In this series of Blogs I will be walking through the Mastering Process of some of the songs that we have worked on in the recent past. This specific song has majority rock elements with some surprises thrown in between.This is what the mix looks like MIX:https://drive.google.com/a/gray-spark.com/file/d/1_qVYsNawe40TodLwoLlxl_eEtlBHA1dm/view?usp=gmail The song has some very distinctive heavy sections […]
Mastering Celestial Teapot-Ellipsis Read More »
Limiters are the sexiest/coolest thing in a mastering chain. They are the one plugin that can have a big impact on how loud your final mixes can get. In this post, I’ll talk about a few plugins that I use in my mastering chain, which are my go-to plugins for achieving a specific sound.Let’s dive
5 Amazing Limiters you must try in your Mastering Chain Read More »
So you’ve installed your DAW and are ready to start recordings and work on mixes only to realize that you don’t have any Plugins to really work with? Today in this post I’ll show you guys some must have Free Audio Plugins for any DAW and get started working or recordings/mixes. No. 1 TDR KOTELNIKOV
7 Free Audio Plugins to Get Started Read More »
Rolling into Month 5 of the Lockdown in India and we can see a ton of musicians taking this pause to release even more of their music. At a time when resources are limited, income has practically come to a standstill, musicians have still come through, recorded and released their tracks. And for that, we
Artist Releases during the COVID-19 Lockdown Read More »
I personally believe that purchasing or deciding to go with a specific piece of equipment is a very personal choice and depends on the taste and sensibilities of the person buying them. Every engineer at some point in time is faced with this question of, whether I should buy monitors or if I should work
Best Budget Monitors 2020 Read More »
Comparing and deciding between two options or versions of processing is an integral part of the Mastering and Mixing workflow. How often do you find yourself at a point where you have two different signal chains lined up but you can’t decide between which one of the two compressors on your master buss sound good
How to find and correctly test and reference two sources using A|B Assist Read More »
A Mastering Chain is a set of linear processing done to a track in the mastering stage. These Audio Processing Units can vary from EQ to Compression to even reverb. Today, in this blog post I will talk to you about what a Mastering Chain should have and what I personally use in my Mastering
What’s an Ideal Mastering Chain? My Mastering Chain Read More »
“How do I get more clients? “, “How do I build more clientele working as an engineer?” I get asked this question a lot, as a Studio Owner/Manager and as an Engineer starting out, so I thought I would share some knowledge from my experience of working with and building new clientele over the years.
5 Ways to win over clients Read More »
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and almost all workplaces shut down, all of us are in limbo. Over the last few weeks I have figured out a couple of ways in which I, an audio engineer in quarantine, can interact with my clients and students remotely and from my home studio and continue
How to continue working remotely as freelance Audio Engineer and Producer Read More »
As a course coordinator, over the last few years, I’ve encountered a number of questions and queries that people have about getting into this field. Today as a part of this blog post I will try to answer some of the questions that people have asked me personally and some questions taken from the internet.You
FAQs about Sound Engineering Courses in Pune Read More »
No. 1 When did you know that you’re going to become an Audio Engineer? Very early in school, 11th Std! No. 2 Tell us a bit about your journey? I started playing keys at the age of 5. My interest slowly shifted to production shortly after that. Then through programming and production came the discovery
Gray Spark Faculty Interview of Nitin (Studio Engineer) Read More »
No. 1 When did you know that you’re going to become an Audio Engineer? Tell us a bit about your journey? Like most other engineers on our Faculty, I also started out as a Musician. At the time, I wanted to record some of our music, but Pune had only 2-3 studios, and the good
Faculty Interview – Ronak Runwal (Studio Engineer) Read More »
This new year ditch whatever show you’re binging and spend some time watching these amazing music documentaries about the Recording and the Music Industry. These Music documentaries will not only give you a lot of knowledge but also inspire you to look and learn beyond what you know. Discover how some of these legendary albums
Amazing Music Documentaries to catch up on! Read More »
No. 1 When did you know that you’re going to become an Audio Engineer? Well to be honest, I am still trying to do justice to the title of being an audio engineer and educator on a daily basis, by trying to bring the best ineducation and audio over all the teaching and mastering projects
Faculty Interview – Hozaifa Sayed (Studio Engineer) Read More »
The internet has gotten a lot of criticism reducing attention span. Despite that, there is so much that the Internet has done in terms of bringing amazing content and information to people that they would have never had the opportunity of experiencing and learning. TED talks are one such resource. Today through this blog we
Must watch TED talks for Aspiring Audio Engineers Read More »
No. 1 When did you know that you’re going to become an Audio Engineer for live sound? Tell us a bit about your journey? I got interested in audio back in 2004, the first time I ever attended a concert. It was 5 years later that I actually got into audio engineering. During that time
Faculty Interview – Johnston Dsouza (Live Sound) Read More »
No. 1 When did you know that you’re going to become an Audio Engineer? Tell us a bit about your journey? I always had an interest towards Sound, be it live engineering or sound design. I was into DJing in my 8th standard and probably one of the youngest DJs here in Pune/Mumbai. This is
Faculty Interview – Malay Vadalkar (Film Sound) Read More »
In this blog post, I’m going to list down a few Freeware that you can browse through or try if you’re an Audio Enthusiast with some time on your hands.This software is pretty simple and basic and can start you off in the right direction towards your goal of audio engineering. The more time you
5 FREEWARE that every budding Audio Engineer should try out Read More »
Since our academy is primarily a recording studio, this blog will take you guys around our studio and show you a typical day at the studio. Welcome to our Studio Tour! Having such a varied roster of musicians walk through our doors, we find ourselves, more often than not, having two studios simultaneously occupied with
Gray Spark Audio – Studio Tour Read More »
Are you Building your Home Studio? Here are the 4 things that you should consider! No. 1 Room Dimension The dimensions of your room will be the biggest influence on what your room and eventually your work will sound like. In a closed room, sound bounces off the 6 surfaces and creates various points in
4 Things to Consider Before Building your Home Studio Read More »
So in order for us to completely understand the answer to this question, we need to first understand how the ear works. Let’s breakdown how the ear works in an extremely simple way. We won’t dive too much into the intricacies of the individual parts of the ear, but just how they function and what
Why our recorded voice sounds different when we hear it Read More »
Like any other technology, the audio industry has gone through some massive breakthroughs in the past few years. This blog post is dedicated to discuss some of these breakthroughs and take a look at what the future of Audio would be from an Audio Engineers perspective. Let’s check these 3 Next Big Things in Audio.
The Next Big Thing(s) in Audio Read More »
I’ve been blessed to have a Studio that is capable of doing Live Recording Sessions, something that has always been the best way to record a Band.In this blog, I will discuss some tips and general things to keep a lookout for when doing live sessions.The key to a good recording can be broken down
5 Tips for Live Recordings Read More »
In the last blog post, we spoke about the pros of using speakers against headphones for mixing and what Headphones can and should be used for in mixing. As a continuation of our last discussion let’s also go through certain things that we as engineers should take care of when we are working on a
What should you use to Mix – Headphones or Speakers? – Part 2 Read More »
This blog post is the first of a two part series, in which I hope to answer The common and often debated question of whether one should mix on headphones or Speakers Which headphones or speakers should an engineer, starting out, invest in. What are the characteristics or specs of the equipment that you should
What should you use to Mix – Headphones or Speakers? (Part 1) Read More »
No. 1 Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle Podcast In this Podcast, music industry guru Bobby Owsinski gives you his personal insights into the industry of music covering industry news, reviews, analysis and tips, as well as offering amazing interviews with prominent industry movers and shakers on every show! If you know Bobby, you know you’re in
6 Interesting Audio Podcasts to Follow for a budding Audio Engineer: Read More »
This post here (albeit a short one) is a breakdown of an interesting discussion that I had with one of my students. His question was simply put just this “ Why do so many old records have emotion, but all of the newer recorded stuff lack this feel?” Playing Live almost seems to bring out
Are modern recording techniques and equipment sucking the life out of our music? Read More »
Today through this blog I would like to address the common misconceptions people have about mixing, and how mixing ITB Vs mixing on an Analog Console is different and which approach is better suited for a certain sound. Firstly let’s try to understand what summing means. In the modern recording process, we are usually working
Summing ITB Vs Analog Summing Read More »
So you like making music in your bedroom? You’re a DJ or a singer-songwriter and are looking to take this interest in music to the next step? Well most students who are looking to get into the field of sound are novices in either music or film, who are looking to find their niche in
Should you go to an audio engineering school or not? Read More »
There’s still a lot of things that people don’t know about “Mastering” but it has now become a term that gets clubbed with Mixing and has a certain mystery around it. Mastering has somehow gained the reputation of the final process in the post-production chain that will fix all the mistakes that go in the
5 things you should ask before Mastering a Song! Read More »
