In this episode of MakeMineMusic, Marc Daniel Nelson goes through his all-time top 10 recording and producing music books. Watch as he describes why these are so special to him and will share 1 trick from each book.
Number 10
Studio Stories by David Simon
As part of these stories, Bill Ramone discusses recording the band. As a performing band, he questioned why it wasn’t sounding so great. What he did was bring everybody together (common sense today) and use the bleed to his advantage. For example, just because you’re moving your piano away doesn’t mean it is helping whilst in isolation.
As the piano is moved further away, what is it doing is creating phase and the low end of the drums will leak in to the piano no matter what.
Tip: Move the piano as close as you can in the band and use that inevitable leakage to your advantage. The recordings will feel glued and punchier.
Number 9
Sound Man by Glyn Johns
Everybody knows Glyn Jones and this is THE definitive biography. Glyn specifically goes in to the band playing together as a team. Of course, again, it’s common sense today but as a biographical book, he goes in to great depths about working with the Beatles – exactly as we see in the TV series, “Get Back”. Glyn Jones pushes to ensure The Beatles are playing together and by the end of the three-part series, the magic is finally there.
Even in modern times working with Ryan Adams, he still put the band in the rom together at Sunset Sound. It may be common sense today but it all came from somewhere. The stories from Glyn’s time in the studio are essential to understand how and why we do what we do today.
Number 8
In The Studio with Michael Jackson by Bruce Swedien
Bruce Swedien worked together as “brothers” with Quincy Jones. Working with Michael was no different.
In this trick, Bruce talks about mixing the Electric Bass guitar and how to get the definition of the notes without too much low, mid or top end.
Bruce simply adds 800hz to the bass to bring out definition to the note. The second Marc Daniel Nelson did this, the more the bass started to pop out of the mix.
Why 800hz? It’s percussive enough without bringing too much snappy harshness to compete with the drums
Number 7
Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust by Ken Scott
From this book, Ken discusses recording drum overheads with a pair of Beyerdynamic’s M 160. These microphones are hyper-cardioid ribbon mics with tiny capsules and ribbons. They work really well with small rooms and are inexpensive. If you’re using a large-diaphragm tube mic and the drummer isn’t great at controlling himself, you get a washy boxy sound. These Beyerdynamic microphones are really well at controlling everything within the space and mix.
Try them out!
Number 6
The Magic Behind The Music by Al Scmhidt.
Whatever Al does is effortless. In this story-telling book on his life and journey, he discusses using microphones based on colours and even prefers to chose them over choosing an EQ to use when mixing. With there not being many choices available for EQs and with the bands playing together in the same room, your microphones were the EQ to use on that session.
Mixing upright piano from behind – A lot of people mic it from the front – open it up and put the mic in the front but it adds a lot of attack.
But if you want a nice low-mid sound that an upright gives you, put a pair on the back.
Number 5
Making Rumours by Ken Caillat.
Getting players to get in the mindset of making magic. It took over a year and a half with many technical issues.
Kan dives in to how Varispeed and half-speed recording and tracking was used on this album to season the guitars further and gives it the sound of a 12 string or high-strung guitar.
Number 4
Recording The Beatles – Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew
The holy grail.
Whilst this book could taken apart in its own series of articles and videos, the one trick we’re discussing today is using the compressor for drums and bass together. What this does is act as the glue when the feeling band is not connected or not in unison.
Use a Fairchild on the drums and bass together and it will tighten them up.
Number 3
Behind The Glass by Howard Massey
This series of books is filled with a lot of studio stories and recording techniques.
Elliot Scheider discusses recording acoustic guitar using the Shure SM81 – For a relatively inexpensive microphone, this comes with a very specific sound for such a small diaphragm condenser.
Number 2
Here, There & Everywhere – Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey
Recording Electric Bass on Sg Pepper, Geoff used a figure-8 C12 on the bass over an Omni or cardioid.
Using the C12, he placed it 7 ft from the amp and got the amplifier’s direct sound and the room, created a nice glued effect.
The bass is all about the room you place it in.
Number 1
Chairman at the board by Bell Schnee
Critical Listening – above every trick you can learn, what compressor mic to use – everything starts with how you are hearing it.
Understanding specific parts of audio – it’s more about listening properly and understanding why things sound great or not. If you don’t have ways to compare, it’s really hard to understand how it is.
Over time it is like exercising and you start to understand things are good but also why things are better.
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Marc Daniel Nelson is a Grammy and French Academy Award-nominated mixing engineer, music producer and creative director. He has been mixing, producing and managing creative content for over 20 years.
His Music Credits include Fleetwood Mac, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, Need To Breathe, Eric Burdon / Ben Harper, Francesca Battistelli, Robert Duvall, Ozomotli, Reik and more. As Protégé for both legendary producer / engineer Bill Schnee and Ken Caillat, Marc has carried the torch for impeccable quality sound and production.
His film credits include Solo, Blade Runner 2049, Arcane, The Vietnam War, Mulan, The Expanse, Wild Horses, Point Break, No Manches Frida, Fractured, Amanda, Father Figures, Ya, Ty, Vin, Vona and more.
His creative management credits include executive producing the 13 episode PBS television series, creating and executive producing the national video campaign for Guitar Center and creative directing for Alcon Sleeping Giant, ArtistMax and Warner Chappell PM.
Watch the video below to learn more about his top 10 audio engineers books!