Glenn Fricker/Spectre Sound Studios

digitalscream

Hey all...

OK, so this is a bit of a promotion thing, but bear with me. If any of you guys are getting into recording, the Spectre Sound Studios YouTube channel might be very useful. No, it's not mine - it's Glenn Fricker's channel (aka The Shouty Canadian). He's got a lot of great guides to recording (including tracking and mixing drums, which I've found to be a goldmine), and as a bonus he uses Reaper (a lot of people are starting out with it these days) and shows how he mixes drums and guitars using only free plugins.

You can find him here:

Spectre Sound Studios

Helpfully, he's put together a bunch of playlists for his tutorial videos too:

Playlists here

He also runs competitions and giveaways, which are generally only for people who've signed up to his newsletter (which also has bonus unlisted videos). You can sign up here:

http://www.spectremedia.ca/newsletter-signup/

In case anyone's wondering why I'm posting this...well, I think it's going to be useful for quite a few people, and he's been kind enough to give us a shout out a few times too so it only seems fair to return the favour.

LuttiS

Agreed - A lot of people (bassists ) don't agree with him but his tutorials are very clear and useful. 

ThorpyFX

Is it good for total recording beginners?

vasselmeyer

Plus you got a namecheck and a guest star spot in his Helix Plugin review 

digitalscream

ThorpyFX said:

Is it good for total recording beginners?

I'd say so, yes. Certainly helped me a lot when I was getting a bit more into it.

vasselmeyer said:

Plus you got a namecheck and a guest star spot in his Helix Plugin review 

Heh...I think I'm going to be on Viewers' Comments this week too, and probably not in a good way

mrleon83

I like his channel it's entertaining but I do feel he can be a bit old school ... he's a funny chap and his hate on line 6 is hilarious 

digitalscream

mrleon83 said:

I like his channel it's entertaining but I do feel he can be a bit old school ... he's a funny chap and his hate on line 6 is hilarious 

Old school - how, out of curiosity?

I do find that he's very insistent on the older ways of doing things ie focusing on getting the setup right so less has to be done in post. Which is great, because that's what I don't know

On the subject of that, he's writing up some guides for tracking/mixing/etc over the next few months, which will be available for free to all newsletter subscribers.

mrleon83

digitalscream said:

mrleon83 said:

I like his channel it's entertaining but I do feel he can be a bit old school ... he's a funny chap and his hate on line 6 is hilarious 

Old school - how, out of curiosity?

I do find that he's very insistent on the older ways of doing things ie focusing on getting the setup right so less has to be done in post. Which is great, because that's what I don't know

On the subject of that, he's writing up some guides for tracking/mixing/etc over the next few months, which will be available for free to all newsletter subscribers.

I mean in exactly the way you say, that things need to be done in a certain way, he seems to specialize in old school metal so it's all good and I'm sure he's awesome at those mixes 

as I say, I'm a fan it's just the 'my way or the highway' thing kinda pangs  .. my personal favorite is the recording revolution oh and warren huarts channel is awesome too ...

digitalscream

mrleon83 said:

digitalscream said:

mrleon83 said:

I like his channel it's entertaining but I do feel he can be a bit old school ... he's a funny chap and his hate on line 6 is hilarious 

Old school - how, out of curiosity?

I do find that he's very insistent on the older ways of doing things ie focusing on getting the setup right so less has to be done in post. Which is great, because that's what I don't know

On the subject of that, he's writing up some guides for tracking/mixing/etc over the next few months, which will be available for free to all newsletter subscribers.

I mean in exactly the way you say, that things need to be done in a certain way, he seems to specialize in old school metal so it's all good and I'm sure he's awesome at those mixes 

as I say, I'm a fan it's just the 'my way or the highway' thing kinda pangs  .. my personal favorite is the recording revolution oh and warren huarts channel is awesome too ...

Yup. I've found that a lot of the better engineers are very much like that - get it right up-front - partly because it usually results in a better end-result, and partly because that's where the real skill in their profession lies. A lot of the newer guys rely more on the tools and plugins to fix mistakes made early on, which is basically program knowledge over skill.

The best results are probably going to come from applying both. Personally, I have neither, which is why I always end up paying somebody else to do it for me

vasselmeyer

He's probably right in  that. It's difficult to polish a turd...

sgosden

vasselmeyer said:

Plus you got a namecheck and a guest star spot in his Helix Plugin review 

I did wonder who that was. Now I know.

Not sure what to do with this new found information.

digitalscream

sgosden said:

Not sure what to do with this new found information.

How about "Be very very nice about it, for he wields the banhammer"?

Drew_TNBD

digitalscream said:

 which is why I always end up paying somebody else to do it for me

GIVE ME MOAR MONUEYY!!

guitarfishbay

I watch Glenn's channel every now and then, he strikes me as someone that'd be fun to hang out with.  He posted on webforums for years prior to doing his channel and I've read several useful posts of his over the years IIRC.

---

Regarding learning - If you're serious about learning I'd suggest recording a song from start to finish with a producer who has done stuff you like.  I reckon I've spent about a decade trying to teach myself to not suck at music and I've learned more in less than a week's worth of time spread out with a few knowledgeable people than I learned on my own with books and YouTube.

LuttiS

Just saw it! Thin stringed princess Made me chuckle ;]