[Katie Tavini is a professional audio engineer (producing, tracking, mixing, mastering) who began working at Limefield Studio in 2009. She now works as a freelance engineer throughout the UK across wide variety of genres. She also still regularly works from Limefield Studio (Manchester), but really enjoys working in different environments and acoustic spaces. She’s keen to take projects into new studios and can frequently be found with a bag full of gear heading out to work on location. She’s known for having amassed a selection of unusual microphones, that she’s keen to bring along to any studio or location recording.]
As a female engineer I feel pretty strongly about this!
My first degree course at Uni was Acoustics and Audio systems—I was the only girl out of 120 guys and absolutely hated it! But at 18, I didn’t know any better. I then went on to do a Music degree, majoring in classical violin performance, arrangement and recording studies.
I loved this, as we were pretty much just left to our own devices in the studio, and you found that the people who really wanted to do it came out with a great portfolio, and the people who weren’t that interested gradually stopped using the studios.
It was interesting to see that most of the people who weren’t really interested in audio were females. I think a lot of girls don’t really have that much of an interest in learning how to wire up a studio, or if they do get studio work and they realize that they’ll be sleeping on the floor of the studio and working away from home for the next two months they lose interest.
However, the female engineers I do know who have persevered with it now all have great reputations and are putting out some amazing work of a really high standard.
I’ve had some funny experiences from men in studios but I’m sure every female engineer has, at the end of the day if you’re passionate about something enough to make it your life then you’ll ignore it and focus on the main priority—helping bands make great new music.
Thanks,
Katie Tavini
UPDATE: We’ve got a killer new video on this very subject. The original blog post follows after this video:
As a Studio One user, you’re well aware that SoundCloud® has rapidly turned into the “YouTube of music discovery.” We’ve offered the capability to upload directly to SoundCloud from Studio One since version 1.1, and chances are, you probably already have music available for streaming from your SoundCloud account.
Streaming is nice, but did you also know that you can add a “buy” button to your SoundCloud player? All you need is music available for sale in your free Nimbit account, and you’re ready to sell to the millions of fans who listen music on SoundCloud every day.
Hmm…SoundCloud and Nimbit, what a coincidence… Starting with version 2.0.6, Studio One can now also upload your music to Nimbit.
Here’s how to add “Buy” buttons for your songs on SoundCloud that are available for sale on Nimbit:
1. Get the deep link for the track you want to sell from your Nimbit store by visiting your store, clicking the share button between the play button and track name, and copying the link that appears.
2. Now, go to your track on SoundCloud that you want to sell, and click the edit button. It looks like a Pencil.
3. On the “Info Page That Loads” click “Show More Options”
4. Paste your Nimbit Link in the “Buy link” field
5. Your SoundCloud Player will now display a Buy Button, check it out below. I’ve embedded the actual player for the track I used in this demo so you can see for yourself. For the purpose of the demo, I set the price for this track to free, but you can set the price in Nimbit to whatever you want or to “Name Your Price” to let fans pay what they want.
Watch the video below to learn more about Nimbit.
[This just in from John Tulley, recording engineer for Twin Killers!]
The StudioLive 24.4.2 and Studio One 2.5 work so great together. Twin Killers music has a very eclectic sound palette and during the recording process the creative flow is quickly shifting through ideas and sonic spaces. The mixer/DAW combo allows me to get sounds dialed in quickly, without a rack full of gear, print awesome sounds and keep the creative process flowing. The layout always makes sense and is very clean. You’d be hard pressed to get so much power out of any other two tools while always remaining to stay in such a musical headspace!”
[UPDATE: Here’s a handy PDF of all the ADL 700 dealers. You’re welcome!]
No compromises. This is, hands-down, our finest tube preamp to date. And while we hope you believe us, fact is that “must be heard to be believed” really is true. So, we’d like you to check out the following video starring PreSonus Artist Briana Tyson her cadre of usual suspects from around the PreSonus office. This video, a very special episode of PreSonus LIVE, feature the entire band running through ADL 600 and ADL 700 preamps. Guitars, keys, bass, overheads—everything.
We recognize that YouTube’s streaming audio quality is going to be a bottleneck here, so we are encouraging those interested in the ADL 700 Channel Strip to find one at their nearby US PreSonus dealer. We’ve arranged an elite team of dealers who have agreed to set up in-store demo units of the ADL 700 so you can pop in and experience it for yourself. They are:
Pure Wave Audio
Tucson
248 W. Elm St, 85705
(520) 622-3895
www.purewaveaudio.com
Westlake Audio
North Hollywood
4101 Lankershim Blvd.
(323) 845-1145
www.westlakepro.com
GC Pro
Sherman Oaks
14209 Ventura Blvd.
(818) 990-8332
www.guitarcenter.com
GC Pro
West LA
10831 West Pico Blvd.
(310) 475-0637
www.guitarcenter.com
GC Pro
Hollywood
7425 Sunset Blvd.
(323) 874-1060
www.guitarcenter.com
Sonic Sense Denver
1500 West Hampden Avenue, Suite 3H
(303) 753-0201
www.sonicsense.com
Sweetwave Audio
Louisville
1795 Plaza Drive
(303) 258-0563
www.sweetwaveaudio.com
GC Pro
Hallandale
1101 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd.
(954) 456-7890
www.guitarcenter.com
Sam Ash Tampa
Tampa
7726 Cheri Ct.
(813) 888-7876
www.samash.com
Sam Ash Miami Lakes
Miami Lakes
5360 NW 167th St.
(305) 628-3510
www.samash.com
GC Pro
Atlanta
1485 Northeast Expy
(404) 320-7253
www.guitarcenter.com
GC Pro
Central Chicago
2633 North Halsted
(773) 248-2808
www.guitarcenter.com
Sweetwater
Fort Wayne
5501 U.S. Hwy 30 W
(800) 222-4700
www.sweetwater.com
GC Pro
Boston
1255 Boylston St.
(617) 247-1389
www.guitarcenter.com
Washington Music Center
Wheaton
11151 Veirs Mill Road
(301) 946-8808
www.chucklevins.com
Swift Music
Saint Paul
771 Raymond Ave
(651) 330-4738
www.swiftmusic.net
Springfield
Audio Acoustics, Inc.
800 N. Cedarbrook
(417)869-0770
www.proaudiosuperstore.com
B&H Photo and Video
New York
420 9th Ave. at 34th St.
(800) 606-6969
www.bhphotovideo.com
Dale Pro Audio
New York
22 W 19th St
(888) 462-7828
www.daleproaudio.com
GC Pro
Manhattan
25 W. 14th Street
(212) 463-7500
www.guitarcenter.com
Sam Ash Carle Place
Carle Place
385 Old Country Rd
(516) 333-8700
www.samash.com
Sam Ash Manhattan
New York City
333 West 34th
212) 719-2299
www.samash.com
Sam Ash Charlotte
Charlotte
5533 Westpark Drive
(704) 522-9253
www.samash.com
GC Pro
Nashville
721 Thompson Lane
(615) 297-7770
www.guitarcenter.com
Sam Ash Nashville
Madison
1647 Gallatin Pike North
(615) 860-7475
www.samash.com
Rock & Roll Rentals
Austin
1420 W Oltorf
(512) 447-5305
www.rocknrollrentals.com
Sam Ash San Antonio
San Antonio
25 NE Loop 410 at McCullough
(210) 530-9777
www.samash.com
GC Pro
Dallas
814 N Central Expy
(214) 692-9999
www.guitarcenter.com
Full Compass Madison
9770 Silicon Prairie
Parkway
(800) 356-5844
www.fullcompass.com
Studio Economik
215 St-Augustin
Montreal, Quebec
Canada, H4C2N7
(514)-937-2000
www.economik.com
American Musical Supply
(800) 458-4076
www.americanmusical.com/PreSonus
Musician’s Friend
800-449-9128
www.musiciansfriend.com
Sound Pure
(888) 528-9703
www.soundpure.com
Vintage King
(888) 653-1184 ext 3
www.vintageking.com
[This just in from Fluff, AKA GuitaristFacts, who has an absolutely KILLER YouTube channel full of heavy metal riffage, gear demos, facial hair, and all the endeavors where the three coincide. He produces his videos as skillfully as produces his music, and he’s chosen some PreSonus gear to help him along the way. He was kind enough to share a few paragraphs about his recording tricks and experiences with PreSonus gear.]
Hello, my name is Ryan, but my friends call me “Fluff.” I make guitar-related gear demos on YouTube in my home studio for companies all over the world. Pickups, speakers, guitars, pedals, microphones, you name it. I also produce the occasional record and re-amp guitars for rock albums, and record about five days a week. For all of this work, I rely exclusively on couple of pieces PreSonus gear that I simply would be lost without.
I should probably mention that I try to capture every kind of guitar tone, from brutal to chiming. In order to produce a wide array of tones, I need an interface that offers flexible signal routing, low latency and high-quality instrument inputs, as well as low noise on the outputs. The PreSonus FireStudio Project is perfectly suited for all of these needs. Two instrument inputs, (I keep one set for guitar, one set for bass) loads of inputs and outputs and +48V power when needed to run my condenser microphone for when I do voice work. WIN!
I also use the PreSonus Studio Channel as my go-to mic preamp. The built-in EQ and compression make it extremely versatile for clean guitar tracks, vocals, huge distorted guitars, and bass cabinets. I am also a tube nut, and I find that replacing the stock tube (a high-gain tube with good midrange) with an inexpensive NOS 12AX7 JAN tube (usually about $30 on eBay) can really round off the harsh highs I sometimes experience while recording high-gain guitars, and fattens up my signal prior to going into my FireStudio Project.
When it comes time to record, I use a Heil PR30 about 90% of the time for guitars, as that mic has a very flat frequency response. Knowing this, I can get the microphone placed in the ballpark (usually around the area where the dust cap meets the speaker cone, on-axis) and then use the Studio Channel’s EQ to fine tune the highs and mids (I typically boost about 2dB in the 3K range with a medium Q) until I find a nice sonic pocket for the guitars to sit in the mix. If I want to add a bit of flavor, I will add a Shure SM57 plugged directly into the FireStudio Project and then bring the volume up on the SM57 to add some bite and ‘oomph’ for palm mutes on the distorted guitars.
As for the aforementioned re-amping, I plug straight into the FireStudio Project and adjust the input level so I am seeing an average -16dB, with peaks no louder than -12dB. This way I have some wiggle room when outputting the DI through my re-amping box (I use a Radial ProRMP), as sometimes I need a stronger signal to go over a long lead or something like that.
I am asked quite often which interface people should get when diving into home recording, and I always say PreSonus for two reasons: first, they have the computer driver experience that allows their products to work the first time, right out of them box, problem-free. Second, the customer service and support is outstanding. I found out first hand when I called about my 8-year-old FirePod interface and was treated like I was in The Rolling Stones.
Seriously, why can’t more companies operate this way?
-Fluff
[This just in from Mauricio Yáñez Polloni, of our distributor partner, Croma Limitada.]
The guy at the StudioLives in these pictures is Mauricio Romero, my friend, who has lived for 10 years on Rapa Nui! He did all the audio production for the Tapati, an annual festival that lasts for 10 days! Tapati was first performed during the first ten days of February, 1975. The festival began as a one among islanders, but now is an instance to share culture with tourists visiting around that time of year.
Two linked StudioLive 16.4.2s were the heart of the sound of this important event, running the live sound and recording the bands simultaneously. The show was recorded in Capture and then edited, mixed, and mastered in Studio One 2.5.
Mauricio Romero is the founder of the most important sound company of the island, Matau Producciones. He also has produced many albums with ethnic music of Rapa Nui.
This year, Matau Producciones did all sound and lighting for Tapati as well. Saludos!
Hey! If you missed this incredible presentation, it’s no big deal. Because you can see it on YouTube. Or heck, just click that familiar little triangle-shaped “Play” button below.
We flew Briana in to Baton Rouge, assembled a killer band, and had them track a few songs using Rick’s monster rack of ADL 600 and ADL 700 preamps—because we can. EVERY channel of audio in this production was run through the ADLs. How do you think it sounds?
“Damn, these sound awesome on acoustic guitars! Can’t wait to start recording vocals!”
Warren working hard at Dockside, but we have more to come on this story in the coming weeks as production on this record continues. Stay tuned!