AC Blog

I had the pleasure of dropping into SAE New York and meeting up with Udo, the School’s Manager, who kindly gave me a tour of the NYC Music Production School, located on the 9th floor of the Herald Center, 1293 Broadway.

The area is unusually circular in design (in a good way) which gives the spaces a sense of fluidity, and the school’s equipment list which fills the spaces is impressive, (big shiny desks and gear everywhere). It was even better seeing students working in very small groups on musical projects, I even saw one studio with a 2 inch 24 track multi-track recorder doing the business, awesome, that old skool tape sound still alive!

Along with the tour Udo gave good conversation about what they get up to in the vibrant city of New York which I found really interesting to hear, it must be a rush to study in an area with such a buzz around you, both inside and outside.

New York (NYC) is a seriously vibrant place and the phrase “the city never sleeps” is without a doubt true, which I’ve experienced before.

Whilst I’m on the subject of NYC, I’d love to hear what you’ve found in town, including bands, clubs, venues etc, what have you seen?

Here is a listening list we’ve used for a while on a particular module concerning recording techniques. This is getting a little old, in so much that some amazing other material could be included, but what? Bear in mind that the idea of this list is to make very explicit some really interesting recording techniques both in terms of hands-on technique (mic placement, room usage etc) and also philosophy (why).

Listening List

• Sergeant Peppers – The Beatles (1967)
• Discovery – Daft Punk (2000)
• London Calling – The Clash (1979)
• Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings (1973)
• Bran Van 3000 (1997)
• The Black Album – Matallica (1991)
• Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
• Blood Sugar Sex Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers (1991)
• Original Gold – The Beach Boys (1999)
• Wish You were Here – Pink Floyd (1975)
• 20 Greatest Hits – Aretha Franklin (1987)
• I Should Coco – Supergrass (1995)
• Divine Madness – Madness (1992)
• Live Evil – Black Sabbath
• Never Mind The Bollocks – The Sex Pistols (1977)
• Nimrod – Green Day
• Left of The Middle – Natalie Imbruglia (1998)
• Rubber Soul – The Beatles
• Under a Blood Red Sky – U2 (1983)

So what would you add to the list, and more importantly why would you add it? Thanks in advance.

Drums can be such a tricky instrument to “nail”, that often less microphones can in fact be more!

If you’ve ever tried to record drums with lots of microphones you will be aware that a “phase issue” typically rears its ugly head and can bring on some serious comb filtering, which to cut a long story short sounds nasty!

The RecorderMan Technique is one such method which is quick, easy and phase coherent, which usually always yields good results, watch the video and give it a try!

If you do try it, come back and tell us about it here.