Steve Albini Talks Neurosis, Stereo Buss Compression, And How To Not Screw Up Records

Mix With the Masters is a yearly series of week-long seminars held at Studio La Fabrique in the South of France. Each program features a great recording engineer – past participants include Eddie Kramer, Chris Lord-Alge, John Agnello, Joe Barresi, and many more – working in an intimate setting with aspiring engineers and producers.

This past August, the seminar played host to Steve Albini, who needs no introduction on this website (for a crash course, just read the letter he wrote to Nirvana before they hired him to record In Utero). If like me, you weren’t able to make it down to Saint Rémy de Provence to witness it live, Mix With the Masters has been kind enough to upload an extended Q&A session with Albini for us to enjoy. Topics covered include how to balance the producer/engineer role, specifically during his time working with Neurosis; his strategies for room mic positioning for drums; working efficiently; working on records that have big commercial and artistic expectations; mic’ing guitar cabs, and more.