Mix With The Masters - Steve Albini

When we were planning to move to Paris mid-October 2015 and I heard that Steve Albini, with whom I’d previously studied recording, would be doing another week-long recording seminar in France, I jumped at the chance to do it again. So only days after arriving, I hopped on a train to Avignon and, with only eleven other recording engineers, studied analog tape machine alignment, microphone selection and placement, use of outboard equipment, mixing techniques, and recording tape “circus tricks” like splicing, spot erasing, and banding. It being my second time around, I didn’t learn quite as much as the first time, but still soaked up an enormous amount of information. Steve is highly knowledgeable without being a know-it-all, and he is totally transparent about his ideas and processes. This time around I had more analog specific questions for him, mostly about the recording I had been making with Carbolizer (fka Field Assembly). The tape machine we’d been using was the same model as the first one Albini owned, so he was the perfect person to offer guidance. Just got Carbolizer’s album back from mastering, so look out for that. It crushes. One of the more important things I learned in the South of France, though, was that I love Comté cheese like nothing else in life.