According to Albini in an interview by Chicagoist, his recording studio is constantly working on new projects. They never go by time, and rarely ever run on a schedule. Being that Albini himself is in his own band, he puts other artist's recordings before his own. Using ideas from the production of those artist's albums, he is able to think of new ideas for his own band, Shellac. In the same interview, Albini mentioned that the writing and creating process is very simple and not too elaborate as far as finding new ideas for a project. Someone in the group will come up with an idea, and just like a bill going through houses, the idea will go through and if it survives, it might make it on to an album.
When Albini is mixing for a band, his first step is to sit down with the band and understand what sound they're really looking for. According to a video that I linked in my first post about Albini, Albini does not like to put too much input into the producing of an album for a band. To him, it is not his job to critique their preference or change their style in any way, it is his job to fulfill their request and give them the mix they believe works best for them.
"The band makes literally all the creative decisions along the way, and is responsible for deciding when we're finished with one stage and can move on. Literally, every production aspect is decided on by the band, and my job is to execute it." - Albini
Some of the important aspects to creating a good record to Albini include a good environment and happy, social mixers, bands, and recording engineers. The equipment has to work right and it is even better when the producer is completely on board with all of the ideas from the band. This is why Albini chooses to not put in his creative ideas when recording for other bands. All of his creative ideas come out when he produces for his own band.
"The music business and the record business used to be synonyms. When someone talks about being in the music business what he meant, until fairly recently, was that he was in the record business. But people who listen to music have yanked the rug out from record labels and made the music industry back into something about music now." - Albini
One of the most important steps in the creative process is having an idle mind. Albini does just that. His record company does not run on a schedule. Although he works many hours in the studio, he also takes time off to do mundane tasks and activities. Albini will find a new non-musical obsession almost every month. From poker, to playing on the iPad, to even cooking. Without these short breaks of peace, Albini might drive himself crazy. He even has a cat named Pip that lives at and roams the studio for any passerby to pet.
"I've recorded 1500-2000 records, and I know they are all quite different," protests Albini. "I've recorded acoustic albums hundreds of times, with acoustic guitars or strings, and so on. I can name hundreds of bands that I've recorded that have a completely different aesthetic than grunge. And I don't impose my taste on the bands I record. To me it's ridiculous to say that my records have a sound. I can understand why someone who has only heard three or four records I have worked on that are stylistically similar can make such a statement, but I think it is wrong." - Albini
As far as the studio, Albini is a little more particular. Every aspect of the room contributes to the production of the song or album and its overall quality. For instance, Albini's walls are made of adobe, when asked why, he responded, "Adobe," explains Albini, "is unfired earth brick. It's very heavy but also very soft, so very good for acoustic isolation, with a lot of high-frequency diffusion. Most studios have made compromises in their acoustic environments with recording spaces that are neither very live, nor very dead, and I feel that they're inappropriate in every situation. We've tried to create rooms that offer a range of big contrasts in their acoustics." (Sound on Sound)
Below are a list of Steve Albini's preferences to create the legendary sound he makes with all the bands he works with.
Acoustic Guitars
Favourite microphones: Schoeps 221b, Neumann 56/54 and FM2, Audio Technica 4051, Lomo 1918, plus ribbon mics like the Coles STC 4038, various Royers, RCA 44DX, 74JR and 77DX.
Favourite preamps: Massenburg 8400, Sytek MPX4.
"The Lomo is a Russian microphone made in the '60s and '70s. I use that a lot on acoustic guitar. They weren't standard in the West but they were quite common in the East and they have now made their way across. I'll use a ribbon microphone if it's a real bright guitar and I want to try thicken the sound a little bit. Where I place the microphone depends on whether someone is going to be singing and playing, or just playing. If they're singing and playing I have to minimise the vocal spillage, so I put the microphones quite close up. If there's no singing, then I can back the microphones off a little bit, I would say about two to three feet, and in that case it usually sounds better in a slightly live room. I don't necessarily point the microphone straight at the sound hole. Sometimes you want to get it up in the air a little bit, looking down at the guitar so you can get more of the strumming and less projection of the hole. If the guitar is a little thin-sounding, you want to have it more in front of the body. It varies. Sometimes you have to move your head around a little and see where it sounds best."
Electric Guitars
Favourite microphones: Coles 4038, Royer 44/77, Neumann U67, Lomo 1909, Josephson E22p, various other condenser microphones.
Favourite preamps: Ampex 351, John Hardy M2, Neve 3115, B002, Massenburg 8400.
"Normally I'll have two microphones on each cabinet, a dark mic and a bright mic, say a ribbon microphone and a condenser, or two different condensers with different characters. The idea is that you can adjust the balance until it sounds pretty much the way it does in the playing room. I point them straight to the middle of the speaker cone, the same distance away from the speakers, about 10 to 12 inches. If it's a loud amplifier you don't want the microphone too close. If it's a clean, round sound, or a very bright sound, then I might use a vocal microphone.
"For very distorted but very bright guitars I'll use a brighter mic preamp like the Ampex, but for heavier sounds or sounds with a very important bass content, I'll use the John Hardy, a Neve, or the Massenburg. I don't normally process the guitar while recording. If it doesn't sound right, I'll fix it by swapping or moving microphones, and then it goes straight to tape. I'll talk to the guitar player and ask him whether he's happy with the way his guitar sounds. If he's happy then I don't want to touch it. When I'm working on 16 tracks I'll submix the two guitar microphones before going to tape. With 24-track, I try to leave them separate."
Vocals
Favourite microphones: Neumann U47, U48, AKG C12 or 451, Shure SM7, Electro-Voice RE20, Beyer M88, Sennheiser 421, Josephson 700A.
"Vocals are quite complicated to record. When the guitar player is playing the guitar, and someone's listening to him, they're hearing guitars, they're not hearing him. But with a singer, they're hearing the guy. That can be nerve-racking, and so it's important that singers are comfortable. I like the classic vocal microphones, but there are some situations where you have, for example, a crooner or someone with a very softly modulated voice, and they sound the best with a ribbon microphone. Conversely when you have someone who sings very quietly and you need a microphone with a lot of detail to make that sound realistic, I like the Josephson 700. It is a fantastic vocal microphone.
"Where I place the microphone depends on the singer. Normally I'll start with whatever their normal intuitive distance is from the microphone and then let them hear the results. If they think it sounds too boomy I'll have them move back and if they think it sounds too thin then I'll have them move forward. Vocals are the only instrument that you have to compress a little bit, otherwise the dynamic range is too wide. I normally compress the vocals about 4-6 dB or something like that — generally, at the quietest passages the compressor is not doing anything, and at the loudest passages it's doing 4-6 dB."
Bass
Favourite microphones: Beyer 380, EV RE20, Josephson C42, E22s, Audio-Technica Pro 37R, AKG 451, Altec 165/175.
Favourite preamps: John Hardy 2, Neotek desk.
"It's the same basic idea as with electric guitars. I'll try to have a dark [Beyer, EV], and a bright [the rest] microphone on the cabinet, the idea being that if you balance the low-frequency and high-frequency microphones, you can get a more accurate representation of what the cabinet sounds like. I normally run the low-frequency microphone through a soft compressor, at a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1, and it's not usually working more than 3-4 dB. I don't normally compress the brighter of the two microphones."
Drums
Favourite microphones:
Bass drum front: AKG D112, EV RE20, Beyer M380.
Bass drum back: small condenser or dynamic mic, often Shure SM98.
Snare top: Altec 175, Sony C37p.
Snare bottom (occasionally): Shure SM98, Altec 165/175.
Toms: Josephson E22.
Cymbals: Neumann SM2, AKG C24.
Overheads: Coles STC4038, Beyer 160, Royer 122.
Ambient: small-diaphragm condensers like Altec 150, Neumann 582.
Steve Albini 6 Mic cupboard.s
Electrical Audio's well-stocked mic locker.
"I have miked drums in quite a few different ways. Sometimes I'll just have an overhead microphone and a bass drum microphone. Normally there are close mics on all the drums, as well as ambient microphones, and a stereo microphone in front of the drum kit for cymbals. It's hard to describe where I place them and it varies a lot. If the drummer plays very lightly, then there's a lot of attack and not a lot of tone, and I want the microphone to look at the contact point of the snare drum. If the drummer is playing very hard and he's exciting the whole drum, I usually have to back the microphone off a little bit so that it's not overloading. For the ambient mics I'll walk around the room and see where it sounds good, and I usually have them on the floor to take advantage of the boundary effect, and to minimise early reflections.
"I'll occasionally compress the front bass-drum microphone while recording, in the same way as the bass guitar, at a low ratio of a couple of dBs. The snare drum tends to overwhelm the overhead microphones, so I'll have a very fast-acting peak limiter on the overhead to keep the snare drum from doing that. I don't normally compress the room but I'll sometimes delay the ambient microphones by a few milliseconds and that has the effect of getting rid of some of the slight phasing that you hear when you have microphones at a distance and up close. If you move them a little bit further away then they move out of what's called the Hass effect area, and when you move them far enough away they start sounding like acoustic reflections, which is what they are." (Found on Sound on Sound)
Sources Cited
Carlson, Jen. "Nirvana Producer Steve Albini Tells Us How He Really Feels About NYC." Gothamist. Gothamist, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Mlenaric, Jessica. "Interview: Steve Albini Talks About Shellac, Chicago, And The Specifics Of Remastering Nirvana's 'In Utero'" Chicagoist. Chicagoist, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Prindle, Mark. "Steve Albini Interview." Steve Albini Interview. MarkPrindle, 12 May 2005. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Tingen, Paul. "Steve Albini." Steve Albini. Sound on Sound, 14 Sept. 2005. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
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