Recording Drums With Steve Albini [Third Circle Recordings]
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- Опубліковано 6 лис 2017
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In 2017 I visited Steve Albini's Chicago studio, Electrical Audio, with the intention of recording drums for a few of my songs. In the process, I wanted to scrutinise every microphone in order to gain accurate insight into Steve's techniques with regards to selection, placement and processing. I also wanted to directly compare the sound of the live room to that of the dead room in Studio B. With an impressively bearded cameraman in tow, we filmed as much footage as we could and compiled this documentary of the results.
A huge thank you to Kevin Clarke for holding the camera, and for putting up with me for a week.
An accompanying blog post to this video can be found here: bit.ly/2V9Yj9t
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thanks
Best drum sound on LP in the day Dennis MacKay/Mahavishnu Orch, the performer Narada Michael Walden - same band was known for its live FOH sound mix
@@andrewgillis8572 that's serious musicianship , these guys can eat a hamburger in time of a faint triplet
We have worked with Steve for this release ua-cam.com/video/b7DZUrfBt4Q/v-deo.html
what kind of bike is he riding? I'm suspecting vintage British
RIP to a legend. Videos like this are so important in the long run. Thanks for taking the time to make it.
I'm serious, i can't beleive this man is no longer with us (in this world). I can't beleive it.
Unbelievable that we live in a day and age were we can just watch a 30 minute video of a genius at work explaining everything in detail on our phones or computers whenever we like.
Thanks James Gasson and Steve Albini!
@@GuitarMan54321 complaining about your wife on UA-cam is lame
@@acidvatproductions9933 What, should we do? B A N H E R?
I hope to someday find a girl who loves me the same way Steve loves microphones.
I hope to someday have an ex-boyfriend who talks about me like Steve talks about SM57s.
Good luck.
Women don't love you; they love what you can do for them. 💊
@@redbear4027 that's pretty true.
@@redbear4027 kind of sexist no?
What a great teacher he was. It is great that all this knowledge was recorded for everyone to watch. RIP Steve Albini, and thank you for the music!
I never met him, but he seemed like a genuine, good person. I always had a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for him, and his entire way of thinking about music. It's very upsetting to lose him so young. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones. R.I.P, legend.
Thank you for this video! Probably the best document on his drum recording technique we'll ever have now. I can't believe Steve is dead.
I really am in shock about it too man.
This is one of the largest gold mines of recording drums I've ever found. Thank you!
Veritable gold mines.
his hi-hat stand is higher than snoop dogg
😁
Ironic reference since for years he went around talking about how hip hop was trash and wasn't music.
It's to lessen the bleed from the snare.
I was waiting for a boring part of the video so I could go to bed. It never got boring.
We will miss you Steve. This was the first video I had seen you in action and what you’re about. I mentally reference this video at least once a week and thank the creators for releasing this.
❤
I'm hungover as fuck and this is therapeutic.
Me too. LOL.
Legendary. He could've just not told you any of that info, but he told you every last minute detail. Epic.
17:43 to 18:31 is phenomenal advice from an engineer who's been doing this since I was born. Source, Position, Microphone, Everything Else. And as a producer/engineer, the idea of using your sense memory of what microphones sound like and choosing an appropriate one for that source is great as well. I love Albini's utilitarian philosophy on audio work and am glad this era of him was captured. Thanks for posting!
Steve is like the fucking Noam Chomsky of recording.
Ha! Just thought that myself. :)
who?
Totally, they both share that kind of low gritty rumble in their voice
Also reminds me of Warren Buffett.
And their demeanor too.
it's incredible how humble steve albini is given his achievements and influence. i think that's perfectly represented by his line at the end "i'm gonna get on my bike, go home, go make dinner for the wife". if only everyone was so down to earth.
Captain Howdy ... that’s because you like hacks like the smiths
Max Feeney so you’re saying Steve albini is an asshole because that guy likes The Smiths? That’s so specific... but you seem to know so I’ll take your word for it.
@@bigmaz4002 The Smiths are "hacks"? What groundbreaking, original, and influential music have you made? I think I know the answer to this one.
Kyle Henderson never said that... the dude I responded to was trashing steve. Not the other way around. I’m a huge fan.
Rubberbandfan1 none. But neither has morrisey. He’s just ridden off the coattails of other artists. Also he’s a racist idiot.
RIP Steve. I dunno why but his death ha made me much sadder than other well known people I’ve never met. He just seemed like such a clever, thoughtful, generous and funny guy and I’ll really miss being surprised by a new one of his electrical audio videos popping up randomly :(
This is absolutely one of the best recording videos I’ve ever seen. You ask the right questions and let Steve go off, and you don’t cut the video so he can explain his ideas. So down to earth. A million thanks for this free wealth of knowledge. Cheers.
28:05 his cable rolling technique is superb !
I bet most people didn't even notice that.
@@anthonykellogg9332anyone who studies this as a career of course knows about it.
Steve's drum recordings on In Utero were exceptional
@CHAD theres no plate reverb on in utero
@CHAD Those are room mics dude, not plate reverb.
@CHAD Room and mic. No rev.
@@emperorming2913who’s chad
@@chinmeysway Someone who deleted their comment? Dunno.
7 years of practice, training, making music and watching tutorials and I've finally come to the conclusion that the room is the single most important element of a good recording (apart from being a solid drummer of course)
For drums, yep I absolutely agree.
If the room isn't good, eliminate it as much as possible from the recording. The room I record my drums in is shit. There are no room mics and a very directional overhead. It works but comes out very dry and 1 dimensional. An ER reverb program fixes this.
I used to say the same thing, but now I would argue that the drums, the instruments themselves are much more important than the room. To echo Richard, if the room sucks then don’t record the room. Instead, make the room as dead as you can. Steve Albini has the best-sounding room (I’ve been in it), so he uses those omni-directional, stereo microphones to record a lot of what is happening in the room. Without those, and with some baffles around the drums, he would have all the detail recorded to “fake” that room. There’s plenty of way to fake a room, including pumping the sounds out through speakers into an actual room and recording the resulting ambience. Just like reamping guitars this provides incredible freedom to tweak microphone placement without the musician getting tired of soundchecking or waiting around. Another is convolution reverb using impulse responses recorded in a good studio live room.
The ideal scenario is a great drummer playing good sounding, well maintained, well tuned drums in a room that you can take your time in to find the best setup to record, but so very often we must be quick in compromised spaces. It is actually in perfect agreement with what Steve Albini was saying to focus all your efforts on the source, and fake the space through post-tracking trickery.
You just blew my mind! I've never thought of reamping, if you will, drums. Crazy
Jon Freeman there’s a world of possibilities! As another example of “enhancing” tracks that turned out dull because you had to use extra damping or baffling to cope with the room, Try running a gated kick drum track through a bass amp positioned to fire into a kick drum in a room. Blending the re-amped track with the original can be huge
Steve tells it like it is........no bullshit, and in a manner that makes perfect sense to anyone who cares.
Thanks for putting this out James, he's a wise old sage.
Dandroid5000 cheers dude, glad you enjoyed it.
Dandroid5000 : I’m 2 years younger than Steve and grew up in the same underground scene as him. Those of us still making music are old in number only. Staying in touch with the scene as you grow older is the best way to still be young, even when you’re “old”.
What a science recording drums professionally is. I was left feeling very small and baffled after this video. I record my own musical tracks for songs as a hobby, and for fun. Perhaps in my next life I will possess the ability to master recording like Steve. He's one in a million that truly understands recording, knowledge of equipment, and the science. WOW!
This video is GOLD. I have been a huge Albini fan for years, and I'm getting my engineering chops up - what a dream to be able to learn direct from the source! Thank you so much for this amazing contribution!
My old band recorded an album in that room with Mr. Albini. I wish I could have savored the experience more but my girlfriend was 9 months pregnant and I had crank out my tracks and fly back to Boston. I highly recommend EA. Thank You Steve.
what band?
Well? What band?
how much did it cost
@@heythere6983 its about $1500 a day to get Steve in Studio A.
How does this priceless amazing FREE content have any thumbs down? Thanks for sharing this.
My words exactly, it’s free , it is important information, why hate it
@@valley_robot people today complain about warm bright sunny days lol
Because recording enthusiasts love to fight about technique as if there’s a right and wrong. Dorks love arguing with other dorks! 😆
@@icomefromthemountain291 #facts !
love his coveralls steve is wearing ha ha very workman like
32:16 "don't take anybody else's word fro what mic you should use where"
WORD !!! Steve, I love you :-)
“There’s a lot riding on the way drums come across on a record”
:Proceeds to drop mic on the floor
LMAO
Legit tho I just recorded piano with Steve yesterday and saw a condenser lying on the ground and I joked that it must be the ambient floor mic. Then I came to this video today and realized that's just a thing he actually does lol
R.I.P. Steve. 61 may have been far too young but one has to take into consideration he lived three lifetimes, one as the founder of three influential post-hardcore bands, another as an extremely talented and innovative audio engineer with a couple of thousand albums to his name, and one as an all around great guy with an infectious sense if humor.
That's a beautiful carpet.
Some say....best carpet ever.
really ties the room together
HDmc16 I came here to say that
It's striking
It's great he had no reservations about sharing so much of his craft.
I’m just a few years older than Steve and when we did some live recording using my mobile unit, we shared a lot of ground. When we were forming our ideas, gaining chops as engineers, drums were acoustic instruments and tracks were few. Always. Those circumstances forced us to master the craft of capturing a drum kit. He does a good job sharing those hard to describe skills but even so, it really must be learned the hard way.
In my case, and perhaps Steve’s as well, my own band was the ultimate test bench. I could spend days exploring different approaches and refining the results. If not for that, it would have taken a lot longer to be at ease with every kit. With enough time, 4 or 6 tracks was plenty to give me all I wanted at remix. With 23 available, for a complicated song, 4 was just right and occasionally a pair of those was comped from a large number of original tracks. I kinda miss those days of making big decisions and sticking to them.
So long and Thanks 4 all the sound Steve!!
this is fantastic, thanks for sharing.
James; I am so glad you have made this video. I have spent a few nights each year since 2012 trying to binge as much content where Steve has been interviewed. I am not a musician or an engineer, but I find everything related to music production absolute fascinating.
Revisiting this video today after initially watching it a few years ago for the first time. Hope you're well and I hope Steve is remembered positively by all. What a legend.
Insightful. Thank you James.
Love it, thanks for sharing!
I LOVE that Electrical Audio jump suit. I want one!
Man, that's pure gold. Thank you!
fantastic room sound!!
This is absolute gold. Thank you, to both of you.
Thank you for making this video, very insightful.
thanks for creating this video. great stuff and well done!!
This is awesome ! Like an amazing documentary
Thanks for sharing this. Albini is a genius. I'd love to hear him produce a King Crimson album.
This is a great well done video thank you so much!
One of the best interviews I've seen. Great job!
Very cool of you to make and share this video and very good of Steve to divulge his knowledge in such a generous manner.
What an absolutely great video , thank you .
This is like a free masterclass, great vid!
Such an informative vid! LOVE Steve! Thanks a bunch
Super awesome video. Great editing and info
Wow. What a great in-depth look into Steve Albini's drum recording process and glimpse of his depth of knowledge and insight. Thank you, everyone involved in creating this!
This is great .......Steve's knowledge of recording theory and gear is extremely deep. Thanks a bunch ......
This was absolutely amazing! Steve is a fountain of knowledge and hearing what he has to say about this art is priceless. The fact that this video has 91 dislikes is baffling to me. What’s to dislike? He’s sharing his decades of experience and knowledge with us for FREE. Thank you for the upload, this was fantastic!
Just when I thought you (read: "the internet") couldn't possibly be any dumber, you (read: "the internet") go and do something like this . . . and totally redeem yourself!
thank you so much for making this video. So insightful.
What an unbelievably great idea for a video to put on UA-cam. Thank you so much man.
You definitely captured massive awesome drum sounds. Great job!
Thank you so much for this video, amazing insight!!
I'm so glad you did this. His drum sounds are always my favorite
What a fantastic thing to do, sharing all of this info with the public. I am going to go back and watch this a few more times. Gold rings on you, sir.
Bloody great video. Well produced and incredible content. Thanks!.
Quality material. Nicely done. Subscribed.
highly educational, great video, thank you!
Really great video! Thanks a lot!
Every minute of this is turbo-charged with all sorts of practical wisdoms! Thank you!!!
This video is like a dream come true ! A big thank you to both of you for making this knowledge available to all of us !
Superb detail!!!
Great video well put together and a great drummer!!!
Awesome, awesome valuable advice on recording drums. This is amazing - thank you so much for putting this video out there!
so excellent! thank you.
Brilliant stuff guys. Absolutely loved it🤟🏼
awesome, thank you so much
Loved this and Steve's attitude to recording.
Thank you for this James . Its a god gift
I’m 200% dedicated to music and mastering the craft of audio engineering, but I doubt I’ll ever have the privilege of learning these microphones and rooms to the extent of this guy. His explanations are thorough, but I can tell that you have to have the first hand experience to really know what he’s talking about.
What a kickass video. Steve's stream of thinking is so well put in his words, he gets into the point and explains it.
Steve needs to be in the hall of fame twice, once for the influence of Big Black on music, and secondly for his pure genius in music production
ty for your extremely high quality video, getting the actual settings and reasons for his settings is very very nice !
Thanks for putting this together, great to hear a master like Steve talk matter of factly about his choices and whatnot. Great stuff.
Thank you so much for making this. Very very helpful. And thank you Steve Albini.
This video was pitch perfect - great info, great questions, nice editing, loved it. THANKS!
James - thanks you for doing this! Awesome 👏
This is one of the most insightful interviews I've ever seen with a recording engineer.
Thanks for not cutting the video at the end of the interview.
The last bit after he stands up made my day.
A lot of really good info in there. Thanks for sharing.
What a great and generous educator.
Every kid wanting to learn about recording should watch this.
Thanks for putting this out.
Great video! Such helpful information. Cheers mate!
Hey again James. Just wanted to say- this is fantastic- thanks so much for posting it!! I was making an album about 2 years ago and I emailed EA with a view to recording drums there- I 'spoke' to Tyler, if I recall correctly. It sure seemed like he, Albini and anyone/everyone else there were really cool people. Unfortunately my budget couldn't handle it (I'm independently signed, and based in Australia for a start!), but this video has shown me what I might've experienced- and may well experience in the future, if all goes well! Thanks again!
That was a really good watch, very informative beyond recording drums, thanks.
It's always a pleasure to hear a down to earth guy like Steve talking about recording.
wow dude your songs are awesome!! this video helped me see how he gets all the individual sounds more than any video ive seen. thanks so much for making this :)
Fantastic! Thanks to both of you for this.
SeductiveNeptune Thanks! Honestly, I had the BEST 'job' - point a camera in their general direction, sit back and listen to 2 engineers share their knowledge and passion for recording drums. That, 'fluffy's' and talking bollocks with Todd and Bob after a Shellac rehearsal just before we left for the UK was the highlight of the year for me. K
Dude , this was amazing, thanks for sharing! Cant wait for Butch!!!!
Every elucidative and generous of him. Great video.
Man that was great. Really informative and inspiring. Also the sound in the live room was crazy.
this was excellent! i've admired his drum recordings for 20yrs or so.
I wish I had a studio like this. WOW! Just awesome!