Fish(er) Tales

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! These posts will give you a better idea about what this site is about. Start here, then go here, and here, and then here.Today I opened the door to the school’s recording booth when what to my wondering eyes should appear? A side address cardioid condenser microphone pointed as if it’s a top address mic. Oh...

Dialog rules. It’s just that simple. Dialog is the primary sound element around which all other sounds revolve. Unfortunately, a common problem is how to prevent music and other sound elements from stepping all over the dialog track so you can understand all the words. Here’s the secret. You must create a space for the voice track, a kind of hole in the soundtrack, reserved for speech with...

There are some pithy quotes from uber-genius Albert Einstein where I swear he was talking about the trials and tribulations of audio post-production. And whether you are building the DM&E to an indie feature or mixing your latest musical opus, ponder these thoughts. “Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” There...

The picture shown here graced the pages of this month’s Mix magazine. It is an ad for the Savannah School of Art and Design (SCAD). What is so special about this photograph? There are a couple of key ideas worth noting. 1) The picture shows another aspect of sound that isn’t music-related. There are no drummers, guitar amps, or fancy SSL desks in this picture. There’s just a lone...

So I’m waiting at the stoplight for the light to go green. The turning lane is yellow so it won’t be long now. The intersection is just about empty in all directions except for my lone car. I glance away briefly to the heater to turn it down and start to look back up BAM! Some dude slams into me from behind. And then the light turns green. No worries on my end, though the rear end of my...

Here are the slides from my presentation at the 2010 Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization. They don’t always have the same impact without me adding in the missing details, but there is still some good information here that you can glean. Comments and questions are always appreciated. Ruthless Self-Promotion for Creative Artists View more presentations from Jeffrey Fisher.

It seems people want to know a magic formula to fame and fortune. I could be flippant and just say hard work, talent, and dumb luck. While those three notions often do result in success, they do not tell the whole story. Promotion is the key to success in any and all creative endeavor. And the primary components to successful promotion are reputation, relationships, and knowledge. Developing and leveraging...

Boundary mics are handy to use for sound recording. They are especially useful for recording dialog when the actors don’t move much and are near a surface — such as when a scene takes place in a restaurant. You can place the boundary mic on the table and get great dialog. My favorite boundary mics are hemi-cardioids meaning they pick up primarily in one direction and reject sound arriving...