Music Production Talks

In this episode, our good friend, John Wood comes over to help us recreate some 60s drum tones a la Motown. John is a tasteful drummer with a studio that features a great selection of drums and gear. Hit him up for remote drum recording! johnwoodmusic@gmail.com

JP and Chris sit down to chat with Chris's longtime collaborator, Mitch Webb, who just dropped a solo album called "Touch Grass" under the artist name, mihtmo. We discuss writing, arranging, recording, and mixing of the album and Mitch's interesting "Streetcar Technique" for making EQ choices. Links (May Contain Affiliate Links) Streetcar example Train Your Ears

In this episode, Chris and JP discuss how to mic a singer-songwriter that is playing acoustic guitar and singing at the same time. JP provides some listening examples. Links (May Contain Affiliate Links) Train Your Ears Perception AB Level Matching Plugin

JP and Chris discuss possible approaches to the production process. Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) ⁠⁠Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Musicians

Joel Arnow comes to making records from the perspective of a musician first and foremost.  His training, at the New England Conservatory of Music, has given him the musical skills to write, arrange, and perform all types of music.  After touring for over a decade, he began to switch his focus to music production, recording, and mixing.  Making records is what he loves to do and it has allowed him to work and collaborate with some truly incredible musicians.   Joel is a New York-based musician with extensive experience performing, recording, and producing. After graduating from New England Conservatory of Music with a BA in Jazz Performance in 2005, he started his career as a drummer. He has performed with an array of artists in New York, throughout the country, and abroad. He have supported singer-songwriters, played in instrumental groups and recorded with a diverse range of artists. Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) ⁠Joel's Website⁠ ⁠Train Your Ears 2⁠

JP and Chris discuss the first session at Chris's new space in Nashville. Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) ⁠Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Musicians

This week we interviewed the great bass player and engineer, Brook Sutton. We talk about Brooks' approach to recording drums with SM57s, his work as an engineer with The Wood Brothers on their last three records, and his recent work on Chris Kasper’s upcoming album.  This episode was recorded at The Studio Nashville. Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Musicians* *Contains our affiliate link

1/13/23

Welcome back, Joel! This is part 2 of our interview with Joel Arnow. Joel Arnow comes to making records from the perspective of a musician first and foremost.  His training, at the New England Conservatory of Music, has given him the musical skills to write, arrange, and perform all types of music.  After touring for over a decade, he began to switch his focus to music production, recording, and mixing.  Making records is what he loves to do and it has allowed him to work and collaborate with some truly incredible musicians.   Joel is a New York-based musician with extensive experience performing, recording, and producing. After graduating from New England Conservatory of Music with a BA in Jazz Performance in 2005, he started his career as a drummer. He has performed with an array of artists in New York, throughout the country, and abroad. He have supported singer-songwriters, played in instrumental groups and recorded with a diverse range of artists. Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) Joel's Website Funny KRK Sub Review Train Your Ears 2

Check out the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017rhn Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links): Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Audio Engineers

This week Chris freaks out about his new hardware EQs, shares some tips for EQ'ing and for getting your head even further around EQ. Hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed chatting. Resources: API Audio Kush Audio Analog Little Labs VOG Blackhole Virtual Audio Driver Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Musicians

Resources Mentioned In This Episode (May Contain Affiliate Links) Jordan on Instagram Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Musicians Duke Ellington's Album Money Jungle Inside Track: Alabama Shake's Sound & Color

After two weeks off, here's a new episode of the show! To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, we’re doing a production analysis of “Pot Kettle Black.” We had a great time listening deeply to this song and then chatting about it. Thanks for listening! Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) Train Your Ears: Ear Training For Engineers

JP is on a gig in London and hasn't had a chance to set up his recording equipment. We had to record this one on Zoom. Apologies for the sad sound quality. We get into how to prep for a gig both musically and sonically. We also discuss soloing and musical minimalism. Enjoy!

Instead of focusing on just one aspect of recordings, such as recording or mixing, we're taking a look at the whole process. This episode was inspired by a question that one of our listeners, Felix Picolet, asked us. Thanks, Felix! If you want to have your question answered on the show, hit us up on Instagram. Resources: Train Your Ears - Ear Training For Musicians 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

This week Chris is going solo (JP is couldn't make the show this week) and getting nerdy, dry, and detailed. This topic is what separates the pros from the noobs. Take notes, apply to your recordings and you'll be cooking your audio at a nice medium rare and making better-sounding music. We get into...  Gain-staging throughout the entire recording chain. Why DAWS and peak meters will lead you astray. Peak vs. RMS levels What the "sweet spot" is and how to hit it Digital reference levels The difference between 16, 24, and 32-bit. How to set levels when recording. How to gain-stage your mix Calibrating buss compression And calibrating your monitors -- Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) FREE Microphone Reference Sheet. Ear Training for Sound Engineers

This week we go a little deeper into the topic of EQ. We do a shootout of Neve, SSL, and API-style EQs and discuss what we like and don't like about them. We give examples of what certain EQ moves sound like so you can start to get your ear around different frequencies.  And we even get into why having massive brain surgery makes you tired AF ...who knew?!?  As always, thanks for listening! -- Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) Download the EQ shootout files here. FREE Microphone Reference Sheet. Ear Training for Sound Engineers

This week we’re talking about EQ. If you’re new to EQ and wanting to get an understanding of the basics, this is a great episode for you. We get into terminology, the differences between some common classic EQ’s, and some examples of why in some cases common EQ moves are great and why in others they will completely kill the vibe of your recording. -- Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) FREE Microphone Reference Sheet. Ear Training for Sound Engineers

This week we take a break from talking about recording engineering and instead get more into music production.  We analyze the production of Feist's The Bad In Each Other and take a look at the songwriting, instrumentation, arrangement, recording, and mixing in this song. Listen To The Song YouTube Spotify YouTube Music Pandora Apple Music Tidal Resources Mentioned In This Episode (May Contain Affiliate Links) Pro Studio Masters - Premium Download Music Service The Words and Music Of Paul Simon by James Bennighof Understanding and Crafting The Mix by William Moylan Brainworx bx_solo - Plugin For Monitoring M/S & Adding Stereo Width Making Of Metals Metals EPK Videos Other Cool Stuff (May Contain Affiliate Links) FREE Microphone Reference Sheet Ear Training for Sound Engineers Follow Us On Instagram @ChrisJacobie @JPRuggieri

Don your white lab coats and your pen protector. We're getting even geekier this week.  What is phase and what is polarity? If you don't understand these two audio concepts, you're in for a painful recording experience as soon as you add in a 2nd mic or more. Have no fear though. This week we'll walk you through all the things you need to think about to make multi-mic recordings that sound great! And we'll show you a few audio examples to help tune your ears to potential polarity and phase issues you could run into. If you haven't listened to last week's episode, start there. -- Resources (May Contain Affiliate Links) FREE Microphone Reference Sheet. Ear Training for Sound Engineers