My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn Doug Fearn

Send us a Text Message.Our perception of frequency balance varies with loudness, a fact documented by Harvey Fletcher and Wilden A. Munson, two scientists at Bell Laboratories. In 1933, they published a paper called, “Loudness, its definition, measurement and calculation.” It was groundbreaking science in the field of human hearing, and has implications today for how we perceive music. This is especially important when we are mixing.In this episode, I explain the basics of the Fletcher-Munson...

Send us a Text Message.Almost all pop music features someone singing. Getting the best vocal performance is crucial, since most listeners respond to the words of a song and need to be able to hear them.In this episode, I first discuss the human factors involved in getting a great performance from singers, mostly from a producer’s viewpoint.And then I focus on the technical requirements of capturing that performance using microphones, mic preamps, processing, effects, and mixing. Often there a...

Send us a Text Message.There are many things that are important to create the proper studio environment for creative success. Most of these things are pretty mundane, but they do make a difference.Examples I cover in this episode include microphone stands and accessories, music stands and instrument stands, chairs, headphones, studio lighting and climate control, and mic and other cables.It’s not the most exciting equipment we deal with, but it is still important to get it right. After 50+ ye...

Send us a Text Message.Ever since its announcement, I have been interested in learning more about Dolby Atmos. I was skeptical at first, primarily because of my experience with “Quad” back in the 1970s. That 4-channel concept never gain any popularity with either the listening public nor in the recording community. I presumed that Atmos would be similar, just more speakers. The early demo sessions I attended left me convinced that this was going to be another dead end, like Quad. The early mi...

Send us a Text Message.Compression and limiting are tools we use to modify the dynamic range of the music we record. In this episode, I present a brief history of where this technique came from, how it evolved over the years since the 1930s. I discuss the various ways that compression circuits work, from the variable-mu vacuum tube, to the optical compressor, the FET, the VCA, the PWM, and the digital limiters. I explain how these different approaches affect the sound in different ways.There ...

Send us a Text Message.This is part 2 of the Audiophiles Guide to Music Recording. You can listen to part 1 athttps://www.buzzsprout.com/942952/14335456Or you can access part 1 wherever you listen to podcasts.My Take on Music Recording is primarily aimed at people in the professional recording world, but there are a significant number of listeners who are music lovers and audiophiles. This episode provides an overview of the recording process for them. However, I think even people in our prof...