Archive for Wicked

I hear sounds as colors in my mind. Frequently when I’m EQing or checking the spectrum of the mix or a piece of music, if I don’t see the right colors in it I know the balance is not there. – Bruce Swedien

On a vocal sometimes I think, “Does this vocal need a diet plan? Does he need to lose some flab down there?”. – Ed Seay

The misunderstanding about recording rooms is that to get a big sound you need a big room. I find it absolutely the opposite. Some of the biggest drum sounds on earth have been recorded in very, very small rooms. When you’ve got a drummer and the room has live surfaces, ie. either stone or wood, [...]

Any mic will sound good. Maybe it’s not the optimal mic but if you move it around and treat it enough it will sound great. – Joe Barresi

A lot of people that really haven’t been doing this that long think that what you do is just turn things up and add stuff on top of other stuff. So much of mixing is what you take away, either level-wise or frequency-wise. – Lee DeCarlo

I’m going for pump, always. If the song doesn’t breathe, I fucked it up. – Lee DeCarlo

Tone is tone – level is level — get the tones to work together and then set the levels. – CN Fletcher

I’m usually not frightened of EQ – as much as +16 at 10k on a snare and +10 on overheads. If the top end is right the bottom end usually takes care of itself. – Alan Parsons

Sometimes it’s good to add that 2kHz because it adds fight in clubs. […] That’s why you see some people in the moshpit because it’s those frequencies that get you so riled up and you just want to start to punch and elbow. – Neal Pogue