for my critique. In this episode, I play five of the songs submitted and offer my comments.

I try to limit my remarks to things that the engineer has some control over, like the mic’ing, amount of room sound, any eq or compression, the mix, the use of processing and effects, loudness and levels, and how the engineer might interact with the musicians to help them get the best recording.

Of course, my comments reflect my experience and my taste, so they are not the last word on the work submitted.

The songs are embedded in the podcast, but since podcasting uses a low bit-rate MP3, the audio quality is quite poor, especially for music. If you want to hear the full resolution versions of this music, go to my podcast web site, https:\\DougFearn.com. Look under “Extras” and then click on “Critique Audio.” Here is the direct link to the high-res versions: https://www.dougfearn.com/Extras/CritiqueAudio/critiqueaudio.html

I look forward to hearing from listeners to determine whether this is a useful endeavor or not. If the response is positive, I will do more critiques as an occasional feature. You can send your full resolution audio file to [email protected], using whatever large file transfer service you prefer. Please do not send MP3s or equivalent.

This podcast is carried by over 30 podcast providers. Your support is much appreciated.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/