Music Production and Mixing Tips for Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
If you're searching for answers on topics such as: what is mixing in music, how I can learn to mix music, how to start music production, how can I get better at music production, what is music production, or maybe how to get into the music industry or even just how to release music. Either way, you’re my kind of person and there's something in this podcast for you!
I'm Marc Matthews and I host the Inside The Mix Podcast. It's the ultimate serial podcast for music production and mixing enthusiasts. Say goodbye to generic interviews and tutorials, because I'm taking things to the next level. Join me as I feature listeners in round table music critiques and offer exclusive one-to-one coaching sessions to kickstart your music production and mixing journey. Get ready for cutting-edge music production tutorials and insightful interviews with Grammy Award-winning audio professionals like Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath). If you're passionate about music production and mixing like me, the Inside The Mix is the podcast you can't afford to miss!
Start with this audience-favourite episode: #75: How to Mix Bass Frequencies (PRODUCER KICKSTART: VYLT)
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Music Production and Mixing Tips for Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
#180: Unlocking the Iconic 80s Hard Rock Sound: Music Production Techniques and Stories
Ever wondered how did people produce music in the 80s or how to produce 80s music with authenticity? In this episode of Inside The Mix, hosts Marc and Aisle9 break down the essential 80s music production techniques, from analyzing reference tracks to choosing the right instruments and effects.
Whether you're crafting synthwave, pop, or rock, this episode will help you capture the nostalgic magic of the era while avoiding modern production pitfalls.
What You'll Learn:
• How to analyse 80s reference tracks for structure and composition
• Essential synths, drum machines, and live recording techniques
• Why avoiding modern production habits, like heavy side-chain compression, is crucial
• The importance of clarity and moderation in mixing for an authentic 80s feel
• How studio experiences shape production choices and workflow
• Why focusing on one or two techniques per project leads to better results
• Understanding the historical context behind 80s music production techniques
Tune in for expert insights and practical strategies to bring the legendary 80s sound to life!
Got a question? I’d love to hear from you! Click here to submit a question, share your social media handles or website, and get featured in a future episode.
Plus, one lucky question will win a Starbucks voucher each month!
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Who was it? I'm sure again, all these stories are coming to mind now and I don't know if this is true or not, but they flew someone in just to overdub a hi-hat.
Xander Phillips:You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews.
Marc Matthews:Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hello folks, welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. This episode is the second installment of a listener question submission format that myself and my co-host today, r9, sir Benson, started in episode 175. So that was the New Year's episode for 2024, which turned out to be the most popular episode in its first seven days ever. So it's the most popular episode.
Marc Matthews:So do go check out episode 175 if you haven't done so already. So this is really following on that format whereby you the listeners submit a question and we basically attempt to answer it. Essentially. So, before we dive in, if you have a question that you want to feature on the podcast, please do click the link in the episode description. It's a speak pipe link. All you need to do is submit your question using your mobile phone. You don't need an account. You don't need a fancy studio setup. It's like sending us an audio message and just say hey, it's XYZ. My question for Mark and R9 is, and also give yourself a shout out as well. If you've got something happening musical, anything along those lines you can put that in there and it's evergreen content. So do click the link in the episode description and submit a question for myself and r9 to answer in a future episode. So that's my ramble to begin with. Uh, r9 tim, how are you today?
Aisle9:I'm not bad, thank you. Yeah, a little bit buffeted, but I'm all right.
Marc Matthews:Yes, we're just having a discussion off uh, off air, as they say about the, the southwest being buffeted by a storm and uh and repairing fences and stuff. Yeah, and being on the coast as we are because we live relatively close, um, we are frequently buffeted by uh by wind, more so you than me, to be honest, because I'm on the south coast on the north coast.
Aisle9:Yeah, it's been a bit wild and willy around here, but we're all good.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, that's good to hear. It's good to hear, but it's storm season. I think we were discussing, isn't it you?
Aisle9:kind of give a storm a name to make it feel less impactful, but it really doesn't. It doesn't, no.
Marc Matthews:Storm bastard would be more accurate. Yeah, just a swear word from each letter of the alphabet for a storm. Anyway, we'll dive into the questions. So this format is it's going to be a question and basically we're just going to bounce ideas back and forth. So here we go. I'm going to play this question. I'm going to make sure it's at the beginning, as you never know how these things are going to react when you play them. So let's give it a go.
Xander Phillips:Hello there, my name is Xander Phillips. I'm a guitar player by trade, I guess, and I play mostly kind of 80s hard rock style music, kind of like Van Halen, kind of like Journey, kind of like Queen, that kind of thing. My question today is about when you start a new project and you're trying to replicate a style like something like the 80s. There are so many effects and it's so easy to get lost. What would you put in on every track, what would you put on for a little bit of sparkle here and there, and what things would you completely stay away from? I know, as a beginner, it's very, very difficult to find what you're doing, so my question is all about that today. If you're interested in the kind of thing I do, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok as Xander himself that's Xander with an X, not a Z and you can find me on Spotify as Xander Phillips. My latest song is a copy of the Mark Bolan song Banga Gong. Get it On. Anyway, I hope you can answer my question today, and all the best.
Marc Matthews:There we go. Thank you, xander.
Marc Matthews:Good question it is isn't it, it's very well put as well, I must say. Very well spoken. It's a very good question. I like the influences you mentioned in there. I'm a massive Journey fan, so as soon as you said Journey, I was all in there. And 80s replication.
Marc Matthews:Now for me, when it comes to sort of emulating and replicating a style, and this is something I've been doing recently with this foray into a sort of melodic house that I've been doing as hands in the air it's not something I've previously done, but this I suppose it doesn't really answer the question about sort of adding sparkle to a track. But one thing I like to do is, if I'm moving into the realm of like emulating a style, I get quite analytical with it. I'll get a reference track, I'll chuck it into the daw and then I will literally break it down in terms of section and map it out so verse, chorus, pre-chorus, middle eight, etc. And map it out like that. And then I break it down even further. And the great thing is, now we have stem splitters and then I can then break it down in terms of what the individual elements are that they're using in that track. And then I go even further and I use something like uh, tdr prism and I'll start using low cut, high cut filters just to work out what frequency balance is going on in these different areas.
Marc Matthews:Um so, again, it doesn't really answer the question of, like the sparkle side of things and what instruments or maybe effects I would use, but I think it's really important to start just to get to grips with the composition of the track and how it's structured and the frequency balance of the track. I think before you even start thinking okay, well, what saturation plugins am I going to use? What reverb plugins am I going to use? Just break it down in terms of actually, how is this structured, what instrumentation are they using and frequency balance. I think that's specifically with what I'm doing at the moment with with melodic house, because kick and bass now really and I think everyone that I do gets a bit better because I'm understanding more and more the relationship between kick and bass in that particular genre. So that would be my sort of immediate tip off the back of that.
Aisle9:I'll throw it over to yourself now, tim. Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point to start at, because getting the arrangement and the instrumentation and the playing and all those things right is so important because you can sort of grab all the plugins you like but if you don't get the sort of essence of the music right, you're not, you're not playing a song that fits to the genre in the first place then that that is going to be difficult. Um, I think it'd be quite good as well to sort of look at what was around in the 80s, what you actually had in terms of recording technology and what you could do, because of course we now are in a completely different time where we've got almost unlimited tracks and unlimited processing, and back in the 80s I mean it's particularly if you're looking at the rock genre and big rock bands of the time which I know Xander was sort of saying he's sort of into that kind of thing, van Halen, that kind of journey they didn't record in cheap studios, they recorded in very expensive studios. It was extremely expensive to make records at that point, but they would normally be looking at. I think it's a defining thing of the 80s that you've had live elements. Quite a lot of live elements in those kind of tracks, particularly rock music, would be live drums, live bass, live guitars and vocals, maybe with some synth elements. I think Journey has that, queen has that synth or keyboard elements in there.
Aisle9:So that's the kind of general sort of you know place you want to be aiming for, I'd say, and and instrumentation. But then I think, sort of trying to work out how many tracks you need, like trying to work out like things like they did do, things like double tracking of vocals, double tracking of guitar parts, where they'd actually re-record the parts multiple times and that kind of thing. That was in. But again they didn't have unlimited tracks. They'd probably be recording on 24, 32 tracks. So you know, you kind of want to work within that. I think, give yourself a bit of a framework as to how much you're working within, not go. Oh well, I'm just going yourself a bit of a framework as to how much you're working within, not go. Oh well, I'm just going to do a 72 track thing, because that would be quite unlike the genre in a way.
Marc Matthews:You kind of want to force limitations on yourself, like you mentioned there about the 24-32 track. Maybe eight groups Like you can bus out to oh no, sorry, eight, bus eight, send effects basically, and then use groups as well. Think of it in terms of like you've got a console, you've got like an audio console or something in front of you and force those limitations on you. That way you're sort of thinking in the mindset of they may have done in the 80s. Now, like I say, I mean there's studio spaces they have to record. You might not have access to, in particular, the rooms and stuff, but I mean that's where I suppose you could use your, your emulations to do that.
Marc Matthews:But I think forcing limitations on yourself to do to work in the scope that they would have done in the 80s, so rather than just have every vst, synth, vst at your fingertips that you could go through, if you know a particular song you're interested in, it's got a dx7 in it find a dx7 emulation and just work with that or maybe one other synth. But I think limitations can force you to think outside of the box and also be more creative. And I think also I find this if I put limitations on myself. I generally finish uh songs quicker, or at least I get to a point where I'm happy with it quicker. I think yeah, don't know about yourself yeah, I agree.
Aisle9:I mean, I I think on when you, if you start thinking of what, what you'd have, because I know it's sort of it is bewildering. We've got so many effects and so many places to start. But I think the general thing with most of that stuff was it would be recorded on tape, so they were working to tape, and then it would come through a console, probably an ssl console, and there are lots of good ssl emulations out there. You don't necessarily have to use one, but like you could, you could use an ssl channel emulation maybe to work on. But essentially the the thing would be it would have eq, wouldn't it, and a basic dynamics thing.
Aisle9:And while I was looking into it and like dynamics processing in those times they didn't really make everything pump like the way that we do. It tended to be much more subtle. There was eq and compression on most things, probably in the, on the channels, but I would stick with eq and basic compression, like maybe vca compression, if you've got something that's similar to that like, and then you would be replicating something similar to what the studios were working with. And then you've got to think maybe further out of that onto sort of time-based effects. But like again, things like autotune that we have now didn't exist in the 80s. So you, you wouldn't be using autotune on all your tracks, you wouldn't be like on your vocals, you know some things like that that you didn't have. But, um, digital reverbs, digital delays, were very in, you know um, and not as complex, probably, and realistic as some of the ones we've got now, but like algorithmic reverbs and yeah, so you've got a fairly, for a lot of us it's probably stripping back and going to sort of less.
Aisle9:Less, in a way, Although they did love their reverbs and delays and they did love chorus on everything I was going to say about the reverb there, like without the auto the auto tune, you've been able to sort of manually tune a vocal.
Marc Matthews:Just swamp it in reverb do loads and loads of takes yeah, loads and loads of takes and then swamp it in reverb. What band was it? I think I don't know if it was rats. It might have been rats, but I remember the vocalist from rat had a lot of reverb on his vocal. Others might I mean, that might be a sweeping statement, I'll probably get corrected on that, but I do recall hearing yeah, washed with reverb when the vocal wasn't as strong.
Aisle9:let's say, Of course, bands like Journey and I mean probably Van Halen too, but like definitely Queen and Journey, like that, he mentioned, like I mean just stunning vocalists, weren't they? I mean, they were, he mentioned like I mean just stunning vocalists.
Xander Phillips:Yeah, I mean, they were just really, really good.
Aisle9:I don't think anyone would have worried about whether they had autotune for Freddie, you know, it's just like so and, to be honest, all the musicians in those bands stunning musicians. So a lot of the sound came from just that.
Aisle9:But then, yeah, you've got things like gated reverb which is a huge signature sound of the 80s and setting up a send to a reverb and actually putting on a nice reverb, say an AMS. You can get AMS VSTs now that can replicate the AMS stuff. And then there's lexicon stuff as well, lexicon reverbs, lexicon reverb. So let's continue full. So something like that, a good algorithmic reverb or something that emulates a yamaha spx 90 or quadroverb, something like that, and then an actual gate after that um on the channel and then keying the gate from side, chaining it from whatever you're putting through it. So if you're putting the snare into it, side-chain it from the snare and you can actually replicate, then a very accurate gated reverb sound like just get a big hall sound on the reverb but then actually gate it using an audio gate triggered from the snare itself or whatever, and you would get close to that kind of gated reverb sound which is so signature, isn't it?
Marc Matthews:Yeah, I love the gated reverb sound. I remember when I first got into music production and the first thing I wanted to do was create a gated reverb on a snare and it was like the first thing I ever wanted to do just to get that snap and then that wash of reverb and that just huge, huge sounding Cut off yeah yeah, yeah, I love a gated reverb and you'll find I think there's no. I know I use Valhalla reverb and I'm fairly certain there's a gated.
Aisle9:They've got gated presets haven't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah and that might be an easier route than going the whole sort of thing, so you could actually use a gated sort of preset. Yeah.
Marc Matthews:It's interesting you mentioned gates because I guess, like I mean, I'm primarily now doing the synth music and, as I mentioned earlier, moving into like house and stuff Getting a bit off the question here but I find myself using gates less and less, less and less. I guess that's because I'm not recording live drums, for example, or a live outfit. I guess if I were, I'd be using gates more, but um, you've got samples and stuff, so you don't really need them.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, trying to think of the last that maybe, for I've maybe used it to create a stutter effect. That might have been I might have used a gate in that instance, but yeah, it's interesting. Maybe in my next production I'll try and use a gate a bit more creatively with it.
Aisle9:Yeah, yeah, because I guess in the 80s drum stuff it was a lot of the time, you know, in in the 70s we'd have more like kind of Mikey of drum kits with like sort of you know a kick drum mic and then like the Glyn Johns kind of style thing with the three microphones.
Aisle9:Yeah, yeah, sort of two overheads and one on the floor Tom, whatever. So you've got that kind of sort of style of micing that was just micing the room and the drummer in the room and obviously they often had quite controlled dead-sounding rooms. But then in the 80s they started going for these big-sounding rooms but then the actual close mics were on all of the drums and all of the toms were close mic'd, um, and then they gated them. They did gate them a lot in in the actual mix, so they'd have the overheads and the room mics but they'd have really sort of quite shut down, kind of you know gated mics, and that produced a particular sound plus the kind of gated reverb and you get that kind of almost it almost sounds mechanical, doesn't it? Like a lot of 80s drums sound big but like almost like programmed, almost got that kind of sort of big, monstrous sound. But then it's not very natural, it's sort of slightly overblown. You know, reminds me of a story.
Marc Matthews:Was it John Bonham? It might have been John Bonham recording some Zeppelin drums and they did it at the I can't remember if it was the bottom of a stairwell or something like that, but to get that huge, I mean, that's going to. It's like a 70s production, but to get that huge drum Led, drum, led zeppelin drum sound, I could not tell you how they miked it up. I remember hearing a story along those lines where they did that which I thought was super cool. I'd love to have the ability to do that. Uh, I suppose I could. I could go rent out a studio and I'd do it that way.
Aisle9:But bizarrely enough, like that very john bonham story, they actually recorded that up the road from where my studio was.
Aisle9:When I, when I had a studio literally about half a mile down the road or something, was the house that they recorded that in in sort of sort of sort of gray shop way, yeah, over there, and yeah, they they recalled it in this sort of mansion thing, yeah, and I believe they sort of hung a mic from the top, you know, into that and it just gave that enormous sound when he played. Yeah, yeah, but that's very different than the 80s thing where they stuck you in a sort of studio and, like you know, it all got. I mean, in the 80s they did strange stuff, like even overdub the hi-hats separate to like the rest of the stuff, you know crazy stuff.
Marc Matthews:Who was it? Again, all these stories are coming to mind now and I don't know if this is true or not, but they flew someone in just to overdub a hi-hat because they were. Was it copland from the police?
Marc Matthews:it might well have been, they've this this might be like one of those programs where it's just, you know, like turning up to 11 on spinal tap. It might be a story like that where they flew someone in just to overdub the hat and that was it for a drum kit. Imagine, if you're that well known for your hi-hat that you were flown in to do that.
Aisle9:I know that brian eno used to get hired like, uh, how he got in production, like one of his sort of ways of earning money, was like getting hired to program DX7s because nobody knew how to program them. Wow.
Aisle9:So, they could get the kind of standard bell sound. And you know, after that they were all stuck. So they'd call Brian in and Brian would program it to do. Well, knowing Brian, it was just a really slow pad. But you know, brian, can't you make it do anything a bit more exciting? Oh, no, and like yeah but no. So, yeah, it's weird, though we sort of think of like having a billion presets, but people didn't, they didn't, they were sort of very limited really, with a lot of their sound choices. And you know, of course, you've got sampling coming in at the end of the 80s which, yeah, yeah, you know, sort of fair lights and stuff.
Marc Matthews:So I was thinking that when you mentioned there about the drums like becoming mechanical, and then it kind of like then you I suppose it depends on which genre of music you then move into but then you go, if you start going down to like the synth pop route and like, yeah, electronic route, and then the drums are become very mechanical. But yeah definitely.
Marc Matthews:Then you hear the crossover into like you mentioned about, like with van halen and queen, where they bring it, bringing in the synthesizers, obviously Jump being a prime example of how synths make the crossover.
Aisle9:So all very interesting.
Marc Matthews:So part of Xander's question, thinking back to it now, was what you wouldn't, what you wouldn't do, what you wouldn't do. And immediately I'm thinking now I don't know if would you do this, if you were doing that. But you see side chain compression used a lot yeah, I was just thinking that yeah don't.
Aisle9:Side chain compression, pumping side chain compression no, you see that a lot. You see that a lot in synth wave and synth pop, don't you? But I don't think that I mean stylistically. It wasn't an 80s thing, it didn't really happen. So certainly not in the rock music either, you know.
Aisle9:I think the other thing you'd be wary of is too much bottom end, because literally it's shocking when you listen back to those tracks how little bass a lot of them have in them. I mean, you might get the drive of the bass guitar in a Van Halen track but you won't get that real low sort of sub end. You know, like it's not like listening to sort of um, limp biscuit or something where, like you know, you've got an enormous amount of sub end in a in a rock track. Like you, you simply, and like you know a lot of the metal that we've got now, where there's a lot of low end in that sort of stuff, like we're talking about classic rock, and classic rock just doesn't have that amount of bottom end in it. It's kind of very controlled, um and tight and there is, there is definition to it, but it's not really much past 80, sort of 180, sort of maybe 60 at the most. Do you know what I mean? It rolls off a lot I think.
Marc Matthews:I think that goes back to what I said right at the beginning about like, actually looking at particular frequency bands or or particular sections like sub bass, bass, low mids, mids, high mids and so forth, and actually seeing what's happening there and using a frequency analyzer to see what's happening. And obviously I mean you're not going to do it verbatim and think, well, my, my, my frequency balances do exactly match, but you'll get a good idea of what's down there and what's happening.
Aisle9:Yeah, I mean guitars, like again that sort of choosing the kind of amps that they would use, like you know, marshalls or whatever that gave you that the JCM sort of Marshall sound, that kind of very it's a tight sort end. It's kind of just like it's sort of sitting your guitars in the right place and, um, and your bass in the right place. A lot of another thing that I was thinking that might be kind of useful if you're doing um, 80s stuff is, uh, thinking about some of the kind of clean guitars is actually di-ing them, because it, bizarrely enough, that was quite an 80s thing was to di guitars, just plug them straight into the desk and record them if they're clean, not if they were driven, but like you know. A lot of like I mean, uh, you know all the stuff on let's dance, for instance, they just plugged it into the desk, you know. So you know I think.
Marc Matthews:Well, that was nile rogers. Yeah, look at our rogers. I think I think it's a matter of course. I've always di'd guitar, I have a splitter and I always, I've always recorded a dry signal for guitar and bass, and bass as well, um, I think it's just been drilled into me throughout time. It's like just to have it as a backup for whatever reason. Um, but yeah, and also now because I'm fully in the box. So a long time since I've actually had an actual amp I think the last one I had was an orange great abs, great clean tone with an orange. But, um, yeah, di all the way, um, most most certainly, I think, yeah, like I say, I'm a firm believer in just capturing that raw sound. It just gives you a bit of flexibility.
Aisle9:The other thing I wouldn't do is have loads of stuff running on the master, on the mix bus, because I would have it fairly simple, like an SSL bus compressor which would have been on the desks, maybe Great compressor yeah, great compressor, and a lot of us use that now anyway but just wouldn't have loads of heavy limiting and a lot of us use that now anyway but, like, just wouldn't have loads of heavy limiting and that sort of stuff because they would do a bit of that in in the mastering but, like you know, it was very little of that was used.
Aisle9:You wouldn't have limiters everywhere, you just have subtle compression, eq. You know some nice reverbs, delays, some chorus on things, but maybe a bit of phasing or flanging. They do like a time-based effects on stuff. But oh yeah, short of that, I don't think you're dealing with a lot. A lot else you know and you probably only want like I think we've said this before actually only four or five reverbs maybe and all on sends and in it when you're mixing, so that you don't have tons and tons of reverb of different types of reverb, yeah, yeah, and then it gets into this big ball of mud.
Xander Phillips:I mean that's quite extreme, that's yeah it's quite extreme.
Marc Matthews:One thing I was going to add as well is and it could, I think, when you, when you first start trying to emulate a particular style and you do this research into the different production techniques and the instrumentation and stuff that's used, and then you try and shoehorn it all into one song, I think I've learned this.
Marc Matthews:Probably the hard way is like, if it's something that, if it's a particular genre and style of music that you're going to be working in for an indefinite period of time, is try not to do everything all at once, maybe like research, one, two, maybe three different techniques and and try them out on a song. Get that done, get it finished, then move on to the next one, yeah so, and then just gradually build up that, that arsenal of techniques, production techniques for that particular style of music, rather than trying to do it all at once. It's kind of like if you're trying to do it all at once, you're not really going to master any of them again might be a sweeping statement but just like one or two at a time release that, move on to the next one and just gradually get better that way because I've now, I've done that when you're thinking, oh man, I've got to get all these different techniques and these different sounds in there, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Aisle9:Going back to limitations again, they did take their time as well making a lot of those records. Like you know, pyromania or something, it didn't happen overnight, you know, like a lot of those kind of death, leopardppard and that sort of thing. They spent forever making those things, incredible records. A lot of them are very hard records to emulate. In that sense you know, you're not just going to all meet around someone's place, record it into a DAW in an afternoon and just sound like that. I don't think you know.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, I was going to say they're probably fuelled by various substances to keep it going, but I'm not going to condone that as part of the creative process.
Aisle9:No, no, just take loads of coke, that'll solve it. Yeah, yeah, I think it was, wasn't it? Um, yeah, it was black sabbath or something. Who? Who said the bill for the cocaine was more than the recording? Indeed yeah yeah, yeah, it reminds me of when I uh, I had the opportunity to uh do a quick like mix on a desk.
Marc Matthews:Uh, gus dudgeon desk. Oh wow, yeah, yeah, it was good yes yeah, yeah, it was previously owned by robbie williams, if I remember rightly, uh, and then there was, uh, there was an elephant on there, but there was a mirror that was specifically on there for a particular purpose and, yeah, that was quite interesting. I didn't use it for that purpose, I used it for mixing. There was an elephant on there, yeah, and a mirror near the elephant, oh yeah, yeah, not an elephant on the desk because that would have made it hard to work on.
Aisle9:I can't get around the trunk.
Marc Matthews:Yeah, work on, I can't get around the trunk.
Aisle9:Yeah, oh that would be such a great mixing session.
Marc Matthews:You're just all quiet in the booth, and so it's like I mentioned the elephant in the room right okay, yeah yeah, I like I, whenever I start talking about like techniques and production techniques, it just it triggers in my head various experiences I've had along the way and stories I've been told and heard um. Some of them can be on the podcast, but maybe some of them not. But thank you I.
Aisle9:I was very lucky to actually work for a whole weekend in genesis studio recording. Is that fine? Um, no, it was genesis's studio, that's. That's Peter Gabriel's got one down there, but it was.
Aisle9:Genesis's studio just near Chiddingfold when they were at a place called the Farm and my client actually knew the engineer there, jeff, and he got us in for the weekend and we just basically had that. I couldn't really believe it. I think I sort of spent most of the weekend pinching myself that it was actually happening and at some point I was just sitting there behind their enormous SSL recording my drummer, who was in the same room that Phil Collins, had recorded and recording all these sort of things.
Aisle9:And at this point I remember the engineer going like, oh well, you've got this, haven't you? And just leaving me in charge of this enormous SSL desk, and I just thought I don't know what I'm doing here. You know, it was really. It was just like so much amazing equipment and in fact it all worked out fine. But like, yeah, it was just incredible and it's that thing. I mean classic 80s records, classic stuff recorded there that I loved. Classic 80s records, classic stuff recorded there that I loved. You know sort of some incredible Genesis stuff recorded in there, like tracks like Home by the Sea that I'm an absolute, massive fan of. So you know, yeah, so you're just in a place where you didn't imagine you were going to end up, but it's yeah, kind of the vibe of it kind of crept onto the recording. I think it was good.
Marc Matthews:I think it does good? I think it does, doesn't it? You kind of get like inspired by your environment, knowing who's been there and what they've recorded before. You can't help but get inspired by that um. So I suppose that, in a way, that could also be a tip. I mean, it's easier said than done, isn't it just? I think I'm just going to rock up of a, uh, someone's studio, but I mean, if you've got it, then use it. If you've got that access, yeah, yeah.
Aisle9:It could be good doing something like that, to actually go to a studio and track the stuff and then mix it yourselves afterwards and add additional things so that you've got kind of more of a band vibe, if that's the way you make it. But then of course some people I don't know Xander maybe records on his own, and if he's just recording all the parts himself, then maybe that's not necessary, you know another thing to consider.
Marc Matthews:Uh, so there we go half an hour. So, xander, I think, um, that has answered the question in some way, shape or form. So I hope that was useful. And if you do have a question that you would like Tim and I to attempt I say attempt to answer on the podcast, please do click the link in the episode description. Submit that SpeakPipe audio message, remember? Hey, it's XYZ. My question for marketing is you can find me at whatever you've got going on, submit that. Alternatively I didn't say this at the beginning if submitting audio is not your thing, just ping me an email mark at synthmusicmasteringcom or follow me or DM me on Instagram at Inside the Mix Podcast. Either way, do submit and get featured on the podcast. There we go, tim. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much for joining me on this.
