Description: Day 6, the final day, of Ronan Chris Murphy’s Home Recording Boot Camp in Vinceza, Italy. May 2011. Covers Mixing, EQ, Compression, Mastering and Pizza.
Keywords: home recording bootcamp DIY musician audio engineer courses producer vicenza italy studio mixing mastering compression EQ red hot chilli peppers

Agenda Red

# Recording Boot Camp – Day 6

So here it is, the last day of Ronan Chris Murphy’s Home Recording Boot Camp at Abnegat Studios in Vicenza, Italy.

Mixing

Following on with the topic of mixing from Day 5, Ronan took us through the process of reality checking: Listening to our mixes against reference material. Here it was highlighted the importance of selecting the correct genre, style and sound with which to reference our recording.

Reference material helps us to make decisions.

> “We want our record to sound BIG, LOUD and EXCITING…. A lot of small changes are one of the BIG differences between you and the big guys.” – Ronan Chris Murphy

Compression in Mixing

Having learned about dynamics and compression on Day 2, today we looked at compression in context of the mix. This involved selecting the appropriate compressors for the sound elements of our recording and reviewing the various settings of a compressor towards achieving the sound we desire.

> “With really good compression, elements sit where they are supposed to sit” – Ronan Chris Murphy

We looked at the art of parallel compression and the advantages of a technique that I would call “serial compression” which is where there is more than one compressor in the signal path.

There was a copy of Bobby Owsinski’s book, The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook, lying around the studio kitchen so further research on the topic suggested that there are various styles of parallel compression referred to as the London style, the New York style and the LA style amongst others. Different techniques achieve different results.

Reverb

When I was growing up in the 1980s the sounds of reverb and delay were cool and very evident. Since the 1990s records sound a lot less ‘wet’. The contrast in production between Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic” and “Mother’s Milk”, spring to mind as obvious examples.

Ronan uses reverb to create a sense of space and to help blend sounds within a mix. It was a pleasurable experience to watch how he does this, pushing sounds back in to the mix, adding depth without losing clarity and presence, demonstrating that it is an art.

We briefly looked at the different types of reverb e.g. plate, gate, cathedral before considering when we might instead use delay, for example, on the lead vocal.

Delay

Whilst there is a relationship between reverb and delay (.. delay… delay…,) they are, sonically, quite distinct to the listener. A different bunch of techniques are required to make the delay effect either a subtle or more deliberate one.

We looked at both mono and stereo delay and how delay creates an effect similar to reverb in that it can help push back and blend an element in the mix.

This led to how we might use both reverb and delay together and how and when we might use pre-delay.

What’s the frequency, Ronan?

As an end of boot camp treat (although I am sure he didn’t plan it that way,) Ronan opened up a treasure chest of magic frequencies that we can immediately use to draw out certain components within our mixes. These included getting some very crisp, punchy bass sounds, finding clarity on clean guitars and gaining presence with overdriven guitars.

Ronan didn’t stop there. He helped us to understand how we can get guitars to jump forward, how to create bass drum and snare sounds that are full of attack and how to clean up and brighten both vocals and cymbals before we moved on to mastering.

Mastering

Mastering is the final stage of the recording process and the art of mastering is to make our recordings sound BIG, LOUD and FUN.

Ronan gave us a boot camp introduction to what mastering is, how it has evolved over the decades and what is involved in the mastering process.

Giving us a ‘home brew’ approach of how to master a track, we can begin to help ourselves get an idea of how a song is likely to be sounding when fully cooked.

Personally, I think mastering experts are exactly that, experts.

There was emphasis on the art of mastering and how great mastering transforms the end result of a track. For the home recording enthusiast, we got an overview. For the serious engineer or musician this would be something to explore further.

Pizza

Ronan’s time and patience didn’t end there. We went late in to the evening of the last day (having ordered some delicious Italian Pizza) with Ronan answering all of our questions on room treatment, monitors, headphones, gear and careers.

A lot of this stuff is likely buried in books, however, our own opportunities to interact, play, discuss gear and approaches in a professional recording studio over six days are not.

Some of the content might be covered on lengthier, more expensive, academic courses, however, Ronan’s many years of experience is not.

> “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

What Ronan teaches are classic recording techniques and can be applied to any studio, any DAW and likely most styles and genres. The boot camp provides a rock solid understanding of simple recording techniques that can be applied immediately and could do you well for years.

Thinking of going?

If you are passionate about home recording and have a desire to learn more about the art and craft of home recording then this is absolutely for you.

The price of the course is bang on delivering tremendous value. You will save money attending this course because you won’t end up buying all the unnecessary gear you think you need that you don’t. You’ll save time too, years perhaps, by not learning all this stuff the hard way, making mistakes as I have. I wish I had done this twenty years ago.

Ronan is a great teacher. Patient, funny and knowledgeable. The ‘modules’ (which intuitively led in to each other) were logical, practical and fun.

I must thank Ronan and Liz of Veneto West and Jean Charles of Abnegat Studios for a fantastic boot camp and all their hard work preparing and delivering an inspiring and informative six days.

Find out about the next boot camp here then click on the ‘schedule and rates’ tab.

If you have any questions on Ronan’s boot camp from a student’s perspective, just leave a comment below.

Now to those mixes….

Home Recording Boot Camp – Day 5
Home Recording Boot Camp – Day 4
Home Recording Boot Camp – Day 3
Abnegat Studios
Recording Boot Camp

Photo Credit: © Agenda Red 2011

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- Home Recording Boot Camp – Day 5 — Agenda Red