DSC Music Production Technology

05/04/2025

Music Production students attending a workshop with hit songwriters Matt Alderman and Wynn Varble! Thanks to everyone who attended!

05/01/2025

Final projects are shaping up in Audio Engineering I. Good luck to everyone trying to finish the school year with a great track!

05/01/2025

04/25/2025

What do YOU remember? The coffee talk comes up a lot… Anything AFTER the very first day you met me?

02/27/2025

Professor Forsyth leads students of Sound Reinforcement II in a lab session in Studio A

02/22/2025

These marvelous student volunteers set up and ran sound for two of country music’s top songwriters. Thank you, students. Thanks also the , and

02/20/2025

02/05/2025

Today Audio I tested a Shure SM57 against a $14 “SM57” bought on Temu. How do YOU think it went?

02/01/2025

So… here are 10 conclusions after drum recording with all kinds of wild techniques in Audio I this week:

1) Good mics + good placement + preamps = Excellent sound. Dynamic mics are king for close miking. Clean, full, and generally uninspiring. Add compression and EQ. Plenty of small room reverb to taste.

2) Sylvia Massey (audio goddess and credit to humanity) has a technique with a garden hose and SM57. Result is unusual. Becomes cool with a triple dose of heavy compression. Still requires some tasteful EQ when used in our dead space iso booth. Probably sounds cooler when the floor isn’t a thick concrete wasteland.

3) The old trick of wiring a speaker as a sub kick works wonders in the low end. However, students should take a class in sailing to learn how to properly tie knots and not make a mess of twine trying to mount it against the drum head.

4) Affixing a contact mic to a tin bucket makes for an amazing lo-fi room mic. Would be cool in solo, but requires a well-tuned notch filter to fit into the mix.

5) A close mic on high hat is a disgusting sound when paired with less-than-desirable high hats.

6) Rock drums are impossible to mix without bass. Don’t even try. Keep the bass in while mixing drums.

7) Don’t apply EQ and other effects to close mics in solo. Spotify doesn’t have a solo button for kick and snare.

8) Polarity switches are important. A mono button in the monitor path is important use both to check for problems.

9) Spaced pair overheads don’t work if there’s nothing happening on the drummer’s right. The snare and kick have to sound centered (more or less).

10) Small room reverb presets are a dime a dozen. Most are terrible. A good one makes your bland drums sound amazing. Explore the studio presets in “Space” from your Avid library.

BONUS 11: Basically every track needs a little . Low ratio (2:1 maybe), 1 ms attack, fast release, move the threshold until it’s averaging a dB or two compression.

01/15/2025

Meet your new student studio tech: It’s Evie with an EV!

12/16/2024

Some recent grads reached out with professional updates this week. So proud of everyone! Don’t forget to check in and tell us what you’re up to 🤩

12/13/2024

Massive thanks to all who attended our Music Production Rocks concert on Wednesday, and the BIGGEST THANK YOU OF ALL to these wonderful students who worked so hard all semester and made it possible. Give the crew some love ❤️❤️❤️.
Many of these people will spend their careers behind the scenes, so it was wonderful to bring them onstage and let them collect the applause they so thoroughly have earned.