When it comes to recording music, a good mix can be the difference between a muddy mess and a well-balanced sonic presentation. Though some control freaks (think singer/songwriters) should be kept away from the mixing desk at all times, DJs, electronic musicians and experimental types such as Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood have all dipped a toe into production.
With 25 years of recording experience and a studio in Sanlitun, Tato Ramirez (pictured) gives lessons in recording, mixing and mastering (the final touches of the production process) your symphonies. He also offers help to bands who want to use his space for recording: his studio has been used to record Tibetan folk and even mix Kashgar industrial rock.
Tato takes me through the process of micing up the hand drums, which seems simple enough and I can’t help taking more interest in playing with a set of well-loved tablas. For sequencing music, the Cubase program is his software of choice. I’ve prepared some tracks in advance that, thankfully, he doesn’t tear to pieces. Instead, he suggests I make the most of equalisation to separate the instruments in the sonic spectrum and add some variation to a rather repetitive drum loop.
The heart of the studio is a 16-channel Yamaha mixer, hooked up to some lively Tannoy speakers for accurate production work. I notice some samples I’ve used sound rather flat – thanks to the superior speakers, I’m able to tell what needs fixing and tweak it.
A program called WaveLab is on hand for mastering the final recording, most probably onto a CD, though I think it’ll be some time before my debut album is ready to hit the shelves.
Sound engineering classes Cactus Studio, Sanlitun Nan Lu, Chaoyang district (135 2200 5071). 300RMB for a two-hour class; 200RMB per hour for studio recording. Classes are available in the morning daily; and Tue and Thur afternoons. email tatoenchina@hotmail.com for more details. 朝阳区三里屯南路