Gray Spark Audio Academy's Blog

Industry Updates

6 Interesting Audio Podcasts to Follow for a budding Audio Engineer:

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

guitarists
Miscellaneous

Are modern recording techniques and equipment sucking the life out of our music?

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

Analog Summing
Tutorials / Masterclass

Summing ITB Vs Analog Summing

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

Classroom
Miscellaneous

Should you go to an audio engineering school or not?

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

mastering
Miscellaneous

5 things you should ask before Mastering a Song!

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

EQ
Industry Updates

Equipment and Gear Highlights for 2019 Part 2

If you haven’t already, go check out Part one of this blog Here No. 1 Wes Audio: Hyperion The second notable equipment that we should talk about this year is the WES Audio range of products. Like their other Swedish competitors Bettermaker, the WES Audio products offer fully Analog Gear with a built-in digital interface.

Desktop Mixer
Industry Updates

Audio Gear Highlights from 2019 – Part 1

Buying and finding the right gear can be one of the most satisfying experiences of being an audio engineer, not just buying it but finding a way to make it a part of your workflow and watching your work change as you make them a part of your recording process is extremely satisfying. In today’s

Audio Mixing
Tutorials / Masterclass

Common mistakes people make while Mixing – and how to avoid them!

I’ve been teaching and working as an Audio Engineer for the past 11 years and through the years I’ve encountered a number of upcoming mix engineers who find themselves stuck at a point, not knowing what the next step should be. In this post, I’m going to break down some of these common mistakes everyone

Audio Engineer
Miscellaneous

5 Tips to safeguard your biggest resource

I’m writing this post to tell you guys about something that we overlook often on a daily basis until it’s too late, today I will discuss with you guys some tips that I believe audio engineers should keep a lookout for to protect their most valuable assets as an Audio Engineer. YOUR EARS. Here are

Speakers
Software and equipment

How to setup and tune your speakers for a good listening environment!

In this post I’ll talk to you guys about one of the most important aspects of audio engineering, setting up and tuning your monitors for a room. To understand the concepts of this post you will need to understand the basics of Acoustics like Standing Waves, Nodes and Antinodes, Sound Reflection, Diffusion, and Absorption. If

Audio Engineer
Miscellaneous

How do you know if Sound Engineering is for you!

This is a common dilemma I’ve seen in students before they join the audio engineering course. If you’re in the same boat, this blog can hopefully give you some much needed perspective. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of Audio Engineering and Sound Engineering Courses push students interested in Music, towards Sound Engineering. The argument for

Cables
Software and equipment

Guide to Audio Cables – Part 2

In the last post about Audio Cables we covered all Analog Cables, in this post I will give you guys a look into digital Cables that are commonly used in audio engineering and their purposes. If you’ve read through the Analog and Digital blog, by now you know what the difference between the two is,

mics
Software and equipment

Recording Studio Microphones – Beginners Guide

There are some microphones that you must have seen multiple times by now in different studios and you might also have seen them in action for recording different instruments/sounds. In this blog, we will discuss 6 such microphones. I will give you guys a brief introduction to these Microphones. No. 1 AKG C414 The AKG

Albums
Miscellaneous

14 Albums every Sound Engineer & Music Producer must listen to

No. 1 Pink Floyd: The Wall Produced by the legendary Alan Parsons, this is one of my all-time favorite albums of all time. Why: Iconic Sound Design and approach to an album style, this album will be heard for years to come. The way the songs come together sonically is so amazing to hear. No.

Prime Diffuser
Miscellaneous

How to Practice your Recording and Mixing Skills

If someone asks me THE one tip/trick that I would recommend to get better at Recording & Mixing Skills, my answer would be: “PRACTICE”. Yes, we all have heard it, but yet some of you out there find it hard to get down to actually practicing your recording and mixing skills.Today let’s talk about some

Cables
Software and equipment

Guide to Audio Cables

In this blog, let’s breakdown the most important and most overlooked piece of gear in a recording studio: Cables. Broadly speaking Cables are divided into two forms1. Analog 2. Digital Analog Cables are cables that carry an analog signal, i.e voltage whereas digital signals work by transmitting a series of information in 1s and 0s

Audio engineer
Industry Updates

How to succeed as a Freelance Sound Engineer – 5 Expert Tips

This blog is going to be a bit different, today I I will address the question “How do we build a successful career in sound?” Being around students and interacting with aspiring engineers from various academic institutions, I’ve realized that students struggle to find work in the Indian Media Market. In this blog I will

Electric Guitar
Software and equipment

Finding the Right Guitar Sound in the Studio

Finding the right guitar sound inside the studio seems like a difficult sound for a lot of engineers and musicians. Which is why I thought through this blog post I could explain how I go about designing a guitar tone and which factors go into building a good guitar sound. Let’s break these down into

Vocal recording
Tutorials / Masterclass

5 Tips to Mixing Vocals

Today let’s talk about mixing vocals. For most styles Vocals are up front and center, the one instrument that holds the most important in the song.So then arises the question of how do we mix something that’s sitting on top of everything but still interacting with the song?Making a voice fit the rest of the

Communication
Tutorials / Masterclass

Step by Step Guide to Recording Demos:

Before musicians come in to record at the studio, we often sit down for an initial meeting to discuss the conceptual idea that they have in mind. When it comes to music, more often than not, it is hard for a musician to verbally express sonic concepts. What we do at this stage is ask for demos that they might have of their songs. In my previous blogs, I have underscored the importance of having demos of your songs ready before hitting the studio, and in this blog we help you understand why.

DIY
Software and equipment

5 Things You Need to Build your First Home Studio

Ever since I’ve delved in the acoustic consultancy sphere, Many clients have asked me about the steps involved to build their first home studio setup. I have been in the studio business for over 10 years now and have built 9 studios of various size from scratch. Because of this, I’ve developed a good understanding of how studios and the studio business works.
Today in this blog I will break down the 5 building blocks that you need to set up your first studio. We will go through each of them in detail and understand the importance of each of these

Recording Artist
From The Live Room

From the Live Room: Piyush Bhisekar

At Gray Spark Audio & Sound Engineering Academy, we have always underscored the value of hands on training. As a part of their academic year, students get to assist on multiple projects. This really helps the students because they can apply what they’ve learnt on actual projects. As a part of this new blog series,

Mixing
Tutorials / Masterclass

5 Tips to Help You Start Making Great Mixes

Every time we start with the module on mixing, our faculty is asked multiple questions about the mixing process.The most frequently asked question is how should one improve their mixing technique so that they can start putting out mixes that sound great. Even though students understand how to EQ and compress sounds, they can’t seem

Recording Techniques
Students Speak

The Academy Experience: Tushar Verma

Our alumnus Tushar Verma was kind enough to write a small piece about his experience at Gray Spark Audio & Sound Engineering Academy. We believe this will help a lot of prospective students understand what being a part of the academy is really like. He wrote about his journey through the nine modules. This guest

Tutorials / Masterclass

Finding your Signature Sound as an Audio Engineer:

We recently had a small workshop at the studio to discuss career opportunities in the field of sound and how new audio engineers can find their niche in such a diverse field, to build a solid career for themselves. The panel we had invited, spoke on the subject of every sound engineer finding their own signature sound,

Producer
Industry Updates

How to choose the right Music Producer for your Project

There are a lot of singer-songwriters who come to the studio in order to choose the right music producer to get their songs out. Choosing the right producer can be extremely crucial for your project, and its hard to figure out the right individual for your project. Keeping this in mind, In this blog post

Application
Miscellaneous

Application Process for Gray Spark Audio Academy – Stepwise Guide

We are really glad to hear that you are interested to join Gray Spark Audio & Sound Engineering Academy. We often get enquiries from different parts of the country, and prospective students have many doubts about our application process. Here’s a short piece that clearly explains our admission process: Admissions for the year of 2023-24

Tutorials / Masterclass

A New Approach To Getting Great Guitar Tones

In today’s blog we will have a small discussion about recording driven/distorted guitars through amps and find the right tone/sound for your recording. Before we begin first let’s understand what is distortion, overdrive and a clean amp sound. Distortion is an effect that cause a growling sound due to a increased gain on the input

Amps
Industry Updates

6 Ways To Market Your Music And Grow Your Audience

The music business has gone through a substantial change over the last few years. If you want to be a successful musician, one skill that is paramount is your ability to market your work. Your success in the contemporary music business hinges on your ability to get your music heard by as many people as

Art of Balance
Software and equipment

An Essential Guide – Which DAW should I learn?

Let us first understand what a DAW is, DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. It’s essentially a software program that lets you access, record, edit and playback audio. Different DAWS serve different purposes and each has its own set of pros and cons. Today we will discuss some of these software and which one you