Masterclass with Steve Albini
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2016
- Steve Albini is one of the most respected figures in the international independent music scene. As a renowned artist, music journalist, industry commentator and recording engineer, Steve is a champion of independent business models for artists to thrive and to release their work outside of the corporate music industry structure.
He has engineered over 1500 albums, including for some of the world’s most seminal and pioneering rock acts such Nirvana, the Pixies, PJ Harvey and The Stooges.
Albini has recorded, mixed engineered some mega-selling albums. But he charges a flat fee, does not demand the common royalties/points.
How many people can say they declined millions 💰💰💰on principle, because they consider common practice unethical?
Very few.
Kurt blew up his head for millions of dollar....how many can say that?
The guy is realness incarnate. Absolute don.
recording engineers are not in it for the money, it's not a high paying job to begin with.
Lol it varies a huge amount and most the pop producers are making bank
@@okirrama3587 oh you were there
RIP Steve. You really were one of my heroes. Gonna miss you much.
props to the cameraman for persevering thru a severe bout of parkinsons
Mat Turner love ❤️
I was so afraid the whole video was going to look like that
@@rarelycomments was just listening and looked over and saw the shaking, oh good, it looks like they werent monitoring the camera at first and just assumed it was all set.
Avantgarde
@@Cap_tain_Cave_man hahahaha
Steve should teach art ethics. His are impeccable.
yeah, so impeccable that he used to run bands called "Rapeman" and "Run Ni***r, run"
a room full of sound engineers and no mic for the audience
Lol
Except.... the only microphone is for the mains.
@@billbradleymusic woosh
They’re not known for their musical skills
Well they’re good at producing music not producing videos lol which is what this kind of thinking is. Plus they know they can just toss the mic around, they’re not concerned with the superficial appearances
Rip Steve, Thank you for all your amazing work
RIP to one of the best to ever do it, music today simply would not be the same without him
Maybe they should think about a Masterclass for video production!
Masterclass for holding a goddamned camera
I met Steve back in 1986 at a BIG BLACK/HEAD OF DAVID gig at Manchester's Archway club (across the road from the Haçienda) that I was bootlegging. He was out front in the crowd waiting for HEAD OF DAVID to come on and I struck up a conversation and asked him if it was okay if I taped BIG BLACK and he said go ahead! He even introduced HEAD OF DAVID on my tape recorder just as they came on stage!
What a no bullshit artist.
I still have those recordings on the TDK SA 90 cassettes they were recorded on (with a Sony Pro Walkman) and they sound the same today as they did back then. Those tapes are bulletproof!
That's awesome!! Are they available to hear anywhere?
@@Sonificade Yes, in my house! Lol!
I’ve got loads of gigs I’ve bootlegged back in the 80’s and really need to upload them before I drop dead and they all end up dumped in a skip and lost to posterity!
Some belters too! Most of them I’ve never seen recorded by anyone else.
@@terrypussypower thtas a cool story! would love to hear the tapes as well, lol. cheers
@@ptathholroyd4128 If you sub my channel then you’ll be notified when they get uploaded as I’m starting the long and tedious process of mastering them before uploading them to my UA-cam channel. I was initially going to master them all first and then upload them all in a one-er, but I’ve been talked out of that, and now I’ll upload them as I finish each one.
Reminder to hopefully archive those for everyone while you can! :)
this is incredible content. this interview made me a fan of steve albini solely because of his ideas.
All those years of wisdom pouring out. 👏
have you checked out any of his music yet? I have loved big black for most of my life.
if he had only ever worked with the Pixies & Nirvana he'd still be a legend
His recordings with those bands have some of the GREATEST sound of any musical recordings ever done. I also adore his works with HUM, Jawbreaker, Pegboy, and I really wish he'd have worked with Smashing Pumpkins in their early days, but that didn't ever happen as far as I know.
he DID work with Nirvanna.
Even if he didn't record Nirvana and the Pixies, he'd still be a legend.
steve is such an eloquent speaker, it's a joy to listen to him speak.
31:55 Such an awesome thing to hear an engineer say. A lot of engineers I think get caught up in knowing what is best for the people they work with. Very refreshing to hear of someone who is not afraid to allow people to be creative even in ways the engineer doesn't like the sound of.
I love how Steve is both a ruthless pragmatist about the nature of his industry, and a total romantic about analog recording.
There is a great juxtaposition between Steve and the moderator in this video: Steve is humble and makes a solid argument in favor of not passing judgment upon tastes whereas the moderator often makes condescending comments similar to many industry snobs I’ve met in my career (the space echo USB joke, correcting grammar in the questions segment). Steve really sticks out to me because he’s always extricated himself from the norm, in this case, the professional engineer who belittles in order to counteract their insecurity. Steve is comfortable and confident and never arrogant. I’ve learned so much from listening to him talk about the philosophy of music production, as opposed the the onslaught of gear marketing content disguised as informative/inspirational production advice. Stay golden, Albini-boy.
1:25:27 that warm analog sound is IS not ARE otherwise it would be THOSE analog soundS, he is actually correcting grammar wrong
"It's always worth a listen," Steve is a true master of capturing the true sound of an artist
I absolutely love the way Steve expresses his thoughts and stuff, he's right on the money about physical copies and stuff will stay around forever. This man is a gem.... a legend of the highest standard (not to sound corny)
This is terribly a huge fucking loss....I'm not musician or any sort, but I have utmost respect for him. The fact that I will not hear anything from him ever again is unimaginably hard to swallow.
"The mobile phone would be farting some mp3 at you" LOL
Spot on. This man knows exactly what is important. Great interview.
A real eye-opener when it comes to digital archiving. It was so obvious and yet I didn't realize it.
Steve is DA MAN! Instant legend and enjoyable personality. Real deal!
I thought analog was campy and outdated until I got into Steve's work. His expertise and genius work educated me and changed the very foundation of my understanding of audio recording. Steve is a legend
I love listening to him! So intelligent & interesting.
This has been a fantastic interview. Great job by the host for getting Steve talking and just letting him go. Such great information from such an experienced guy.
🔥Thank you!
Long live Steve Albini!!!
This is excellent!
I love synthesis. But this talk helped me place a firm line between using it to add something and using it to replace something. I really am getting more into using acoustic properties for effects.
I could listen to him talk forever
Steve - we miss you so much already. ❤
Drum kit advice was pure gold
A very well articulated man.
This is an amazing interview I have a Big Black album in my record collection but was never a huge fan. Nor am I a big Nirvana fan but I still have a huge amount of respect for the way he thinks and works. I'm always amazed at all the 'how to build a studio' channels on youtube. It's always these sterile environments with sound proofing everywhere and bass traps with giant mixing boards going into a DAW. Those giant mixing boards are essentially a glorified mouse. Also think about all the pictures you've ever seen of The Beatles at Abbey Road or Hendrix at Electric Lady. You don't see people in glass boxes. You see people hanging out on couches in living rooms or big open rooms with pianos. Use your space for its unique character. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded in a rented house. Led Zep in a haunted castle. Lou Reed recorded the original vocals to The Velvet's self titled album in a closet. So anyone out there who is interested in music production and home studio recording don't let these social media influencers make you think that you need thousands of dollars worth of gear you can't afford. They are being paid to sell a product. Your living room, bedroom, bathroom or garage might sound amazing. Especially right now. Lo-fi is all the rage. There are tons of pedals and plug-ins that try to emulate the sounds of older, less than state of the art gear. I also found out recently that Steve Albini doesn't earn royalties on albums that he's produced. I was stunned when i heard that and it gave me even more respect for the man. I also like his transparency as a producer. Like he says he's very hands off as far as the band and it's sound. I love Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails but every album of another artist that he's produced has his fingerprints all over it. I happen to like that but not all bands would sound good with NIN DNA inserted into it.
one of the ironies of this is that he is in one hell of a band, Shellac. He doesn’t reference his musical career in the beginning (and throughout) which is of mega cultural importance. Yet he describes himself in the beginning as a guy who didn’t go broke recording bands. He is a true artist and craftsman.
Everyone needs to hear Atomizer & Songs About Fxxxxxg by Big Black. I definitely didn't think in 1988 I'd be sitting here in 2021 watching this lol.
@@duprie37 love Big Black
this guy is really really smart.
Obviously a great human being. Respect 🙏🏻
great interview and great information Steve. I hope to work with you one day!
This was incredibly insightful. Great content.
He has perfectly articulated so many things I have thought and felt for years now. I'd love to do a record with him someday. If only in a dream.
I could listen to Steve talk about a paper bag all day long !!! Love this guy
I KNOW exactly what you are talking about.👌🥰💖👏
Me too. Hope he describes the sound of it. In colour.
1:51:30
He's referring to Chris Ott, ex-Pitchfork writer who threatened DMCA takedowns on his content hosted on Pitchfork after they were acquired by Conde Nast
Fine catch
I was a Pitchfork writer back then along with Chris, I never knew about this. Thanks for the info.
This is an incredibly enlightening look into Steve Albini's process! I've been both a fan of his music as well as many of the artists and recordings he's worked with. Thank You!!
This is just great stuff. Priceless.
1:05:33 "I think it's a mistake to presume things need to be made better all the time. I think a lot of things are fine just the way they are." This pretty much encapsulates his philosophy (as I understand it), and applies to much more than just recorded music
Agree with virtually everything he says but didn't know I did until I heard him speak. And specifically to the ADAT part. Had a hell of a time finding someone to transfer our 24 track album masters on ADAT from 1996, last year. Got it done at a place called AVAST in Seattle.
He is talking about all the digital devices that were introduced and faded out for example the mini disc 8 tracks. I have a few mini discs i recorded that i cant listen to.
this is pure gold...
great interview.
Steve is one of the best! Totally understand the attitude.
He is one articulate dude! 👍
love this guy
If Noam Chomski was a recording engineer, he'd be Steve Albini
same energy
@@DVDFRMN what a dummy! If you cant understand allegory then stop embarrassing yourself....you know how many people wrote to me that they got the same vibe? Just go to Barnes&Noble and buy all brainteasers they have, buddy.
Seems like he doesn't put down imitation or comparison, but does at least implicitly put down putting down such things. Seems to me David here's comment is worth ignoring.
Neil Hillis - the David or whoever comment was not registered in any meaningful way. In neurological terms, Broca's region discounts such comments as nonessential.
Good call... lots of valuable insight, sounds like he was woken up to speak.
What a cool guy! I would LOVE to learn from him more! Anyone know what punk band he was talking about with the reamping guitar vocals?
So much wisdom in this video
I still love song you helped make sometime with others in my UA-cam ch. Coloration. Love The Super Maker, Andrew K.
Thx
A. A1.
Steve is generous for sharing so much. I appreciate SAE for documenting this event.
Steve has so much knowledge...
Steve Albini: No need to have 30 layers of the guitar part to add some sense of massiveness
Butch Vig: Challenge accepted
HAHAA! Exactly!!!
I don't like to exceed 3 guitars in a mix. If the band needs multiple guitars from a composition standpoint, I'll do left right and center. Much easier to maintain phase coherency and give the mix a broader image. Nevermind was fucking overkill.
He is the Master of the Re-Mix.
This was one of his best talks
Such a brilliant mind. We used to discuss how Big Black recorded their early music and tried to emulate that. Or otherwise attempt to use their technique as a justification for our lack of technological prowess, whether it was a lack of financial means or simply the fact that we were devoid of any recording knowledge. His talks are fascinating
ikr i was like "how come i not heard of him before"
*Sorry, I'm a dumbass*: but, what do you mean you "discussed how big black recorded their early music and tried to emulate it"? Or "using their technique" when recording music? I didn't understand what you meant by that(yes I'm a dumbass, sorry if I'm sounding stupid as hell)
*I agree though, his talks are always fascinating and Big Black(Rapeman, too..Shellac's solid too, just never got too into em..) is/are in my top 5 favorite band(s).
@@josephhopeless829 I think he means that the recordings were 'noisy' and the 'mistakes' were left in which gives a really unique sound that isn't typical of studio albums but also doesn't sound live either because it was recorded in a studio.
Edit: put quotations around noisy because calling the room sound noise comes across as pejorative and as Steve says using the sound of the room is a legitimate aesthetic choice.
Mr. Albino, seems like your attitude and philosophy of recording musicians is what any artist would or should look for when going to make a recording. If you have any extra material from In Utero...👍😀
“Mr. Albino”?? 😂
Never gets old this session. I have to say though that I absolutely love tape saturation and compression, but y'know...
Great speaker
All bow down to the great god Albini!
For a bunch of audio nerds you think they would have had a mic for the audience questions. Loved the interview
Gosh darn I wish I joined the wheeler mailing list before he came out. Grrr. I slept on his Melbourne trip.
Steve's band was in the always play rotation for most of my post-high school drinking music. We partied and got hammered to the 'Hammer Party' and 'Jordan MN' was just north of us.
In 09, I think, I was AES prez at SAE Nashville and hosted a battle of the bands to raise money to bring Steve to town for a seminar.
Now, the fact that I had to raise funds in a for profit institution to bring a speaker to town aside...
Steve was extremely down to earth and a great inspiration to several/many students.
That being said, years later, get a *good* apprenticeship and save your damn money.
To do that, you need to read, experiment, fu*k up and so on ..
It's a grueling industry. More so than most others, including the restaurant industry.
If you *want* it, be ready to sacrifice, **jump at any opportunity** and be humble.
There's 100 people out there who are better than you technically, but you can be better personally.
Be-a-good-person.
Is this available for offline viewing. Thank you
"We were all very high on......
the way things were going"
😂 we all were expecting that to go a different direction.
Fantastic talk. Thoroughly inspired as a musician and someone who loves the tech side of recording.
1:13:00 he's talking about "Swallowed". Razorblade Suitcase was recorded by Albini at ABBEY ROAD!!!
thanks
Thanks👍
Great interview
The Bush Song is 'Swallowed' for anyone interested
I very much appreciate Steve's hands off/non-producer approach to recording. At the same time I also very much like a control freak like Rick Hall of Fame Studios with his extremely hands on, coach/captain/hit-maker style of production.
Rick's background as a wannabe hit-maker informs his technique, just as Steve's go for broke punk, originality first esthetic and his self-awareness of it informs his approach.
that camera operator holy hell man
Digital bits are even more permanent and durable than analog tape. They will truly last forever - it’s just that what they are stored on will change over time. I can checksum digital bits to make sure they have not been damaged during storage. You cannot checksum an analog tape. One just needs to make sure the meaning of those digital bits is properly documented and open source so they can be properly converted back to audio.
I get his point though, e.g. the Library of Congress spends most of it's time trying to keep up with new digital formats and translating all of its stuff.
I was a librarian and the switch to digital was a big deal, because, well, we knew the lifespan of books and micro-formats (microfilm/fiche/card), and film stock, but not digital formats. Maybe now with some years behind us we can say for sure. But I for one have made copies of CD's and later found the data had become corrupted and the CD unlistenable. Not because of a scratch or any physical problem, the data had just gotten scrambled. Maybe it was a poor quality disc, I don't know. i gave up on CDs years ago. I only buy vinyls, and have been gifted cassettes (very few but they're still made), but I'm not an analog purist. In the car MP3's are the only way to go! Sometimes I feel vinyl has a nicer, thicker sound but that may just be my imagination. I'd fail a blind test probably. I just like the physicality of the medium. Digital is fine for convenience, but it not really a "collection". Interesting Albini is pro-Analog for the archival properties as opposed to the sound quality if I'm getting him correctly.
I will say, .flac and .wav are pretty steady formats. SD cards should be good as long as they keep making adapters when things change. Also data preservation and finding of lost media is a newfound pursuit amd thriving community. That said, the value of reel tapes will continue for such actual studio sessions and producing tape seems like it wouldn't be that hard compared to what it takes to even make vinyl.
I think you'd be better off over the long term with WAV files, optical media, and using things like SHA checksums to validate the files, and establishing a habit of revisiting the backups and performing transfers at regular intervals. Albini has much to say about the downsides of digital storage, but the notion of bit-perfect digital backups (as many as you want) could help avert disasters like the Universal Studios fire that destroyed thousands of master tapes. Any discussion of the downsides of long-term digital storage should include the downsides of analog tape storage: improper storage, natural and man made disasters, and stuff like that.
Also: perhaps his position on the cloud would be different today? Today, Microsoft, Amazon and Google all will sell you cloud storage. The notion that all three of these companies would go out of business seems to punch a hole in the argument against cloud?
SAE doesn’t have roaming mics for audience Q&A?
This truly is a Master Class. This is golden information! So glad this showed up in my YT feed.
28:29 reverse polarity on vocal takes (uncompressed)
Wow thanks for this great interview!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Albini is smart with a lot of great ideas and knowledge.
Six bottles of water
Very philosophic
I like this discussion because its still the same with film and references not only to technical points but beginning with them.
1. Analogue (Recording) Hardware is in every produced device unique even a machine produced it (like mixers). Its sound is depending on environmental influences and interferences. Maybe that supports the enthusiasm (the romantic feeling on getting warmer recordings)
2. From an archiving and preservation point of view, analogue and digital media is absolutely equal. Magnetic media is nevertheless the actual most cost-efficient media no matter if analogue tape or digital master archived on e.g. LTO. I would digitize analogue master tapes, but never renounce them as a sort of intermediate (which i also keep).
3. Like with analogue and digital film and the recording device the question is if a perfect recording is always the best recording or the best experience or the most natural one ... That's what Mr. Albini says. The more you come to post production the more the digital domain can happen and is more efficient. Dave Grohl's soundcity documentary is definitely worth seeing it.
34:00 That is why Nirvana went back to Mr. Albini after doing Nevermind with Butch Vig to get the more natural sound for In Utero.
44:00 Like in the film/tv and the audio domain -> DO NOT FIX IT IN THE POST - do everything possible during the production :)
I like this masterclass. Thanks for filming it and putting it onto youtube. Great!
Was the cameraman hang gliding while filming this?
Guys, you don't really get Steve, do you? He's talking about the physicality of tape. That it is an object and it's always there for you. It exists and it carries history. Digital files are not objects, they are easily removed from memory, just like 99% of the popular music of today, which in a few months is gone completely from our collective memory, cause it's made to be consumed and not to be appreciated as a piece of art that defies time. Steve's approach is a philosophical one, but also a pragmatic one.
Sorry. The memory storage devices that digital files exist on is as real as tape. You can touch it and hold it in your hand. What you can't hold on either is the actual music track held within. The notion that the music is more "really there" on tape than a thumb drive is an illusion propagated by Gen X gate-keepers like Albini. Tape deteriorates, tape is easily damaged. The fact that somewhere is the only original take or master of a song on one reel of tape should be terrifying and anxiety inducing.
Tape deteriorates and digital copies don't get worse each generation they are copied.
@@AlexH8280 yeah I found that rather odd, when he's talking about how great TAPE is, and saying "analog doesn't degrade over time," since tape most assuredly degrades over time...
Unless he was mixing that up with something like vinyl, or the master for cutting vinyl, perhaps?
As someone that has lost an entire library of work from a failed HD. This speaks to me, profoundly. I will never ever be able to get the time, energy or actual work back.
@@AlexH8280 He is speaking of digital formats. Do you know how many projects were recorded to ADAT in the 90's and early 2000's? Those machines were not meant to last forever. Parts will become unavailable. ADAT was just one format in the beginning of the digital transformation. There were several others. As to analog tape, I have been in the vault at Abbey Road. There are perfectly preserved pre-beatles tapes there that can still be played.
gotta love albini - one of those rare gems of an extremely talented engineer who will make you sound like YOU. No bs.....if you want to be someone other than you, go hire someone else. haha.
Get ready for a fader-ride from 1:34 on, no audience mic, and Steve does not repeat the questions. :P
Anyone know who the punk band is that he talks about at 31:00? The singer using a guitar amp and a solo cup over an SM57?
@@dannyperfect9270 you sure about that? Albini did In Utero and the vocals on that record don't fit that description.
The first band that comes to mind is melt banana just thinking about a band that have a very shrill and weird vocal sound. I think he has recorded with them but it would have been longer than 15 years ago. I guess you can call it punk
My guess is Leftöver Crack. Albini recorded them in 2004.
@@jerkersandquist7244 He also mentions that the vocalist was a male and Melt-Banana has a female vocalist. Did any of the male members ever record any vocals?
@@manate36 You are right, i must have missed that. As far as i know only YaKo sings :)
Not all digital is redundant I have backups going back 20 years, WAV&AIFF files have been around since 1991 they sound EXACTLY the same as when they were recorded! compare that to tape of the same year!
i agree
Well, have you?
Have you done the amount of work Steve is talking about? I am sure that he is correct according to numbers. You are as far as degradation, but what about the idea of change of system? Changing file types etcetera.
@@billbradleymusic Can you find me an analog recording from 100 years ago that will play in pristine condition on today's gear? Certainly not on tape, which oxidizes. Look at the retro-computing movement, which saves 40 yr old EPROMs and software on floppy disks and resurrects them using modern hardware. If you want your work preserved for 100 years the ONLY choice is digital. Albini is very talented, but like a lot of creative people, he believes a lot of bullshit.
@@_P_M_ @ANALOG is King!
Albini is greatness! I understand his take on tape and os, but I do hope someone shows him Wav file format for the digital realm. they, like tape, will always be around.
the idea that there is music out there locked away on inaccessible dead formats is fascinating
Of course when it comes to computers, nothing is really impossible. Perhaps very difficult and not financially feasible, but not impossible
I graduated college in the 1990s. My files then were largely stored on floppies and hard disks. In the late 1990s, I bought a CD-ROM burner and burned the contents of those floppies and hard drives to CD's. Later, I transferred the data from CDs to DVDs. Many years later now, my files have been transferred two more times, from DVD to a RAID array, then to another RAID array. The point is, I have data that is almost 30 years old today. If it's worth keeping (and sometimes if it isn't!) it is always easy to execute digital transfers. Not only that, I still have the optical disks, and 20+ years later, they can still be read successfully.
For this reason, I simply don't agree at all with Albini's assertion that digital backups can't be done safely. Because I've done it. And he doesn't mention all the downsides to analog tape storage either.
Now, one thing I will say is that if you backup using a proprietary format, you could be in trouble down the road. The safer route would be to export full multitracks of an audio recording in something like broadcast wave format, where we can be reasonably sure the format will be around for a long time. Additionally, we can be sure that since the standard for that format has been published, software could be developed to read it if need be.
So, don't save a pro tools session and hope you can load it later. Export multitrack wav files, save notes along with them and name the files properly, keep them organized, and revisit your backups over time, store multiple backups, and you will be fine.
Wonderful interview. I love Steve's ballsy, sometimes-iconoclastic view of things.
I would love to see Rick Beato interview Steve Albini. Their personalities would be very fun to watch interact
This gentleman just said "bespoke". Word.
1:07:40 would bet Avril Lavigne. There was a session years ago during her Nirvana obsession where Dave Grohl turned her down for drums, I can picture her asking Albini to record it too.
Thanks for posting but the camera work sucked.