'Working Class Audio #463' podcast resources page
I had such a blast with Matt Boudreau on Episode 463 of the Working Class Audio podcast, but we blazed through such a wild array of 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
Boston University Tanglewood Institute: The BUTI’s Young Artists Program were the summer courses I attended as a teenager, and which fired me up to pursue a music career.
Roland VS880: The OG digital multitracker that ate one of my student loans back in 1994 was Roland’s VS880, and I was still using a Roland VS2480 as my primary location recorder 20 years later! Incredible machines. In fact, I ended up writing a whole series of technique features about them in Sound On Sound too: Roland VS880/1680 Masterclass; Roland VS2480 Masterclass Part 1 and Part 2.
My First Professional Mix Job: The first record I got mix credits on was Clam Abuse’s mad-as-a-brush album Stop Thinking – the project where the initial mix engineer walked out halfway through so I was asked to finish it off. From memory, the songs I mixed were ‘I Think I Love You’, ‘Message To Geri’, ‘Unlucky In Love’, ‘Sunday Driving’, ‘For That Girl’, and ‘There’s Always Someone’.
Some Of My Own Music: It took way too long to complete (about 10 years all told!), and some of it’s genuinely unhinged 😃 but here’s some of my own music under the Triviul moniker dating from the time when I was still working full-time in the Sound On Sound offices. And, in fact, almost all of it was recorded and mixed on a Roland VS2480, because I was dead against studio computers at the time!
Behind The Glass Interview Books: I mentioned these two books of interviews without name-checking the author (Howard Massey). Both books are still in print and you can find them here: Behind The Glass (Volume I); Behind The Glass (Volume II). These interviews, in conjunction with the hundreds in the Sound On Sound magazine archives, were the inspiration for a whole bunch of big cover features I did for the magazine, including Recording Electric Guitars, Recording Acoustic Guitar, Kick & Snare: Advanced Recording Techniques, Perfect Piano, Classic Compressors, and Use Reverb Like A Pro.
Project Studio Tea Break Podcast: The (now sadly defunct) podcast I did for five years with Jon Whitten, and in which I waxed lyrical about Matt and the WCA podast – it’s around the 40-minute mark in Episode 18 if you’re interested in hearing what we had to say.
More Info About My Location Recording Sessions: Matt and I talked about my location-recording approach, and I mentioned a couple of specific tracking sessions I did with a jazz/covers band. Well, there’s plenty more information about those sessions (as well as lots of pics and audio examples) in these two Sound On Sound articles: Session Notes June 2015 and Session Notes July 2019. And here’s a little walkthrough video of that second session too, which gives a good sense of my general guerilla-style studio approach!
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.