Studio Accessories

04/29/24 • 41 min

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My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn

There are many things that are important to create the proper studio environment for creative success. Most of these things are pretty mundane, but they do make a difference.

Examples I cover in this episode include microphone stands and accessories, music stands and instrument stands, chairs, headphones, studio lighting and climate control, and mic and other cables.

It’s not the most exciting equipment we deal with, but it is still important to get it right. After 50+ years of doing sessions, I have some solid ideas about what works for me. I hope you will find these ideas and suggestions helpful.
And here are the links for the Spring Birds recording I mentioned at the start of this episode:
https://www.outermarkerrecords.com/
https://www.nativedsd.com/label/outer-marker-records/

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

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There are many things that are important to create the proper studio environment for creative success. Most of these things are pretty mundane, but they do make a difference.

Examples I cover in this episode include microphone stands and accessories, music stands and instrument stands, chairs, headphones, studio lighting and climate control, and mic and other cables.

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

Previous Episode

Shawn Dealey on Dolby Atmos

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Ever since its announcement, I have been interested in learning more about Dolby Atmos. I was skeptical at first, primarily because of my experience with “Quad” back in the 1970s. That 4-channel concept never gain any popularity with either the listening public nor in the recording community. I presumed that Atmos would be similar, just more speakers. The early demo sessions I attended left me convinced that this was going to be another dead end, like Quad. The early mixes I heard were gimmicky and did not serve the musical intent of the artist well.

But as I was exposed to mixers who really understood how to use the expanded format, my interest increased. And for the public? I never thought there would be much market acceptance of a system that required many speakers. But Dolby was smart about their implementation. The system knows how many speakers you have and creates a version that fits your hardware.

There’s more to Atmos, however, because of certain psychoacoustic processing that goes on, the resulting mix, in any format down to plain stereo, sounds better, with more detail and separation of sounds. I hear more things in an Atmos mix, even in headphones, than I did in the stereo mix.

Shawn Dealey is the chief engineer at Sweetwater Studios in Indiana. I have been involved with several mixing projects with Shawn over the past couple of years, and I think he has an effective approach to interpreting the producer/artist/engineer’s intent, and making it into an improved version.

In this episode, I talk with Shawn about his evolution as he explores the new format. I learned a lot from Shawn, and I think you will, too.

This episode was recorded at Sweetwater Studio B, the main Atmos mixing room. We used AEA 44 mics, a VT-2 mic preamp, and a VT-7 compressor, the same chain I use for recording most episodes.

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please pass them along to me at [email protected]

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

Next Episode

Getting the Best Vocal Recording

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Almost all pop music features someone singing. Getting the best vocal performance is crucial, since most listeners respond to the words of a song and need to be able to hear them.

In this episode, I first discuss the human factors involved in getting a great performance from singers, mostly from a producer’s viewpoint.

And then I focus on the technical requirements of capturing that performance using microphones, mic preamps, processing, effects, and mixing. Often there are problems to be fixed in a vocal track, and I review some of the techniques from salvaging a performance that is less than perfect.

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

My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn - Studio Accessories

Transcript

91 Studio Accessories April 29, 2024

I’m Doug Fearn and this is My Take on Music Recording

Before I begin today’s episode, I wanted to mention that a recording of spring birds I made in May of 2020, during the Covid lockdown when the world was mostly free of manmade noise, is now available on Outer Marker Records.

You can go to outermarkerrecords.com to learn more about the recording. We do not stream our Outer Marker recordings. They are available for download from Nat