#TCFaudio

timothyfehling

Dec 23, 2021
2 min

System of a Down - Toxicity

System of a Down. Where to begin!? Infinite things I love about System. The album Toxicity is my favorite recorded & mixed album of all time. In Forest for example, let’s focus on that kick drum when the guitars enter at 0:13. It’s particularly punchy, deep, tight, and dynamic. How is this accomplished? It’s a perfect combination of great recordings, great mixing, great mastering, and most importantly a Powerful, Dynamic performance from drummer John Dolmayan. Toxicity was mi

9 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 22, 2021
1 min

Metallica - black album

“Wherever I May Roam” is one of the earliest songs I remember as I was growing up. When I was maybe 6 or 7, I’d put on the Black album CD and pretty much just run around and dance and rock out in my bedroom. It’s interesting analyzing it from an audio perspective as an adult. It’s widely considered one of the best-recorded albums in existence. I’d agree with that. But I personally can’t stand how loud the drums are MIXED. They are all maybe 2-4dB too loud. It’s so obnoxious i

6 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 21, 2021
1 min

X-Men Dark Phoenix (2019)

X-Men Dark Phoenix (2019) - yikes. I’ll admit it had a few cool memorable scenes, but overall what a garbage movie. And it’s such a shame, because Hans Zimmer and his team created some absolutely GORGEOUS music for it. Listen to the song “Gap” between 1:10-3:16. It’s breathtaking. I’ve listened to this section dozens of times by now (and will likely listen hundreds more), and I have no intention of ever watching the movie again. If you have a nice speaker system at home or in

2 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 20, 2021
1 min

Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me Maybe"

When I was living in NYC, this song especially jumped out at me while I was working at a restaurant in Times Square. Pop at its core! Justin Bieber on Twitter said “Call me maybe by Carly Rae Jepson is possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard lol.” The first explosion at the 0:28 chorus is huge. Carly and the producer and the mixing engineer Dave Ogilvie intentionally wanted to make the kick drum extra punchy and loud. The strings are full-sounding because they blended 3 d

5 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 19, 2021
1 min

Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon

Steve Jablonsky’s sonics and recordings for Transformers Dark of the Moon (2011) (and similarly, Battleship, which came out the year after) are some of the best I’ve ever heard in any film score. In this clip from the soundtrack opener “Dark Side of the Moon,” I love everything going on here from a sonic standpoint - the sounds surround you, they explode out of the speakers, and there’s incredible depth. What’s interesting is that I personally think the songwriting for Transf

2 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 18, 2021
1 min

Disturbed - The Sickness

Disturbed’s “Stupify” has been a long-time favorite of mine for about 20 years now, particularly how huge it explodes right from the start. I LOVE the downward-glissando synth thing in the intro and choruses. The Sickness album was excellently recorded and mixed and mastered, what an epic debut album. During many parts of the songs, such as the chorus in “Stupify,” Andy Wallace mixed David Draiman’s vocals almost like a Pop record, super upfront and really in-your-face. Brill

3 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 17, 2021
1 min

Mad Max: Fury Road "Brothers In Arms"

“Brothers In Arms” is an EPIC film cue, to say the least. The composer Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) created hundreds of original percussive samples just for the film. Sonically, the percussion and percussive-like-synth stuff sounds AMAZING. It’s sculpted to perfection. It’s just too loud for my taste. I personally like the orchestra & melody to be the star. And especially in this cue, the orchestra notes (such as at 0:27 and 1:00) are really cool. But they are getting swallowed

6 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 15, 2021
1 min

Demi Lovato "Give Your Heart a Break"

From a mixing standpoint, the Delays are what stand out to me in this song. For example, listen to the delay of the opening strings, and also the delay on Demi’s center vocal. It’s a cool application from an artistic standpoint because it’s very noticeable. Most of the time, delay is used in a more subtle way. Audible, but only if you listen carefully. Here, it’s a signature part of the song. And it’s a more dry-sounding delay. I.e., it doesn’t seem to have any additional spa

3 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 13, 2021
1 min

Velvet Revolver - Contraband

Velvet Revolver’s Contraband is this century’s Appetite for Destruction. From start to finish, Contraband is 13 songs of raw, dirty, rockin’ gold. I’ve likely listened to this album hundreds of times by now. Sonically, it’s mixed very well. But I think the recordings aren’t the greatest. For example, put this side-by-side against Velvet Revolver’s “She Builds Quick Machines” (from their follow-up record Libertad) which EXPLODES out of the speakers (even when you set their int

12 views0 comments

The Darkness - One Way Ticket to Hell...And Back!

timothyfehling

Dec 11, 2021
1 min

The Darkness - One Way Ticket to Hell...And Back!

The Darkness’s album One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back isn’t quite as raw & rockin’ as their debut album Permission to Land, imo. BUT, sonically One Way Ticket sounds GORGEOUS to my ears. And Justin Hawkins really took his singing & operatic layering to whole new levels for this album. It sounds majestic. I have a feeling this was at the peak of his vocal quality. His vocals also shine in his band/album Hot Leg. In One Way Ticket - I love how crisp & clear everything sounds. Th

3 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 10, 2021
1 min

Green Day - American Idiot

American Idiot was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, who nowadays has a big presence in the audio plugin market, such as Waves. He’s a famous mixer and has classes on Mix with the Masters too. The overall balance and feel of “American Idiot” is outstanding. The guitar recordings are simply awesome. For a punk rock song like this, I don’t think I’d wanna change a thing about it. At the 0:10 mark, notice how much depth the kick drum has. You can really hear & feel the room pound & boun

3 views0 comments

Pirates of the Caribbean "Barbossa is Hungry"

timothyfehling

Dec 9, 2021
1 min

Pirates of the Caribbean "Barbossa is Hungry"

The score for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl simply ROCKS. Fantastic, fun, swashbuckling songwriting coupled with the sonic masterminds at Remote Control Productions. The stereo soundtrack is actually kinda mixed like a modern rock song, the waveform looks loud and squashed lol (fun fact, listen to “One Last Shot” between 3:30-3:34 and you can hear clipping!) From the “Barbossa is Hungry” clip I’m sharing here, starting at 1:50, listen to how awesome e

11 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 8, 2021
1 min

Katy Perry "Hot N Cold"

“Hot N Cold” is interesting because the kick drum is so loud. But it works. Extra punchy, it keeps driving and pounding the entire song. For other mixes, I’d wanna hear this turned down at least a couple dB. But this is a perfect example of carefully thinking about the CONTEXT of the lyrics of a song when mixing and mastering. This song is about back-and-forth, tug-o-war, up and down, etc. The music video is playful and action-driven. And so this song doesn’t necessarily need

1 view0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 7, 2021
1 min

Disturbed - Indestructible

From a mixing standpoint, “Perfect Insanity” is so SO close to being flawless imo. Literally the only thing I’d wanna change is to bring the wide guitars down maybe 0.3-0.5dB, and the vocals up maybe 0.3-0.5dB. The kick and snare sound glorious and tight. And I like how the hi-hat/rooms/overheads are kept more inward/center, as opposed to being unnaturally wide. If you know me, I like my drum set to be a little more inward and together. Indestructible was mixed by Neal Avron.

5 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 6, 2021
1 min

Stone Temple Pilots - No. 4

Nothing has me head-banging more often than Stone Temple Pilots “No Way Out” starting at 0:36. STP has and will always be a favorite band of mine. All of their records sound so different from one another, from a recording standpoint. No. 4’s recordings actually sound pretty bad imo, compared to all other music and what STP released prior. It sounds muddy overall, and the drums in particular sound distant and unclear and the weakest. This brings up a great point - it just goes

1 view0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 4, 2021
1 min

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction

Megadeth is definitely a top-5 favorite band of all time for me. Sonically, every album sounds different, which I love. It means they have that craving for artistic experimentation each time they put out a new release. Countdown to Extinction is one of the best-sounding recordings/mixes/masters of any album of any band I’ve ever heard. The only single thing that bothers me is the ride cymbal, which is a bit too loud for my taste. What I especially love about Countdown is the

5 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 2, 2021
1 min

Interstellar (2014) "Mountains"

Interstellar has one of the most unique scores I can think of. It has many amazing moments, such as the second half of “Where We’re Going” that builds and builds, and the 2:37 mark of “No Time for Caution.” But my single most favorite moment is the clip I’m sharing here, from “Mountains.” Particularly around the 2:07 mark (and 2:23 mark), you can start to hear/feel this descending bass-something-or-another in the back. It’s glorious. If you ever needed to help describe “depth

4 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Dec 1, 2021
1 min

Rammstein - Mutter

Rammstein’s masterpiece album Mutter is simply MASSIVE. It’s epic, surrounding, all-encompassing. The guitar recordings have incredible ambience. The only other record I know of, that could maybe rival the hugeness of these guitars, is KoRn’s Untouchables. The blending-in of synth stuff from their keyboard guy Christian Lorenz is superb. For example, at 0:20 in this clip from “Sonne,” pay attention to the 16th note synth. And as if the verse isn’t huge & epic enough, the chor

9 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Nov 30, 2021
1 min

Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

Search on YouTube “Hardees Carl’s Jr Pantera I’m Broken.” You’re welcome. Alright, the album Far Beyond Driven. WOW. Just WOW. This is Metal perfection. The guitar tone is obviously a signature tone. The guitars are maybe 0.5-1dB too loud overall, for my taste, but whatever, who cares, this album is magnificent. What I particularly love about this album is the drums recordings and how they’re mixed. You can clearly hear every kick, it has punch & low-end thump, but it sits BA

7 views0 comments

timothyfehling

Nov 29, 2021
1 min

Ariana Grande "breathin'"

“breathin’” is total sonic bliss. There are so many aspects I love about the design and mix of this song. The space design and reverb application is breathtaking. Zing. The synths are warm and full. For Ariana’s vocals, pay attention to the delay. It pops, yet has so much space. This is likely accomplished by attaching a reverb (or combination of reverbs) to the mono or stereo delay bus, that the center vocal is being sent to. And when the kick drum enters at 1:09, mmm mmm, i

5 views0 comments