My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn
92 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago -Doug Fearn draws on his 50+ years as a recording engineer, record producer, studio owner, and pro audio equipment designer to explain the art and science of recording for the audiophile, music lover, and people in the music recording industry.
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Episodes
Obie O'Brien: A Life In Music -- Part 2
March 27, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBSend us a Text Message. This is the second half of the conversation I had with engineer/producer/mixer/musician/songwriter Obie O’Brien. Obie is best known for his long-time work with Jon Bon Jovi, but as you will hear, he has done many things in his career. In this final part of our conversation, we talk about re-mixing Motown hits, digitizing a thousand reels of 2-inch tape from the Bon Jovi tours, and his latest venture, a vinyl pressing plant. But we started off talking about his own s...
Obie O'Brien: A life in music
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Talk about a life in music! Obie O’Brien has done many things in his musical career, starting with playing drums when he was 12, to building a basement studio in the 1960s, to owning a sophisticated studio in Philadelphia. And for over 30 years, working with Jon Bon Jovi in many capacities. I first met Obie in the early 1970s, at my studio. We hit it off right away with our similar approach to music and recording. But we lost touch for a couple of decades. Now Obie ...
Inside the Podcast
March 06, 2021 18:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBSend us a Text Message. As my podcast approaches its one-year anniversary, I look back on what new skills I have had to learn, and share the podcast creation process with you. It’s not a how-to on podcasting, but it might give you some insight. My approach is not for everyone, or maybe not for anyone else but me. My process evolved to satisfy myself and overcome my deficiencies in this area. Early in life, I found that people often asked me to explain things to them. I’ve been doing that e...
Manufacturing Pro Audio Equipment
February 27, 2021 13:00 - 38 minutes - 26.7 MBSend us a Text Message. Manufacturing pro audio equipment was never really part of my plan, but it has become one of the most gratifying aspects of my career in music recording. It wasn’t until around 2011 when a documentary video about me was made that I realized how all the pieces came together, resulting in my career in recording, and in designing products for the studio. In retrospect, it seems totally logical. In this episode, I talk about some of those influences, including my early...
Minimalist Mic'ing for Better Sound
February 15, 2021 21:00 - 30 minutes - 21 MBSend us a Text Message. Using as few mics as possible on a recording session often leads to better sound for the project. In this episode, I describe how I went from one mic, to many mics, and back to one mic, over the course of my career. Some examples are truly one stereo mic for an entire song recording, while others use two or three mics, depending on the circumstances. There are high-res audio clips on my podcast web site, https://dougfearn.com/ where you can listen to some of the r...
Abbey Road Studios: My three days of recording
February 02, 2021 16:00 - 36 minutes - 25 MBSend us a Text Message. I’ve had the privilege to work in some iconic studios, but the one that made the biggest impression on me was Abbey Road in London. I spent three days doing sessions there, but since I was working with very competent studio people, there was significant opportunity to explore the facility and ask questions of the EMI engineers. This was in 2008. Abbey Road’s three studios opened in 1931. The largest room, Studio 1, was the largest purpose-built studio in the world ...
Cables, Connectors, and Studio Wiring
January 21, 2021 17:00 - 25 minutes - 17.5 MBSend us a Text Message. We all need cables and connectors to tie all our mics and other equipment together. There are many places where problems can be introduced into your recording, caused by improper wiring. Even when everything appears to be working properly, poor wiring and connector practices can cause subtle problems that make your recordings less than they could be. In this episode, I talk about how we came to use the balanced audio lines in our studios, and why we have the connect...
Colin Hay, Singer-Songwriter-Recordist
January 12, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Even if you don’t recognize the name Colin Hay, I guarantee that you have heard him. Colin is best known for his band, “Men At Work,” the Australian group that had #1 hits such as “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now” in the 1980s. Men at Work sold over 30 million albums during their existence. Since then, the singer-songwriter has worked as a solo artist, touring the world, sometimes truly solo and other times with a band. He has been a “Star” on several tours with...
34 - All Kinds of Noise
January 07, 2021 20:00 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Since the earliest days of sound recording, noise has been a major limitation in audio quality. In early part of my career, tape hiss was usually the biggest challenge. But today’s digital recorders are virtually noise-free in most situations. We still have to battle with noise, but the sources of the noise have changed. Today’s engineer has to deal with noise generated by the switched-mode power supplies that are in our LED bulbs, computer equipment, and even appli...
33 - All Kinds of Distortion
December 28, 2020 17:00 - 40 minutes - 27.9 MBSend us a Text Message. Distortion is present in all electronic audio equipment and on all recordings. Sometimes it is part of the sound, such as in an electric guitar. But distortion is usually something we try to avoid. In this episode, I go through the most common types of distortion, their impact on the listener, where the distortion comes from, and what we can do to minimize it. This is somewhat technical, but I try to keep the explanations simple. Learning how to identify the sourc...
Disc Cutting
December 10, 2020 17:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBSend us a Text Message. I never did any disc mastering, but I did cut thousands of lacquer discs. I explained how I learned this art, and describe the process of cutting a disc. The medium imposes a lot of restrictions, not only in the disc-cutting process, but also going back to the recording and mixing. In addition, I include some thoughts on the vinyl record medium. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with records. email: [email protected] www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn https://dwf...
31 - My Recording Career, Part 2: From 1973 to 2020
November 27, 2020 14:00 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MBSend us a Text Message. This is a continuation of the story of my recording career, starting where Part 1 (Episode 30) ends in 1973 and covers the following years, up to 2020. During that time, my studio went from 8- to 16- to 24-track, more sophisticated equipment was added, and I moved to a much larger building. After my studio-ownership days, I continued recording, on location or in other studios. In 1993 I introduced the first studio product I designed, the VT-1 single-channel vacuum tu...
My Recording Career, Part 1: Early influences and first studio
November 18, 2020 21:00 - 44 minutes - 30.7 MBSend us a Text Message. My Recording Career, Part 1: Early influences and first studio This two-part episode tells the story of my life in recording. It starts out with the musical and electronic experiences that shaped my career and then describes the process of learning about recording and the many disciplines required. I explain how my first studio was constructed and the challenges I faced and mostly overcame. I trace the steady increase in track count -- this was in the days of tape, ...
The D.W. Fearn VT-7 Compressor
October 13, 2020 19:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBSend us a Text Message. The VT-7 Compressor has an interesting backstory, including a Nashville dinner with my friend, Cranesong’s Dave Hill back in 2003. In this episode, I tell the story of how the VT-7 came about, and explain how a pulse-width modulator (PWM) compressor works and why it is an excellent way to create a versatile compressor/limiter. I also go through the history of the compressor and the various methods used over the years. The operation of the controls on the VT-7 are d...
Tony Maserati, Mix Engineer
October 06, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 50.9 MBSend us a Text Message. This conversation with mixing engineer Tony Maserati is a little different from most of the other interviews I have done on the podcast. It is mostly just Tony and me having a very informal chat about the things that are important to us, both in our professional lives, but also in life in general. If you want to see the impressive list of artists that Tony has worked with in his career, go to tonymaserati.com You will see artists ranging from James Brown to David B...
The VT-5 Equalizer: Design and Use
September 27, 2020 13:00 - 43 minutes - 29.6 MBSend us a Text Message. In this episode, I describe how the D.W. Fearn VT-4 and VT-5 Equalizers came about. I start with some history of equalization, and then my experiences with various eqs and how that influenced the design of the VT-5. I talk about the design process, including the reasoning behind the choices I made in the frequencies and the curves, and the design of the amplifiers in the VT-5. Then I explain how I use the VT-5 on the sessions I do, which is not meant to be a tutoria...
Joe Tarsia, founder of Sigma Sound Studios
September 13, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia was responsible for a huge number of hit records, starting in the 1960s and continuing into the 21st century. Eventually Sigma had two studios in Philadelphia and three in New York. Joe Tarsia founded Sigma in 1968 but his career as an engineer goes back to the 1950s at Cameo Parkway Records. He started in a mono studio, using very few microphones, hardly any outboard gear, and recording to tape. He has lived through the evolution...
25 Improving Your Audio For the World of Virtual Communications
September 04, 2020 16:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBSend us a Text Message. During the Covid pandemic, most of us have had to shift to the virtual world for our conversations, presentations, classes, and committee meetings. One thing that I notice is that almost everyone has bad audio. Not just low fidelity (that’s intrinsic in the on-line medium), but audio with poor intelligibility due to bad mics, bad mic technique, poor-sounding rooms, and extraneous noise. I compiled a few suggestions on how you can improve your virtual audio and made...
What Flying Taught Me About Recording
August 28, 2020 14:00 - 49 minutes - 34 MBSend us a Text Message. At first glance, you would think that flying an airplane and recording music would have very little in common. And it’s true that there is not a whole lot that directly translates from one to the other. But there are many aspects of learning to fly, and constantly working to perfect and extend your flying skills, that have a parallel in recording. In this episode, I explain some of the fundamentals of flying, how my recording career helped me in mastering those ski...
Jason Miles, Producer, Synthesizer programmer, and Keyboard player
August 21, 2020 16:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBSend us a Text Message. I’ve known Jason Miles for over 20 years and I learn new things from him every time we talk. Jason is a keyboard player, synthesizer programmer from the earliest days of the Moog synthesizer, and a Grammy-winning producer. He has worked with artists such as Miles, Davis, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Sting, Chaka Chan, Suzy Boggess, David Sanborn, and many others. In this interview, Jason talks about how he got started playing music and how tha...
Microphone Preamplifiers: how I designed the D.W. Fearn preamps and how you can get the most out of them
August 14, 2020 17:00 - 54 minutes - 37.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Microphone preamplifiers are essential for almost all recording. In this episode, I look at the requirements for a quality preamp, and how preamps are designed and used. Although this focuses on the D.W. Fearn VT-1, VT-2, and VT-24 mic preamps, the principles are applicable to any preamp. We look at the extreme range of levels a preamp has to deal with, and the techniques used to accommodate this range. Why is there a 20dB pad on most preamps, and how best to use i...
Mix Engineer Mike Miller
August 02, 2020 15:00 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Mike Miller is a great example of the latest generation of recording mixers. Mike started as a musician, playing piano at age 4, later switched to guitar and as a teenager he began touring with bands whose members were much older. Recording with those bands introduced Mike to the studio and he was instantly captivated and knew that was what he wanted to do. His early success as a producer doing most of the tasks involved in making records eventually led him to speci...
Vacuum Tubes: Why They Sound Better for Audio
July 26, 2020 18:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBSend us a Text Message. My recording career started with vacuum tube gear, and it’s a sound I still prefer. In this episode, I tell the story of my early experience with a homemade mixer using tube mic preamps, and my reluctant transition to solid-state audio equipment and my eventual return to tubes. There may be many reasons why tubes sound different than transistors (solid-state), and I explore some of those differences. The biggest reason may be the distortion products that exist in al...
Tad Rollow, Research Engineer
July 16, 2020 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBSend us a Text Message. Tad Rollow is a research engineer who has worked at companies like Eventide, Avid-DigiDesign, and Sennheiser. You probably own hardware or software whose design Tad has been part of. Tad has a wide range of interests and experiences, including hardware, software, and chip design. He’s been recording music since high school and continues to do that. He has a degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in acoustics. Tad understands the intersection between engineering...
My Conversation with Dom Morley
July 09, 2020 13:00 - 46 minutes - 32 MBSend us a Text Message. Dom Morley is a Grammy-award winning British engineer, producer, and mixer who has worked with artists such as Amy Winehouse, Adele, Sting, Nick Cave, and many others. He has worked as a staff engineer in several top studios in London and now has his own studio in Oxfordshire. Educating aspiring engineers and producers is important to Dom, and he is in demand as a teacher and lecturer. He often conducts workshops at the NAMM Show. An educational service he offers is...
What Radio Broadcasting Taught Me About Recording
July 02, 2020 16:00 - 41 minutes - 28.2 MBSend us a Text Message. My first job, and really the only time I have ever worked for someone else, was in radio broadcasting. While in high school, I started working as an engineer, on weekends, at WPEN, an AM/FM station in Philadelphia. The station was founded in 1926 and the studios where I worked were built by RCA in 1947. Little had changed by the time I started there in 1966. The AM transmitter site was several miles to the west of the city. It was one of the first directional AM stat...
Dale Becker, Mastering Engineer
June 18, 2020 14:00 - 59 minutes - 40.7 MBSend us a Text Message. Dale Becker is a mastering engineer in Los Angeles. He is known for his work with artists such as Khalid, Chloe X Halle, Lauv, Macklemore, Rufus Du Sol, JoJo, Kesha, Tiesto, Meghan Trainor, Jeremy Zucker, Beast Coast, Fletcher, Gallant, Louis the Child & Bryce Vine He works at Becker Mastering, along with his father, Bernie. We talked about the art of mastering in the digital age, along with some discussion of mastering for vinyl, Dale’s experience as a recording e...
Microphones!
June 11, 2020 15:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBSend us a Text Message. We all use microphones all the time, but how much do we know about how they work? Is that knowledge useful? In this episode, I discuss the three main types of studio microphones, dynamic, ribbon, and condenser, and the three main pickup patterns, omni-, bi-, and uni-directional, and why understanding some of the basic principles can help you get the most from your microphones. email: [email protected] www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn https://dwfearn.com/
My Conversation with Producer/Engineer/Mixer Chris Tabron
June 04, 2020 17:00 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBSend us a Text Message. Chris Tabron is a very successful Brooklyn-based producer, engineer, mixer who has worked with artists such as Beyonce, The Strokes, Robert Glasper, Battles, Lower Dens, The Voidz, and Charlotte Day Wilson. I spoke with Chris about how he got into music recording and production, and about his approach to working with artists – and the art of recording and the skills needed to be a producer. Our conversation went on for about two-and-a-half hours, of which this is t...
Recording In Improvised Spaces
May 28, 2020 17:00 - 33 minutes - 23.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Sometimes we have to record in less-than-ideal locations, such as at home, or perhaps on location. Understanding the challenges of adapting space for recording will help you get the best possible sound out of your improvised studio. In this episode, I give a quick overview of some of the acoustical principles that will affect how your recording sounds. Some are obvious, like sound-proofing, sound absorbing, and controlling echoes. Others may not be immediately obvio...
My Conversation with Mix Engineer Jon Castelli
May 21, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Jon Castelli is an up-and-coming mix engineer in LA who has had great success in recent years, working on projects like Khalid's Grammy-nominated for Record-of-the-Year, "Talk," Platinum record for Summer Walker and Drake's "Girls Need Love," and a Gold record for Harry Styles "Lights Up" Jon offers lots of good, practical information about how to refine your craft, and what it takes to work with top-level artists and producers. We talk about many things, including...
What Morse Code Taught Me About Music Recording
May 14, 2020 17:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MBSend us a Text Message. This topic may seem like a stretch in a podcast about music recording, but using Morse code on Amateur Radio taught me quite a bit about hearing acuity. And my experience building devices for my hobby taught me a lot about electronics, circuit design, and construction. From my first exposure to Morse code from interference from a RCA Coastal Marine station in New Jersey as a kid, to learning the code and using it for over 50 years, the code has been part of my life....
A Conversation with Wes Dooley - Part 2
May 07, 2020 17:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBSend us a Text Message. In this second part of my conversation with Wes Dooley of Audio Engineering Associates, I ask Wes about why ribbon microphones sound different from condenser (or dynamic) microphones. Wes also explains more about his recording background and how that led into ribbon mic design and manufacturing. (Technical info: Wes used an AEA KU5 mic into a D.W. Fearn VT-2 mic preamp and recorded into Pro Tools at the AEA Studio in Pasadena, CA. Doug used an AEA R44CX into a VT-2 a...
A Conversation with Jim Hamilton of Rittenhouse Soundworks
April 30, 2020 16:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Jim Hamilton is an interesting guy. His career includes drums and percussion, often with well-known artists. But also Jim is a tap dancer who performs around the world. And he owns Rittenhouse Soundworks, an amazing recording studio in Philadelphia. He has also been a life-long student of music and recording. Our conversation covers the relationship of tap dancing to modern drumming, the evolution of the snare drum. We explore how technology affects the recording p...
Introduction to Recording to Tape
April 23, 2020 17:00 - 22 minutes - 15.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Introduction to Recording to Tape I spent about half of my career recording to magnetic tape, and although everything I record now is done digitally, I understand the allure of sound of tape, and the fascination with the machines that record it. This is the first of three episodes on tape recording, which I am publishing all on the same day for those who are interested in the topic. This first installment is an introduction to magnetic tape recording, with some bas...
Tape Machine Alignment & Maintenance
April 23, 2020 17:00 - 20 minutes - 14.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Tape Machine Alignment & Maintenance In this second of three parts on recording to magnetic tape, we look at why proper machine setup is critically important for good, consistent results. This episode is rather arcane because we are talking about an obsolete technology. It includes details on how and why adjustment is necessary, and a rough outline of how it is done. Tape machines from different eras and from different manufacturers have variations on these generic...
Using Magnetic Tape in the Studio
April 23, 2020 17:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBSend us a Text Message. Tape Recording in the Studio: A practical Guide This is the final of the three parts in this series on recording to magnetic tape. I explain some of the differences in workflow between recording to digital and recording to tape. This is more “hands-on” than the first two installments. The limitations of the medium affect the way you will record. That’s part of the “tape sound.” I discuss the battle with tape noise, setting levels, routine calibration tones, punchi...
My Conversation with Wes Dooley of Audio Engineering Associates
April 16, 2020 17:00 - 32 minutes - 22.7 MBSend us a Text Message. I’ve had the privilege of knowing some amazing people in the world of pro audio, and one of them is Wes Dooley. I’ve known Wes for decades, and I am still learning new things from him every time we talk. Wes is best known as the founder of Audio Engineering Associates, which manufactures some of the best microphones in the world. I wanted to know more about how Wes got started in music recording, and equipment design and manufacturing. There is more to our conversa...
The Room Where Music is Recorded
April 09, 2020 17:00 - 19 minutes - 13.5 MBSend us a Text Message. 4 The Room Where Music is Recorded Music is recorded in an acoustic space, which could be a professional recording studio, a home studio, a concert hall, or even outside. The characteristics of the room not only affect how the recording is going to sound, but also how the musicians perform. In this episode, we look at the acoustical characteristics of the recording space: the room proportions, sound absorption, diffusion, and a brief look at sound isolation (“sound...
Overview of the Music Recording Process
April 02, 2020 15:00 - 8 minutes - 6.15 MBSend us a Text Message. This is a short introduction to the overall concepts of recording music. It starts with a story of my earliest attempts to record music, why I was not pleased with the results, and how I have spent the 50+ years since then trying to make it sound better. Some of the influences that formed my notion of how music should sound are also covered. It also gives you a preview of some of the topics that will be covered in more depth in future episodes. For those of you in ...
A brief History of Music Recording
March 25, 2020 16:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBSend us a Text Message. I have always been fascinated with the history of recording, and I find it useful in understanding where we are today. In this show, I talk about this history, from the Edison phonograph to modern digital recording. But it's not just facts and dates. I'm more interested in how the advances in technology changed the concept of recorded music, and how the requirements of the music drove the technological advances. I am posting this episode on March 25 because I think m...
Your Hearing is Amazing!
March 19, 2020 16:00 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBSend us a Text Message. If we could not hear, there would be no music, and no music recording. This episode explores the characteristics of our hearing, it's limitations and idiosyncrasies, and how to preserve your hearing. We look at the range of frequencies we can hear, and look at the quietest thing we can hear -- and the loudest noise we can tolerate. We can damage our hearing while we are doing surprisingly mundane tasks. If you prevent this damage, you can appreciate the full impact o...