Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast

Kurt Ballou is known for having one of the rawest most brutal signature production styles. His records burst with pummeling grit, yet they're always punchy and huge.

We sat down and discussed the method behind his sonic madness with a focus on guitar tone, as well as how he built and maintained his career.

One of the most prolific producers in metal/hardcore/punk, Kurt Ballou worked with a laundry list of bands including everyone from Champion and Have Heart to Kvelertak, Cave In and Nails. He also plays guitar in Converge, one of the most influential hardcore bands of the past two decades (currently on their eighth album).

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

- Kurt Ballou's thoughts on studio etiquete

- Surgical EQ tips

- Balancing budget vs time

- The difference between panning space and reverb space

- Cool uses for saturation plug ins

- Using notches instead of low pass filters

- The science of sound

- Of course pedals and cab!

- Smoothing out harsh upper mids

Links:

Kurt Ballou's Studio 

Kurt Ballou's discography

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“I’m always trying to up my game.” -Ola Englund

In the modern music industry musicians and engineers must learn to wear multiple hats in order to succeed. You might have to balance your time as a guitarist, songwriter, mixer, videographer, and blogger just to make ends meet. That’s the new normal. 

In this episode Ola Englund (The Haunted, Feared, Ex-Six Feet Under) talks about his guitar playing, techniques, studio experience, and how he accomplished a breakout success with his YouTube channel.

“If you make good content, the infrastructure is there for you to get your name out.” - Ola Englund

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

Tips for developing your ears

How to dial amp sims for consistency

Ola’s sweet spot for micing cabs

The importance of video in an oversaturated market

How Ola Englund started in YouTube 

OE’s stance on cheaper series guitars vs small company boutiques. 

Ola’s practice/warm-up routine or lack thereof

 

Links: 

Ernie Ball

Ola Englund

Ola England - YouTube

Feared - Facebook

The Haunted - Facebook

Apogee

Torpedo Reload Booster

FabFilter

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We discuss some of our favorite drum mixing techniques.

If you don’t have a great drum mix, you don’t have a mix. This can be intimidating because there are so many moving pieces to deal with. The first thing you need to get right is your overall balance. Without that your drums will either lose energy or sound disjointed.

Once you nail an initial balance then you can start working on individual elements like how much energy is being driven by the kick, or dialing a slamming snare.

“50 to 60 percent of my snare sound doesn’t come from the actual snare.” - Joey Sturgis

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

- Joey’s favorite methods for compressing drums

- How to get a big roomy snare sound

- The importance of overall balances

- To parallel compress or to not parallel compress

- Using multi-band compression to control the low end of a kick

- Drum mixing automation tricks

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Luck is the meeting place of preparation and opportunity. Nobody knows that better than Josh Newell, who is regarded for his genre spanning work with artists such as Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, Cynic, Intronaut, Celine Dion, and more.

On this episode we discuss how Josh Newell has managed to work his way to the top LA production circles, the difference between producing pop and metal, what it takes to maintain a long career, as well as many of his favorite mixing techniques.

If you want to work in big studios, on various different genres, for lots of different producers, this episode is for you.

“If someone sings better upside-down, figure out a way to fuckin’ hang them upside down!” - Joey Sturgis

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

How to build intentional relationships

How to spot and seize great opportunities

The power of word of mouth

How he became Linkin Park’s go-to engineer

Josh’s take on Andy Wallace’s mixing style

How to find “the hook”

Links:

Josh Newell's website

NRG Studios

CreativeLIVE audio courses

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John Douglass shares how he mastered drum editing and quit his day job.

What are the #1 and #2 skills and traits that will get and keep your employment as an audio engineer?

1 - You must be reliable

2 - You must be an amazing editor

John Douglass has worked his way up from being a kid with a laptop in a bedroom to working with some of the biggest artists in pop and metal. And he did it by becoming the best at crucial things that nobody else wants to do, like drum editing. If you want to up your drum editing game and turn audio into a full-time career, this episode is for you.

John Douglass is an accomplished engineer/mixer/producer, having packed an impressive number and variety of credits into his five years as an audio professional. In the studio, he has worked with metal artists such as Battlecross, Cryptopsy, The Contortionist, Assassins, and Hypno5e in addition to pop artists such as Katy Perry, Nelly, TI, and Rick Ross.

In addition to being an amazing engineer, he has also been an editor for Eyal Levi, Joey Sturgis, Will Putney, Andrew Wade, Jason Suecof, and Mark Lewis. He is an encyclopedia of engineering knowledge and a ninja of workflow.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Drum editing

- Finding and keeping work as an audio engineer

- Locking phase during edits

- Using Quick Keys and batch commands for an efficient workflow

- Transient alignment

Links:

John Douglass's Website

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Finn Mckenty (CreativeLIVE, The Punk Rock MBA) joins us to discuss the inner workings of songwriting, creation of a unique point of view, and effective marketing for bands and producers in the fast-paced, highly competitive creative world of today.

To say that today’s recording market is oversaturated would be an understatement. It’s more important than ever for producers to adopt effective and engaging ways to promote themselves. However, most think that self-promotion equals salesy spamming and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hit play to find out the right way to promote yourself.

“At the end of the day there are no secrets, just attention to detail and a lot of hard work. That's the difference between the pros and the beginners.” - Finn McKenty

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

Product market fit

How to get an internship

Developing your unique voice or sound

The importance of high standards and how to maintain them

Standing out in a crowded market

The difference between part writing and songwriting

What attention to detail really means

What the pros share that amateurs don’t

Links:

CreativeLIVE

The Punk Rock MBA

Eyal’s CreativeLIVE songwriting class

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Joey Sturgis shares his In The Box mastering tips and tricks.

Out of the three of us, Joey Sturgis has done the most mastering and in fact, he's never had one of his mixes mastered by an outside engineer. He's totally self-taught and responsible for several chart-topping masters. In this episode, he shares some of his most effective mastering techniques.

Joey dives into his process, and how goes about getting the last 5 to 10% out of the track, using tools such as saturation, harmonic exciters, processors like Waves MaxxBass and spatial treatment.

“Having your mix unmastered is kind of like having a product on the shelf that doesn’t look like it was put together by a designer” - Joey Sturgis

In This Episode You'll Learn about:

Joey's goto mastering plugins

Multi-band compression

The loudness war

Dithering

Saturation in mastering

Best uses for Izotope Ozone

Enhancing the low end for small speakers

Limiting vs clipping

Mid-Side processing

Links:

Fuck 4k Plugin and Shirt

Waves MaxxBass

Fab Filter Pro-Mb

Izotope Ozone

Waves LinMB

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Joey, Eyal, and Joel are joined by mastering legend Bob Katz for some rousing discussion about the current state of recording and what it actually takes to create professional-sounding mixes and masters.

It's really common for people to want presets and templates, however, mastering is always a case of figuring out what specific situations require. You can’t just slap the same plugins with the same settings on everything. You must diagnose each situation individually, and then apply the correct processing.

Learn about what it takes to master at the very highest levels of the game from a true legend and innovator, Bob Katz.

“It’s like putting salt and pepper on your food before you taste it.” - Bob Katz

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

- Bob’s minimum specs for a monitoring setup

- The truth about mastering for iTunes

- Bob’s approach towards M/S processing

- Stem mastering

- The use of saturation in multiple genres

- The NS10 phenomenon

Links:

Bob Katz's website

Mastering Audio - Bob Katz's book

Bob Katz's K-Meter plugin

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Welcome to #MasteringCritMonday, the show where we critique YOUR mastering.

Prolific mastering engineer, Maor Appelbaum stopped by to help us critique some listener-submitted mastering work.

In this episode you'll learn about:

Nice and loud vs fatiguing to listen to

What to submit to a mastering engineer

Adding low end without destroying the track

When to apply a heavy-handed mastering approach

Maor's favorite outboard gear

Adding treble without harshness

Mastering for vinyl

Links:

Maor's website

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Alan Douches is one of the most recognizable names in mastering when it comes to any genre of heavy music.

With over 6000 mastering credits to his name with artists ranging from Mastodon to Whitechapel to Bowling For Soup Alan Douches has become one of the most in demand engineers in the world.

We spoke at length about so many things that it's hard to summarize. Alan shared great advice for up and comers as well as lots of great mastering tips.

“What are you pretending not to know?” - Alan Douches

Topics:

- Steps to take when mastering for vinyl

- What mastering for Itunes entails

- Analog mastering tips

- The science of listening

- Using dynamics to control your EQ

Links:

Alan Douche's Mastering Studio

Pendulum Compressor

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