Music Tech Student Podcast: Recent Episodes
With Bruce Tambling
The art and science of music production, audio engineering and mixing. Computer technology, music therapy, vibration, health and wellness, education, productivity, consciousness, spirituality, business and finances. Music technology includes everything in the universe, known and unknown, the macrocosm and microcosm, from the beginning of time until all eternity.
Go to MusicTechPodcast.com for full show notes and transcripts. Jad discusses his major in Music Industry at UCLA and his interest in audio engineering. He talks about his connection to Bruce Tambling and the Foothill Music Technology program, as well as his role as a production manager for the student record label. Jad also mentions his upcoming recording session and his file management and backup methods. He advises aspiring students to be proactive in seeking opportunities in the industry.
Nick Bernstein discusses his connection to Foothill College and his current role as a Technical Director for film and concert shows. He explains how he got involved in the industry, his responsibilities in overseeing audio, video, and lighting departments, and his work as a mix engineer. He also mentions his verification through EngineEars and the gigs he has obtained through the platform. Overall, Nick shares insights into his career and the various projects he has been involved in.
Thomas Freedman, a student at UCLA, shares his connection with the Foothill College program and how he met Bruce through Cookie Marenco, a producer and engineer. Thomas is also now a student at Foothill working on a Pro Tools certification. Bruce emphasizes the importance of follow-up and mentions how Thomas reached out to him. They discuss their collaboration with Vanity on a song and their plans to record live drums and mix/master the track.
Tyler discusses his workflow and experiences as an audio engineer. He talks about setting up his studio, using analog summing, capturing unique sounds during recording sessions, and the potential for receiving production credits. He also mentions his monitoring environment and the possibility of upgrading his speakers. Overall, Tyler emphasizes the importance of being open to trying new things and accommodating unique requests from producers.
Links and Show Notes Jad Maluf * UCLA - Music Industry Major * Pro Tools * Blue Rocket Stage 1 Microphone * Langevin VTL CR3A * MXL Genesis Cardioid Tube Condenser Microphone * Cherry Pop Records - UCLA Student Record Label + Cherry Pop Records Splash Page * UCLA Clubs and Organizations * Box Storage * Nebo Note-taking
Nick Bernstein * Nick Bernstein * Tesla * West Hollywood * John Williams * Disney * Pixar * Encanto * Fort Worth, Texas * Star Wars * Exchange LA * Academy LA * QLab * Click Tracks * Derek Ali - MixedByAli * EngineEars * Craigslist * Insomniac * Ableton Live * Pro Tools * Analog Obsession
Thomas Freedman * Cookie Marenco * Vanity * Suspect Studios * Terry Carlton * JetBlue * FedEx * Bruno Mars * Taylor Swift * NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) * Stevie Wonder * Madonna * Sting * Mix With The Masters
Bao * Fountain Valley * Dolby Atmos * Saigon Grand Center
Tyler Page * GarageBand * Santa Barbara * Pasadena Pro Musica * Bruce Swedien * Make Mine Music * The Bruce Swedien Recording Method (Book) * Foothill College * San Francisco State University * Phil Collins * SSL Console * Quincy Jones * Blumlein Pair Technique * OWC Thunderbolt Dock * Stream Deck * Softube Console 1 Channel MkIII Control Surface * Crane Song HEDD Quantum AD/DA Converter * Mac Pro “Trash Can” * Google Sheets * Microsoft Excel * FL Studio * Native Instruments * Punch Recording * Brian Lee White * Expressive E Osmose Keyboard * SSL Sigma δelta 32-channel Console * Rupert Neve 5057 Orbit 16-channel Mixer * Sonos
San Francisco Bay Area Musician Bruce Kaphan has been professionally involved in the Music Scene since the mid-70's. His skills and talents have made their mark on hundreds of projects, and thousands of performances given around the world.
In this podcast Bruce Kaphan shares his insights in basic mixing concepts.
Check out articles by Bruce Kaphan at RecordingMag.com
Podcast Notes
Avid M-Box - not the best converters. Analog to Digital Converters Fletcher Munson Curve Michael Blackmer - Studio designer Dynaudio BM 5A Speakers Alesis M1 Active USB Speakers Audio Technica ATHM50 Headphones Beyer Dynamic DT 880 PRO Headphones Glyn Johns - Approach to miking drums with 3 mics WaveRider - AutomaticMixing.com Command-Click fader value to change from fader position to show peak read in Pro Tools
Frequencies
Lower mids add up quickly in a mix Lower Mids = 125 - 325 Hz Mid Mids = 175 - 500 Hz High Mids = 2500 - 4500 H. Hi Shelf starts at 3k or 6k or 8k Add air with a high shelf
Favorite Plugins
Sonnox Oxford - Favorite EQ Plug-in Waves L1 - Limiter Waves L2 - Limiter
Mix Preparation
- Infinity– there is no magic formula or recipe other than pulling together every shred of your knowledge and creativity on a per project basis
- When mixing for a client, the entire production must be predicated on their needs, both artistic and financial
- Mix preparation begins before the computer is turned on– begin at the end– determine the goal of the project and work backwards from there. Generally speaking, more tracks means more time spent mixing. If you don’t have a sizeable budget, then think minimally in terms of track count, recording methodologies, number of Pro Tools sessions, etc.
- Fastest path– treat it like a live sound event– one single session. Depending on budget, either turn in to individual sessions after the whole board is set up (or not).
- Faster path– use compression to replace in depth leveling
Mixing begins before the first track is recorded! My preferred pre-mix setup method includes
- Organize the tracks such that you won’t have to waste time looking for anything. For pop music I choose to organize mine from top to bottom: drums, percussion, bass, chordal instruments, melody instruments, solos, lead vocals, backing vocals.
- Grouping: usually created at the time of tracking or overdubbing. Nonetheless, by mix time, group and/or sub-group instruments that are inherently of a group.
- Subgroup audio tracks as desired for either a “sub-master” (for a variety of conveniences including the ability to have both automated and manual level control on the same tracks, easier level/trim control) or to facilitate being able to easily and resource economically set up sends for spatial or dynamic effects to grouped sounds
- Create (sends and) returns for spatial processing
- Create a master fader
When all tracks have been recorded and all editing completed
- “cleaning”: manually scour each and every track for extraneous noise– use head and tail fades, and crossfades to eliminate the possibility of clicking check phase alignment! It has a profound effect on the way sounds fit together. Be especially careful with multiple signals which combine to form one sound, i.e., drum tracks, or a bass DI in combination with a mic’d amp.
- If your system offers it, engage delay compensation!
- If you’ve been responsible for recording the tracks, you should already have a good working mix in process. If you haven’t been responsible for tracking/editing, then ??? Using just faders and whatever processing has already been built to get a good rough mix
- Start messing with pan- figure out how the sounds balance from left to right
- The “Bump” theory– start taking care of problem sounds by whatever means necessary– usually EQ and either limiting or compression or both
- In some cases, manually mute tom tracks around tom hits
- If time allows, optimize the sound of each track using EQ. Due to budget, this is a luxury on some projects. It’s a meditational process that gives me time to get to know each track intimately. My feeling regarding EQ is that this is the time to optimize each track, most especially to reduce lower mid cloudiness both within the individual track, but ultimately to enhance overall clarity in the mix. Generally, EQ begins with scooping out lower mids, then mid mids, then sculpting bass either additive or subtractive, then the same with upper mids and then adding “air” with a high shelf if necessary. As the mix progresses, each EQ may be subject to change as the overall sound of the mix suggests.
- LEVELLING! Using volume automation both to get a good “read” on focal images such as vocals, and to create the relationships among the sounds
- Processing- compression, reverbs, delays, special effects, feedback loops, whatever
Final checklist: before final bounce, be sure
- No red lights unless you specifically want them!
- Engage delay compensation!
- Depending on my client, I sometimes apply mastering or mock-mastering compression and/or limiting to the master bus for presenting mixes. If the project is going to be mastered by a separate engineer, before the final bounce, I disengage at least the L2
- Mind your master level! It should be as loud as possible without overflow, unless you like the sound of overflow.
Recording from the class meeting on Friday, February 3rd 2023. Joining the meeting was Tyler Page and Nick Bernstein, as well as a few students.
Tyler talks about speakers, headphones, studio acoustics and reflects on his time as a student at Foothill College.
In this episode, Ande talks about her experience at Berklee School of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, her goals as an artist, and some of the things she loves about the Foothill Music Technology Program. We also had a short Q&A session at the end with students to get advice from her perspective as a successful musician.
Ande was accepted into the Boston Conservatory as a Theater Major after starting in musical theater and a high school band. She then decided to transition to songwriting, which required another few auditions and she then realized several things about her unique path as an artist.
After some time, Ande pivoted to the Music Technology Program at Foothill College, praising it and stating that it serves her need as an artist and expressing her desire to gather the knowledge she needs to become the sole producer of her work.
Podcast host Cassidy asks Ande about her time in the high school band, and how her experience has translated over time to where she is as a musician now. Ande stated that the biggest carryover is the amount of time performing and the confidence she gained over time. Ande talked about her desire for a band of her own, now that she is an independent artist, and not working within the confines of the school's requirements.
Ande discussed a bit about her current goals in the Music Tech Program and that is she wants to build her knowledge in a structured and guided way. Her advice to students looking to get the most out of the program is to really put themselves out there, and mentioned that networking and exposure to new people and ideas will further improve their skills.
Ande recaps her process from songwriting to music release, what it's like to work with producers, and audio engineers, and her entire songwriting process. At this point, we moved into the Q&A session with our participants.
Links mentioned in the show:[edit] 1. Berklee School of Music 2. Boston Conservatory at Berklee 3. Women's Audio Mission 4. Cookie Marenco 5. Neumann TLM-103 * Neumann TLM-103 - $1,195.00 6. Randy Emata.com * Randy Emata All Music
First Zoom meeting for 2022 academic year! Students introduced themselves and Andrew Seidel shared awesome information about mixing for live concerts and also studio mastering techniques.
Nick Bernstein talks about his academic career, which includes several undergraduate and graduate degrees, and then relocating back to Southern California to pursue a career in the field of Music Technology.
Bruce Tambling speaks with colleagues and mentors about how to improve the Foothill MTEC Class. The group also discussed the necessary skills, a student should have to thrive when applying to internships or full-time positions in the music technology industry.
The Foothill college MTEC group sits down with a couple of their mentors and discuss how they have been dealing with the job market during covid. They also speak about creating a marketing opportunity at Suspect Studios by do a microphone shoot out with lauten audio.
To keep up with the Foothill Music Technology Program follow us join us on Discord
For more information on Bruce Tambling and courses offered at Foothill please visit us at Brucetambling.com
The Foothill MTEC group gather and discuss importance or collaboration, songwriting techniques, different types of microphones, and types of producers. The team also talk some of their mentors like Ron E Beck who has worked under CBS records and what it took to get noticed by a big label.
To keep up with the Foothill Music Technology Program follow us join us on Discord
For more information on Bruce Tambling and courses offered at Foothill please visit us at Brucetambling.com
The MTEC Study Group begins their weekly Friday meeting by quickly recapping their previous meetings to ensure all members were in the know of each other’s projects. The meetings continue by having Tom speak about how he is preparing for his recording session at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Tom Spoke about what he was going to record, how the session was funded, and the importance of being connected with other like minded people. Apart from Tom’s recording project Tom introduced the group to Los Angeles Producer and artist John. John is a former student of the Music Technology program at Stanford University. John is now working with top EDM producers in Los Angeles. Lastly, Tom and John express the importance to have your collaborations workflow. The MTEC Study Group diverged their conversation to their new podcast editing software Descript. Bruce Tambling discusses the useful tools within the application. Some of these features include simultaneously removing all the Uhs in a recording. Bruce continues to discuss the podcasts being created from previous MTEC Meetings. Bruce explains how Descript is going to speed up his team’s workflow.
The group continues their meeting and touches on the topic of the importance of these meetings. Bruce and Layla communicate the significance of building a community around the MTEC group. They speak about the importance of having mentors available and being surrounded by talented individuals that can team up and collaborate to create wonderful works of art together. Layla also offers to bring in touring performers and DJ to weekly meetings to help the group learn and interview professionals working in the real world.
Kiki asks about what the new Thursday night MTEC meeting is about. Bruce explains his ideas for the meetings and says he wanted to have a meeting so local students and artists can jam together using a new program using JamKazam. The first meeting didn't go as planned the first time around but Bruce Tambling is optimistic he will get JamKazam working for future meetings. The meeting concludes after Philip Rose and Daniel give a small update on their projects and what their next steps are going to be.
To keep up with the Foothill Music Technology Program follow us join us on Discord
For more information on Bruce Tambling and courses offered at Foothill please visit us at Brucetambling.com
Bruce Tambling sits down with Foothill MTEC community college alumni, Tyler Page. Bruce and Tyler dive into the very beginning of Tylers fondness for music technology. They discuss topics of early years of garage band and logic pro x, how much Foothill community college shaped and aided Tyler in his goals, his time at Cal Poly Pomona, how he got his internship at studio city sound, and much more.
To keep up with the Foothill Music Technology Program follow us on Discord
For more information on Bruce Tambling and courses offered at Foothill please visit us at Brucetambling.com