It’s complicated…my relationship with the guitar, that is. The classic on-again/off-again saga has gone on so long that sometimes I look at my guitar and ask myself, “What is this thing?” What was once a would-be chick magnet turned into a pivotal career tool that led me to Los Angeles and onto multi-platinum recordings…but I never considered myself to be a real player. Well, not the kind of player that I hoped to be when I started out. When I was 8 years old, family-mandate

Not-So-Level Headed I don’t think that rock is dead, but I find myself nervously checking its pulse more frequently these days. And while the coroners of rock are mostly fixated on its front-facing performers, sometimes it’s a good idea to take the temperature of their enablers – a little health check for the people, like me, who largely work behind the scenes. Could your mixes be the nail in the rock n’ roll coffin? Regardless of your answer, you may be surprised to hear th

Secrets of the Masters: Dokken’s “Dream Warriors" By Frank Gryner (originally published in Premier Guitar) Daryl Dragon (the Captain of Captain and Tennille) boasted that his 10,000 sq/ft studio nestled in the asphyxiating deep valley provided a low pressure and creative environment for his clients. Well, in early 1987 that comfort may have offset rising tension between members of the pop-metal band Dokken. Well-documented animosity shared by singer Don Dokken and guitar le

Recording Heavy Guitars By Frank Gryner (originally published in Recording Magazine) Back when defiance was the primary sponsor for monster guitar tone, outcast rockers earned every second of that sustain with an attitude that would go on to change the world. Turning against the very technology that was originally built for clean amplification, an overdriven guitar offered a cutting-edge brand of rebellion—one capable of simultaneously offending your parents and getting you l

Spectral Dynamic Processing for Guitars By Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Up until the last decade, spectral dynamic processing or multi-band compression was largely reserved for mastering and broadcast applications. The concept of allowing an engineer individual dynamic control over the separate sectors of the frequency spectrum is often looked upon as a corrective measure for an entire mix and less as a recording or mixing staple for separate instruments

Dynamic Guitar Tone Sculpting by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Last time we focused on multiband compression as a corrective measure used to fix problematic guitar tracks as opposed to viewing it as a viable creative tool to enhance your guitar tone. Being able to compress designated frequency bands separately that then blend into one sound can get a little confusing. Old school audio engineers often contend that spectral dynamic processing is dangerous i

Secrets of the Masters: Rob Zombie's "Dragula" By Frank Gryner (originally published in Premier Guitar) Specializing in mix re-creations for so many classic rock tracks, I can’t help but to be extremely critical of how a lot of these well-known songs were recorded. I know that those engineers would never imagine that their audio would be audited so long after the album was mixed and mastered, but new technology has exhumed the old reels to reveal the mummified state of those

The Thankless Job of Vocal Comping By Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Okay, so you’ve just siphoned every last discernable noise from your singer’s mouth onto your hard drive and you have several complete, top-to-bottom vocal tracks to show for it. What’s next? Well, now comes the underappreciated task of vocal comping—when you edit the best moments from each of these takes and ‘compile’ a master vocal track Comping at the Bit Whether you’ve just recorded th

Secrets of the Masters: Deep Purple's "Smoke on the By Frank Gryner (originally published in Premiere Guitar) Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” features one of the most recognizable guitar riffs of all time…and while it’s more likely to walk into your local music store and hear it being played incorrectly, the fact that young players would even want to play this 40 year old rock relic is a testament to its timelessness. Like many legendary recordings, conflicting accounts o

Secrets of the Masters: Foreigner's "Dirty Little White Boy" By Frank Gryner (originally published in Premier Guitar) I consider it a privilege just to be able to hear the raw multi tracks of some of rock ‘n roll’s most famous recordings, so being a part of the engineering team whose job it is to recreate these classic mixes for use in Jammit software is beyond exhilarating. “Dirty White Boy” by Foreigner is one of many classic rock songs featured in Jammit, and I thought i

Recording Inexperienced Singers By Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Sesame Street Cred Some of the best advice can come from the most unlikely places, but I think it’s ironic when the direction we need has been under our noses the whole time. Like a lot of people, when I was a kid, Sesame Street introduced me to the song “Sing” which was also a big hit for the Carpenters in 1973. These days the message of this song may seem naïve and simplistic, but when sup

Help for the Technically-Challenged by Frank Gryner via your friends & family (as published in Recording Magazine) We’ve assembled here because we care about you. It has become clear to the friends and family in this room that your avoidance of technology in the name of artistry, has negatively impacted your songwriting. Despite your obvious passion for music, you’re continuously blocking your own path of creativity by acquiring several bad habits that we intend to address

An Epidemic That Affects Recording Songwriters by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Matthew Good's definition of demoitis is "what happens when you listen to one version of something so much that when it's properly recorded it's difficult to accept." Most recording songwriters are afflicted by the epidemic of demoitis. If you're one of them, then an inexplicable attachment to the original "demo" version can have you running in circles trying to re-create "the

Drum Mixing Part IV by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) We have covered kick, snare and overheads over the past several months, giving them the kind of individual attention for which there is no substitute. Now we're moving on to the global treatment of these elements (plus room mics)-this will make a significant difference in how your drums perform in the mix. A lot of people ask me how I get my drums to "slam" in the track. Getting something to sound "loud"

Drum Mixing Part III by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) I see a lot of mix engineers allocate most of their time to carving out kick and snare drum tones and then proceed to apathecally throw the overhead tracks in there as an obligatory afterthought. The overheads may not have the crowd-pleasing effect of the air-moving thud of a layered kick drum, or the crack and smooth decay of your snare scenario, but without the rest of the kit, those elements would so

Drum Mixing Part II by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Dear Mix Engineer, I have a bone to pick with you. After having undergone a great deal of tuning, strategic damping, and having microphones moved in and out of me, I felt as though my true tone was captured on tracking day. Notwithstanding the makeshift piss blanket tent I endured for isolation, my full tone and in-your-face cttock was pretty much recorded the way I sound from down here. So you can imagi

Drum Mixing Part I by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) Over the years, multi tracking has allowed us to do some pretty inhuman things with the natural sound of a snare, but the trick is to be able to get it to sound how you want it come mix time . This can be a tall order given the lackluster sound of most closemiked snare tracks. As a mixer, I've grown accustomed to inheriting the problems passed down from tracking sessions where poorly placed mics, clipping

Recording The Rhythmically Challenged by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) With some focus on keeping everyone solution-oriented and somewhat creative, there are ways to get pro-sounding drum tracks from a semi-pro player without resorting to tedious beat-by-beat editing or sterile auto-alignment utilities. Less Human than Human I think this ranks number two on my list of Technological Advancements That Have Contributed to the Demise of Good Music. Grid-based

Have You Done Your Pre-Pre-Production? by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) re·cord v. (ri-kawrd) 1. to set down for preservation in permanent form. 2. to serve, to relate, or to tell of for the purpose of preserving knowledge or information. One of the first questions I ask a band before I work with them is: "Why are you making all this noise?" The answer can solidify the direction of a recording project and provide a focus by which many production decisions

Dealing with Problematic Acoustic Guitars by Frank Gryner (as published in Recording Magazine) I typically avoid recording Ovation bowl-back guitars as I generally favor big, open, natural tone out of an acoustic instrument. When given no alternative but to track one of these guitars, you can get very good results by minding some basic principles. The advice I'll be passing along in this column should also work for any cheaper acoustic guitar from which you may be expected to