Week 1 - Posted on 2016-05-14 by Darren Fewins

    So, First week of the recording connection started this week. Working under the guidance of Mark Christensen (among others) at Engine Room Audio, Downtown Manhattan. I had quite, an interesting start I would say. I came in early Tuesday because Im so keen to get the most out of this program and the most out of learning from these professionals. And Im glad I did. The night before during a session in (what they call) “The Mez,” they noticed a few problems coming from the SSL desk. So most of the day was focused on fixing the desk. That gave me an insight into the behind the scenes of running a Recording Studio. There were wires to fix, cables to run, and power points to re-instal. All things that I admit to knowing not much about but totally down to learn. Let me also put down here that in the end we fixed the problem.

Amongst the SSL mess we set up the studio for a pod cast using 4 microphones which was a quick lesson in signal flow, which I can say I have already had some experience in, However, it was a great lesson in setting the audio stage for a client and getting things exactly how they wanted. Making sure they had what they needed for the session, like enough water and the right kind of room set up and things like that.

We also got a little look inside the Mastering Studio here at the Engine Room, which really is amazing. Mark did some work on some single tracks and also talked a little about “The red book standard” and how apple tried to make their own set of rules that was basically rejected by the artist. So things are basically still done the RBS way however, if something needs to be labelled “Mastered for Itunes” it is bounced after Mastering in 24bit instead of 16bit and given to the respective company.

A fun little fact that was interesting to learn.

Today, I sat in on a session where Mark was producing and mixing a song by a Rapper/singer. The production was full of live instruments with some added synth strings and effects. I wish I was there to see the session playing of the instruments because I thought they were great. Mark did an amazing job of taking the mix from start to finish within 6 hours. I felt like I was with him on most of the things he was doing to make the track sound finished so that made me happy. Some things went over my head but I feel like it’s well within my grasp to learn it. I had a lot of questions that I wanted to ask which I’ll take up with Mark or some other Mentor at a convenient time.