Oscar GalvanDallas Recording Connection

The Aural Labyrinth Posted on 2014-11-12 by Oscar Galvan

Today was another day that was mostly dedicated to my song from last week. Not quite as long as last week since some other things came up, but we got a lot done anyway. John finished up the mix little by little, occasionally asking me if it sounded the way I wanted it. Mostly they were questions involving the focus and loudness of certain sounds that were ambiguous if not specified.

During this 2nd mix session for my track, John paused a few times to go over some plugins that he's been using in the mix for my song and for many other songs for different clients. He showed me his go-to plugins. There are quite a few. We went over where the best places were to acquire them, how resource intensive they were, and whether I should obtain satellite processors for some of them to avoid latency. 

Of course, none of these things are cheap, so I got a few tips on how to find the best deals and to either jump on a deal or be patient, depending on the situation. 

The biggest problem with plugins is that there are a seemingly infinite amount of them, and it's even harder to know what they are supposed to do. But, lucky for me, John has navigated through this aural labyrinth before. He's investigated almost every cave and crevice, depth and dwelling, height and highlight. I, obviously, have not. So John was walking me through said labyrinth as best he could. He showed me some of the capabilities, funcionality, and application of many of the plugins that he uses the most. Most of the plugins he showed me emulated results that analog hardware would produce. From what I've observed (and also told by John), analog signal processing is much more pleasing for the ear than the harsh, snap-step nature of digital processing. Of course, the plugins are digital in nature, but they masterfully emulate the results of their analog equivalents. I have heard these in action myself after John had to use them. The comparative difference between the preliminary and final mix was extremely apparent, from the subtle final compression, to the silky reverbs. Once you know how to use them, whole new worlds open up. 

We still have to go through the mastering process for the song, but we should be able to cover that next week. The initial compression (using actual hardware) for leveling before actual mastering was done today. That took a while, as there were quite a few transients that needed addtional scrutiny and surgical compression with faster settings.

Right before I had to leave, John asked me to set up the microphone for an incoming client. Another student, Mike, showed me how to set it up. It was a Sony C800g, a $10,000 microphone, so great care was necessary. It was nice to see how it worked. It even has its own power supply. The signal flow was interesting to note as well since the cable that went from the microphone to the power supply was not XLR, but a proprietary connection. Upon entering the power supply, the output from that would be XLR and that would feed into the signal path for the studio itself. I saw that the microphone had a vacuum tube, so this probably needed some time to warm up before use.

It's all coming together. And the experience of watching my track be mixed by a professional from the ground up is nothing short of enlightening. Even though I do not yet understand everything John's been doing, much can be inferred just from observation. I am certain a lot of what I'm observing now will spontaneously coalesce in my mind in a flash of epiphanic lucidity once I have acquired the necessary knowledge to solve the riddle that is professional audio.

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