New Monday #13
Happy Monday!
Steve Albini died last week at 61. He was a superb audio engineer and by most accounts, a lovely person.
He was outspoken and had no time for stupidity or unscrupulous behavior. Needless to say, he had a negative opinion of the music industry.
He loved music, loved musicians, loved rock, and loved doing his work, which was engineering. Although he is called a producer by some, he thought “producer” was a dirty word and an exploitative job. He was an engineer, damnit.
He was a huge influence on recording, especially in the 90s.
Here’s a compilation I made of some of the more interesting and useful videos and articles covering various aspects of this complex man. Lot’s of How To stuff, but also some of it is pretty funny.
Start Here
If you’re unfamiliar with Steve Albini, start here, with this video of him with Anthony Bourdain!
Albini was smart and a nerd about everything - he’s even nerdy about the sandwich.
Engineering
Must read article on engineering - Great article - he covers literally everything he does in the studio. You’ll learn a ton from this.
Video: Steve on the Job and Equipment - More good info and ideas.
Mr Albini always had a very well thought-out approach to everything he did, and of course especially to recording. I’ve selected a few clips for you all that illustrate his thinking, and also are useful for you developing your thinking.
Techniques
Phase when mic’ing drum sets - he’s talking a lot about absolute phase here.
How to Clean a Console and Outboard - this is REALLY useful
How to Mic a Speaker Cabinet - man, he goes into depth and is an excellent teacher.
Gear
Mr Albini had an interesting taste in equipment. Here are some links to some of the stuff you see in these videos or that get mentioned in articles.
Neotek was a Chicago-based maker of recording consoles. They went out of business, were taken over by a company called Sytek (which was actually formed by former Neotek employees). Sytek too is now out of business.
Sytek MPX-4 preamps are spectacular. Incredibly clean with super fast response. They pop up on eBay and Reverb from time to time. Performance up there with an API.
Those strange looking black speakers on the bridge of the console I know quite well: B&W 805v’s. Wonderful speakers with a very sophisticated internal design. The 800 Series of speakers had a sort of honeycomb internal bracing system that resulted in an almost non-resonant cabinet.
The Really Nice Compressor - awesome and cheap.
On Business and Relationship
The Adventures of Steve Albini
Above all, we lost a good human being who lived life well. Rest in Peace, Mr. Albini.
Steve Albini does his George Martin (the Beatles Producer) impression.
Albini and friends on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
They prank Gene Simmons... this is really funny!
Take care of yourselves.
Warm regards,
The guys at Korneff
