Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast

Andy Marsh (Thy Art Is Murder) is a killer guitarist, as well as having branched out behind the scenes with Graphic Nature Management, and the twists and turns his path has taken to get to where he is are fascinating. While Andy’s path isn’t common (let’s just say it involves rugby and multiple, severe bodily injuries) the mindset and strategies he applies to his work are things that everyone could benefit from applying to their own efforts. “Some people will get to the limit of their energy and just push through it, and really their just doing themselves a disservice. Have a good night’s sleep. Whatever idea that you’re struggling with for 4 hours from 10pm till 2am, if you just slept you might have come up with it in 5 minutes by the time you wake up.” - Andy Marsh ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 5:30 Balancing full time band duties with recording, producing other bands 8:30 Andy’s time management - being upfront with clients, keeping notes and reminders 16:00 How efficiency at airports and travel add up 22:00 File/note sharing, Slack, shared calendars, focus on simple organization, templated folders of tour documents 32:00 John Cleese’s time blocking for creativity, specific environments for work/play, Pomodoro method 40:00 Pushing yourself but knowing your limits, sleep needs and days off 46:00 Andy’s rugby background and injury, finger injury, deciding to pursue guitar 54:00 Learning the ‘rules’ and terminology of guitar and reading tablature before actually picking up a guitar 1:05:00 Joining The Amity Affliction within a few years of picking up guitar 1:14:00 Learning via visualizing, joining Thy Art Is Murder, learning 15 songs in a day 1:19:00 Using Kemper profiles of album tone live, prioritizing a good sound guy, getting guitar tones on ‘Dear Desolation’ 1:26:00 Parallel mix bus outside of compression, Kemper/Revalver, Superior Drummer, efficient songwriting And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc McClusky (Weezer, Motion City Soundtrack, Bad Religion) is here to go deep on the science of music, strategies for successful collaboration, and bringing your unique humanity to productions. Marc brought a number of inspirational moments to this discussion. The amount of thought that he’s put into how to approach music, production, and life in general comes through loud and clear. If you ever find yourself feeling like you’re just going through the motions with your projects this is definitely an episode you’re going to want to keep handy. “Nobody succeeds by themselves. Everybody succeeds together. The best records I’ve ever made aren’t because of me, it’s because of all of us. We’re in a room together. We all sat down and nobody had an ego, and everybody’s opinion was valuable.” - Marc McClusky ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 2:00 Marc’s childhood as a music lover, his first instruments, and his punk background 5:00 Music and Songs as math and science 15:00 Learning from music you don’t like, understanding the intention, recognize the feeling behind the math 20:00 The art of listening, visualizing an arrangement on the piano roll, the power of simplicity, and John Williams 35:00 Symphonic movie scores, relationship to classical music, and imitation/quoting as fundamental musical building blocks 40:00 Pre-production and songwriting with the mix in mind 45:00 Recording local band demos while working at Starbucks, word of mouth leading to engineering/production work 1:02:00 Being comfortable with ditching/changing parts you wrote, fighting for the ideas that you feel the most passionate about 1:05:00 Working on Weezer - ‘Hurley’, multiple mixers on the same album, mix being guided by decisions made in tracking rather than fighting them 1:13:00 How you can still add to the ‘texture’ of songs you’re mixing or don’t have creative input on. 1:19:00 Knowing your weaknesses and actively work at improving them, finding people who can complement your style 1:27:00 Dealing with entrenched competition or a saturated market And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Knight joins us this time to dig into how to maintain creative momentum, careers in voice acting, and drumming strategy. Tom’s approach to creativity, careers, and life is truly inspirational. His path through the audio industry is wide ranging and fearless. If you’re interested in strategically preventing yourself from getting put in a box, this one’s definitely for you. “I do whatever I do to get past the feeling of loss on a bad day, and sometimes that means not doing anything. Sometimes that means just sucking it up, letting the day go, and starting again tomorrow.” - Tom Knight ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 5:00 Imitation as a primary form of learning 13:00 Maintaining productivity 20:00 The power of perspective in judging your recordings 35:00 Why an entitled attitude leads to no work, getting the “Hallows Eve” gig 46:00 Tom becoming the go to drummer for jazz teachers, moving into pop world, Dallas Austin, TLC 55:00 Shifting to the goal of “not being in a band anymore”, creating a demo reel, cold calling in Atlanta 1:01:00 Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, common attributes of successful people 1:11:00 EPKs, voice acting, self-taught video editing 1:22:00 Fitness, ‘300’ program, muscle-ups, applying focus 1:28:00 (The myth of) Limb independence, playing to a click 1:40:00 Playing MPC-style grooves on acoustic drums And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a long time coming, and we finally have Dan Korneff back to talk dealing with being your own worst enemy, analog setups, and knowing your gear inside and out. Dan is the definition of renaissance man when it comes to audio. Not only is he a mastermind when it comes to production, but he’s also hands on with creating hardware and plugins. He’s truly inspirational for anyone looking to embody the entrepreneurial spirit. “At a certain point, you just have to be happy with what you’re doing, and not really care about what anybody else says or what anyone else is doing. Just live in the moment and make whatever you’re working on currently the best thing you’ve ever done.” - Dan Korneff ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 3:00 Dan’s Classic PCB venture, starting a business on his own 9:30 Learning coding, hardware design, knowing what’s going on under the hood of your business/product 16:00 Dan’s opinion on analog vs digital processing, being involved in both sides 20:00 Analog SSL console mixing setups 26:00 Not reading YouTube comments 36:00 Dealing with self doubt 51:00 Candiria’s guitar/bass relationship, single coil tones for metal 54:00 Paramore’s ‘Riot’ drum sample release 56:00 Dan’s book recommendation: ‘The Art of Electronics’ by Horowitz and Hill And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joel brings Matt Brown on board for this special episode to discuss URM Academy’s Ultimate Drum Production. Curious about what you’ll learn from the Ultimate Drum Production course? You’re in luck. Matt details the course, section by section for us, and provides a bit of insight into how these building blocks can lead to an evolution in your drum productions. “I just can’t even imagine what some of the people are going to be doing with this information five years from now.” - Joel Wanasek ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 4:30 Growing up in the studio environment with father 8:15 Recording drums as the benchmark for engineers 9:45 ‘Speed Mixing’-sized impact on the community 11:00 The anatomy of a Drum overview 14:00 When Joel met Matt the first time 15:30 Drum head importance 24:00 The science and physics of drums 29:00 Ringy snares and overtones 32:00 Paramore Riot! drums 37:00 Tuning and misconceptions about tuning to a note 43:00 Finding the optimum pitch for each individual drum 47:00 The source makeup of drums, mics, room 52:30 How everyone will learn from this class from entry level to seasoned pros 55:20 Cymbals and cymbal choice 58:00 Mixing overview, versatility in different scenarios And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Douglass returns to the show to discuss how to make yourself an invaluable engineer, communicating with artists, and tips for dealing with Pro Tools. John always has amazing knowledge to drop, and this talk is no different. He’s really carving out a spot for himself in the industry, and his insight is invaluable for anyone looking to find their own niche. “Guerrilla recording should be something on people’s minds, because it’s not that hard of a task. You don’t have to have an amazing control room. Just go record.” - John Douglass ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 2:57 Making your room look professional 5:00 Introverts and putting yourself out there for success 17:00 Putting in the work and surround yourself with people who are in the business 30:00 Drum and vocal editing as priorities, PT and vocal editing Fast Tracks 33:55 Communicating with performers effectively 38:16 Good starting points for being an effective drum engineer 50:00 Using Nail The Mix raw tracks as quality reference for your own engineering 59:00 Listening to only frequency band at a time for referencing, MasterCheck 1:08:00 Building a vocabulary of techniques from NTM/Fast Track/podcast 1:13:00 John’s experiences with major label artists/celebrities vs other projects 1:17:00 Recent Pro Tools improvements and Evertune 1:32:00 Speeding up editing and not over-editing Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re going outside the box with photographer and entrepreneur, Alex Morgan, to talk career building, time management, and need to know band photography info. Not only has Alex photographed bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Gojira, and Daath, but, more importantly, he brings a killer entrepreneurial mindset to everything he does. His approach to and passion for his career are things that everyone can take valuable lessons from. “There’s something to be said for conditioning yourself to celebrate other people’s success instead of being jealous of them for having it.” - Alex Morgan ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: 05:20 Providing the “full package” as a new business model 07:09 Why you need to be careful about “specializing” 10:30 Expanding outside your work niche or specific genres 22:00 The importance of in person networking in early career 37:30 Time management and delegation 51:00 Cultivating relationships with Gojira and others 1:04:00 Appreciating others’ success instead of envying 1:25:00 Investing in your own growth, retirement isn’t the goal 1:34:00 Wedding photography - high pressure and risk, flow state 1:45:00 Client/label expectations for band photography 1:55:00 Why bands need experience and self-awareness in image/photo shoots 2:01:30 Go to cameras/lenses, especially for low light And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, James Paul Wisner (Paramore, Dashboard Confessional, Underoath) joins us for a conversation that goes in a ton of interesting directions, from amazing points related to artistry and mindset and deep into the technical end of things. This is an extra long one, people. But we needed that added time to get in all the information that’s in this discussion. James is an amazing producer, and not only does he bring his impressive technical know how to the table, he also has philosophies for approaching his work that anyone could benefit from. “For me, what motivates me, is wanting to get together with a group of talented guys, and bring out what their potential is.” - James Paul Wisner ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: The benefits of being a multi-instrumentalist Doing homework on a band before you get them in the studio Setting clear goals, and making room for potential setbacks Managing your personal space and not allowing negative influences to take hold James’s approach to vocals And much, much more TIME STAMPS: 2:30 Discovering recording and the Beatles around age 11, 4 track + 2 track 12:00 Approaching writing from piano vs guitar 14:00 Multi-instrumentalist, thinking like a drummer 17:40 Listening to a mix of the Beatles with drums up and some Lars Ulrich talk 22:00 Learning about a drummer, talking to bands before production 23:14 Eyal’s metronome tip 30:38 Doing homework on bands before entering the studio 33:00 Importance of inter-band communication 35:00 Getting clear on the goal, be committed to it, but have space for potential bad moments 42:06 Developing vision 43:50 Gut check moment: change or nothing’s going to happen 56:30 Getting new clients, placing ads back in the day 1:00:44 Not letting all the potential reasons that things could go wrong get in your way 1:02:57 Actively removing negative influences, managing your personal space 1:12:00 Getting involved with Further Seems Forever, Underoath, Tooth and Nail records 1:17:00 Working with David Bendeth 1:23:04 Conveying to musicians that simpler is better 1:29:06 James’s approach to tracking vocals 1:32:06 The technical side of things: clocking, high resolution audio, power conditioning 1:44:00 Getting drum sounds, tube traps for home studios 1:48:48 Getting clear and powerful vocals 1:50:33 Handling mix notes 1:58:00 Programming, mixing digital sounds with rock productions 2:02:00 James’s biggest piece of advice for vocal production Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean O’keefe (Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, Plain White T’s) joins us this time to impart some wisdom about committing, not letting deal specifics get in the way of a project, and Developing his workflow during the transition from analog to digital mixing. Sean has worked on a number of successful records and with a bunch of amazing bands. Many of the lessons he’s learned that have made him the stellar producer his is stem from working on analog gear when he started, but those lessons are just as important today. Are you creating, or are you just sitting on iteration after iteration of the same song? “Create. Create something, and do it quickly. Don’t slave. Don’t do revisions. Treat it like it’s an analog console. Create for the purpose of creating. And then move on. And do another one.” - Sean O’Keefe ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: Finishing projects and letting them go out into the world Not letting worrying get in your way The early days of Sean’s career The lessons about committing that he learned working on analog gear Why you shouldn’t be too much of a stickler about deals you’re offered The process behind his recording with Fall Out Boy and others And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode we’re talking about the further adventures of drum genius, Matt Brown. This time we’re delving deeper Matt’s drumming and production career history, how to bounce back when the universe throws you a curveball, and studio construction. “If you sit there and dwell on something you make that a reality. If I’m going to make my own reality, I’m going to make it what I want it to be.” - Matt Brown ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT: - Matt’s experience teaching at the URM Summit - The individual sounds of good drummers - Matt’s background and how he began drumming and working in audio - Rebounding from failures and struggles - Studio construction - And much, much more Thanks for listening! Leave us a comment or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices