Gear Gods presents Studio Pass: Kurt Ballou
Kurt Ballou
Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction
20:47 2Interacting with Clients
18:35 3Group Personality Types
20:31 4Interacting with Clients Q&A
18:37 5Drums Overview
16:42 6Science of Sound
15:20 7Snare Muffling and Close Micing
19:17Overhead Micing
20:39 9Room Acoustics
16:05 10Drum Tracking
19:28 11Drum Tracking Q&A
10:36 12Guitar Setup and Tuning
31:41 13Choosing a Guitar Rig and Micing
31:24 14Guitar Q&A
20:27 15Guitar Tracking
10:13 16Bass Sound
32:40 17Bass Tracking with Q&A
10:35 18Vocal Sound
20:37 19Vocal Tracking with Q&A
17:11 20Drum Premix & Phase Alignment
14:10 21Tom Editing
20:15 22Turbo Tracks for Kick and Snare
16:05 23Dynamic EQ and Ambient Mic Treatments
24:56 24Mix Prep Q&A 2
13:45 25Phase Alignment for Guitar and Bass
17:25 26Bass and Guitar Treatment
17:11 27Vocal Treatment
17:02 28Full Mix Treatment
26:02 29Mix Refinement and Alt Mixes
19:50 30Mastering
25:03Day 2
Class Description
In this two-day course, prolific producer Kurt Ballou will take you behind-the-scenes of GodCity Studios to show you exactly how the magic happens. This all-access studio pass will immerse you in every aspect of Kurt’s distinctive sound — from choosing and setting up gear, to tracking and mixing.
Kurt will show you the basic and advanced techniques he uses in his studio every day, and teach you how to apply them to your own recording — regardless of whether you’re working in a studio or at home with a DIY setup. Using anecdotes from his years behind the board, Kurt will also teach you his best practices for working with bands to extract the best and most inventive sounds.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
I've been engineering out of my home studio for the past 7 years. I recently graduated from college for studio production and recording bands has been my main source of income for the past 5 years or so. Honestly, this course was incredible and completely worth the $100. Kurt Ballou truly understands the art and he really got me excited to be a recording engineer. I already knew a lot of the techniques and details he went over, but he presented his ideas so intelligently that I was happy to sit through the topics that focused on beginners. I'm not a huge metal or hardcore fan, but Kurt has amazing taste in the way he produces these bands. It's hard to listen to some of the releases today that have the life sucked out of their music with full-on drum replacement and crazy amounts of autotune. It was just refreshing to listen to an engineer who totally knows what makes rock music exciting. This class is worth checking out even just to watch a successful modern engineer show you the basics of his craft.
Fariz Junaini
This was a great course to pick apart the brain of The Kurt Ballou, but I felt some of the topics could be presented a little better and went more in-depth in like the framework of the mixing process. I fell like if you don't have an understanding of basic audio engineering you would be pretty lost but thank god I knew enough to get me through. But nonetheless, Kurt shared some pretty interesting techniques like the crossover method. Love this guy! Hope to see more of him!
Keith Foster
First off, even though I'm neither a beginner nor a recording professional, this class is absolutely worth the money you spend on it - especially if you plan on making heavy music. There are enough tips, tricks and guidance in here to get your money's worth many times over. That said, as an indie artist who goes to a studio to record drum tracks, then does the rest ina home studio I found some of the things disheartening. Much of the class follows a "I do this thing using item / amp / microphone / plugin (X), it's pretty cool" vibe, and it sounds cool.... until you check the price. As an example, the 'stereo buss processing' section sounds fun to try, except for the part where the three pieces of gear cost about $8K. As a result I found myself figuring out how to incorporate the essence of what he was saying without the gear budget to do so. Maybe I'm not the intended audience but a little more concept and less gearhead would have been even better. That said you should totally get it, it's a low price for so many hours of great content.
Student Work
Related Classes
Recording Drums