Recording Studio Rockstars podcast resources page
I had such a blast with Lij Shaw on Episode #455 of the Recording Studio Rockstars podcast, but we blazed through so many different topics that I figured I’d collect together some ‘further info’ links for anyone who’s curious to know more. We also discussed some of the free educational resources I’ve created over the years, so I’ve included some links to those too, in case you’ve not come across them already.
Interview-related Links
- Some Of My Location Recording Setups: Here are free articles that show the recording setups for some of the location sessions I’ve done: Session Notes January 2015, Session Notes June 2015, Session Notes April 2016, Session Notes June 2016, Session Notes July 2019. And here’s a little walkthrough video of one of those sessions too, which gives a good sense of my general guerilla-style studio approach!
Recording In A Low-ceilinged Room: Here’s an article about that drum-recording session I mentioned where the recording room was less tall than I was! 😃 Session Notes January 2019.
Cockney Rhyming Slang: Where I grew up, Cockney Rhyming Slang was well-known, and I thought that was where ’to have a gander’ came from. But I’ve since looked it up, and it isn’t. D’oh!
The One-take Record: I mentioned a time where a whole record went down in one take. Well, this was the song in question:
…and you can read about that whole session in my Session Notes June 2015 article. If you’d like to mix that recording for yourself, you can find the raw multitracks here.Loudspeaker Foldback Methods: For an explanation (with audio examples!) of various different methods of providing loudspeaker monitoring and dealing with the resultant spill, check out this section of my Recording Secrets For The Small Studio book resources: Techniques For Reducing Loudspeaker Foldback Spill.
The Effect Of Absorbers And Reflectors On Acoustic Guitar Recording: As part of my 'Recording Secrets' Library Of Mic Positions, I recorded a whole acoustic-guitar multimiking setup in a studio live room; then surrounded the whole setup with reflective surfaces and recorded it again; and finally surrounded the whole setup with acoustic absorption and recorded it a third time. Which means you can compare the sonic results of that here!
Contact-miking Review & Examples: If you’d like to find out more about contact miking, then check out my resources page for the Zeppelin Design Labs Cortado MkIII, which includes a link to my Sound On Sound review of the product, as well as a bunch of different audio examples I did with it.
The Back-of-the-hand Miking Trick: I first heard about the back-of-the-hand drum-miking trick from Mike Stavrou’s thought-provoking book Mixing With Your Mind, but have since heard Chuck Ainlay saying he learnt it from Ed Cherney, so who knows who dreamt it up in the first place!
Phase-aligning Multimics: My latest Sound On Sound magazine cover feature ‘A Guide To Multimiking’ includes these audio examples of me phase-aligning electric-guitar multimics.
My Previous Appearances On The RSR Podcast: I case you wanted to catch up with some of my previous conversations with Lij, here are the direct links: RSR#124: The Tao of Facepalm and RSR#253: Best Free Plug-ins.
A Bunch Of My Free Educational Resources!
Over the years I’ve slowly built up a load of different free educational resources about project-studio production, so here’s a selection of those to check out. If you want to keep up to date with all the latest additions to these resources, then why not sign up for my Small-studio Secrets Mail?
- 'Mixing Secrets' Free Multitrack Download Library: The web’s largest collection of freely downloadable raw multitracks for students/teachers of mixing. There are now more than 500 projects on offer, many of which also include an unmastered WAV mix you can use for mastering practice.
The Mix Review: My (more-or-less) weekly blog where I critique current and classic commercial music releases from a production perspective. (I’ve put links to a few of my most recent critiques on the right.)
'Recording Secrets' Library Of Mic Positions: A set of instrument recordings that have been extensively multimiked with identical microphones so you can isolate the sonic effects of microphone placement. So far this library features 450 audio files covering 20 instruments, including acoustic guitar, electric guitar, upright piano, grand piano, upright bass, kick drum, snare drum, cymbals, saxes, clarinets, and flute.
16-part Mixing Video Series: The full four-hour step-by-step mixing video series I made to accompany by book Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio can be viewed for free on the book’s online resource pages.
In-depth Tracking, Mixing & Mastering Case-study: Here’s an in-depth recording case-study where I document my entire production process for an entire album, all the way from tracking right through to mastering. Includes pictures, articles, audio files, video tutorials, downloadable multitracks… the works!
Links To All My Mix Rescue & Session Notes articles: These can all be read for free on the Sound On Sound website, and each article features loads of audio examples to support the text/pictures.
Free Tutorial Podcasts: One of the things I do for my Cambridge-MT Patrons is a special monthly hands-on mixing tutorial podcast, and I’ve made a few of those episodes public-access if you’d like to check them out:
- September 2023 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘Ambitions’ by All Hands Lost. Also includes my Unvarnished Review of the Abacus Electronics C-Series monitors.
- July 2022 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘All The Same’ by North To Alaska.
- October 2021 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘Happy Pills’ by Candlebox. Also includes my Unvarnished Review of the Zeppelin Design Labs Cortado MkIII contact mic.
- December 2020 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘Cage’ by The Black Crown. Also includes my Unvarnished Review of the Abacus Electronics C-Box 4 nearfield monitors.
- January 2020 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘Stitch Up’ by Bobby Nobody. Also includes my Unvarnished Review of the Neumann KH80+KH750 2.1 monitor system.
- June 2019 Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast: Mixing the song ‘Run Run Run’ by Arise. Also includes my Unvarnished Review of the Soundtheory Gullfoss plug-in.
