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The Essential Starting Guide to Create Your Own Legendary Studio the Moment You Feel It, Roadmayou Know It

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The Essential Starting Guide to Create Your Own Legendary Studio the Moment You Feel It, Roadmayou Know It The crucia5l steps The essential starting guide to create your own legendary studio The moment you feel it, Roadmayou know it. Mission content Legend the mission & how it all started recording studio basics my 5 biggest lessons learned along the way roadmap bringing back the legends The irresistible moving spirit to challenge the status quo as a musician, producer or songwriter why From the very day I started out as a anything about recording tech- niques, Because - you remember that musician I was dreaming of creating room treatment, studio gear etc. I’m movie „Cast Away“ when Tom an environment for myself and others sure all of you either were in that same Hanks finally managed to that offers perfect conditions to make position once, or maybe you still are lighten the fire with his own & record music - in a way that not only now. two hands and he ran around feels natural and puts as little as possible shouting: between me and the moment when But back in 2011 I had an experience inspiration strikes , but rather becomes that changed my life as a musician and „I HAVE MADE FIRE!“ part of my inspiration itself. the view on how music can be created: My band and I had the chance to fly over Other than probably some of you I to Los Angeles to work with a legendary Can you imagine the feeling? consider myself a digital native, so producer and record an album in a naturally my approach on creating mostly analog studio with a lot of that Picture it... music was based on using a computer amazing vintage gear I only knew as and plugins. Plugins that for a good part plugins until then. emulated vintage analog gear. ...that’s why :D Even though the possibilities were The first crucial insight that struck me overwhelming - and yes I’m aware was the huge difference in the process that only 15 years ago musicians, of dialing in the sound by turning Seriously - there’s nothing song-writers & producers would have physical knobs instead of going through more empowering than dreamed of having the tools we have various drop down menus fumbling pushing your own boundaries at hands today - I still felt something around with the mouse. Making it a and not only being creative, essential was missing. tangible haptic experience with instant but becoming a creator. amazing results. Of course that was at the very beginning That was the very moment I knew of my journey when I didn’t know exactly what I really wanted... 1 Returning back to the basics - what are the most important links? Ok, I know for some of you who have But now - only 5 years later I did it. And mic as the first link, followed by the worked analog long before the so called not only at a fraction of the cost but also preamp and so on. But I guess you’ll „digital revolution“ came along or those attended by an absolutely incredible agree the single most important link of you who already own or work in learning experience in a field I knew nothing to get a great sound without having to Keepbigger studios this might sound a little about (and never thoughtit I could master). twist and bend the actual signal, is the weird. But for me, hearing our music If you follow me along, I’ll show you how. talent in front of the mic. coming out of the headphones already Anyways, enough of me, this is about you sounding like a record while performing and your vision. What does your perfect So many times in the past I experienced live in the studio was a true revelation! studio environment look like? what a huge, huge difference it made And there might be a good chance you if the musician really mastered the either know exactly what I mean or are Try to picture it. instrument. actually longing for an experience like And by that I mean not only that he or this. Before we go on - no matter your skill level she is a great player or singer, but also Long story short: that is why I started or experience, I guess it can never be a bad knows exactly what he or she sounds working on the dream of having my thing to take another look at the basics. like - wants to sound like - how the own studio with vintage analog gear as So I’d like to step back and focus on what instrument sounds and finally - how to soon as I returned from LA. The problem actually comes first. make it sound. was of course: these legendary pieces of What are the core elements of a good Simpleequipment were either unobtainable or recording chain and what are the most If that’s the case you’ll find your job as a so prohibitively expensive, they were important links? Talking of signal chain - recording engineer extremely easy. completely out of my reach. often times I hear people mentioning the Now, one could say up next in the chain would be the mic then, which I agree can be - behind the vocals - the second most The core elements important link. of the recording Basics chain But depending on what you are trying Right after the mic your outboard gear A good analog EQ on the other hand is to capture it might share it’s position comes into play - namely the preamp, the very nice to have, but if I had neither with something else - just as important: compressor - maybe an EQ and finally the and had to choose, I would always go for The room. A-D converter. a good compressor first. While without the first and the last you As nowadays, a very usable interface Before I built my studio I highly under- won’t even be able to record a single bar with solid preamps and converters can estimated the importance of a good at all, a good comp before hitting the be had for a relatively reasonable price, sounding room! converters in my humble opinion can be I’d consider the compressor the first Just like the talent - if the room sounds very helpful, especially when dealing with dedicated piece of analog gear to get. great, your work will be a lot easier, extremely dynamic signals. that’s why I’ll cover more on that in And a tube compressor such as the LA2A But there’s still something that comes further detail a little later. really can make your signal sing. before, which I’ll cover on the next page. 2 Lessonsmy top 5 learned There‘s no such thing as the one and only truth when it comes to music production, but for newbies and experts alike, there‘s a lot of room for Treatmistakes... That little something I was referring to But this goes not only for plugins, of 4. Underestimating Room Treatment on the previous page are our ears and course - also for other pieces of gear such As mentioned in the beginning, I highly the skills to translate from what we hear as converters. By nowadays technical underestimated the significance of a to what a mix or a song needs following standards I‘d say, if your recording sucks, treated room. certain sound aesthetics. How we bring it’s most definitely not the converters! Many times I followed some forum selected ingredients together to finally discussions about which mic, which come up with the sound we actually 2. Getting Lost In Options: preamp or which converter gives you wanna hear. This is a big one. While being at the mercy more of that 3D sound than others. And Like a painter using his color palette and of the above mentioned hype I completely more often than not, the photos people brush to create blends that help him overlooked that my DAW of choice already posted of their setups showed some express what he wants to deliver. came with a boatload of tools and gadgets. kind of expensive high-end converters yourAnd that even the most basic DAW setup while the room treatment was reduced I know this is very basic now, but I think offers so many options it’s almost self- to putting some foam on the walls. it’s important to point out since one of the evident you either get completely lost, or Depending on your default room core differences between the old school you don’t even bother to dive into it and situation, a workable or even a very way of working analog, and the digital go with 3rd party tools that imply an easier good room sound can be achieved with world is, that in the latter we’re creating way to get there. DIY methods in relatively little time, music not only with our ears, but also very One of my personal key moments when and I’ll share some helpful links on that much with our eyes. working on an analog console with analog topic in a future article. Try to switch off your screen while mixing outboard gear for the very first time was: and you’ll be amazed how much we My options were limited. depend on visual feedback of a graphic That simple fact helped me tremendously 5. Underestimating Mic Placement user interface nowadays. in making decisions and focusing on what One more mistake I made in the past That’s why plugins need to look better and was essential. And the instant feedback certainly was underestimating the better ;-) triggered by a haptic experience made me position of the mic.
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