The Dave Ensor Chronicles

This week has been an interesting one filled with a new project from Washington D.C. signer/songwriter Dave Ensor. Tracking for the first two songs is nearly complete. Starting with the usual foundation, drums and bass were recorded live here at the home studio. The next day, electric guitar was done. A few days later, acoustic guitar and vocals were done at Night Flight Studios.

For the drums, the overheads went through a PreSonus, kick was through a Behr T1953 tube preamp, and toms and snare went straight into the 002. Bass was done DI only. 

A nice little touch I like to put on drums is a triple parallel compression technique. One bus of drums is compressed hard, another is left uncompressed, and the other is reverbed then compresssed. Add these three together, and voila, a great drum sound. 

More will be coming on specific mix techniques as this project evolves. Stay tuned.

Keepin' Up With the Times

Well, some of us have been around in the recording industry for a little while, some a long while, and yet others were born before any of it was invented. In the last 10 years I have seen a lot of changes in recording technology. The biggest of these is the computer based DAW. (that's Digital Audio Workstation for the real newbies.) My first experience in recording was with DAT tapes. (That's Digital Audio Tape) tapes. Kinda redundant, like ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) machine, or PIN number. Many dat machines are still in use today. In fact I know one top classical engineer who swears by them for tracking.

 

Anyways, I am excited to see what the next 10 years brings to the world of audio recording. No more hard drives, songs that mix themselves, automatic loudness, gain, pitch, and timing, for everyone. Who knows? In ten years, what us pros are doing now, kids will be doing in 3rd grade music class. I am excited to see the next generation of audio engineers. I'm still young enough, that could include me too. 

Feel free to share any interesting stories of how things have changed in recording.

Adieu