ABSTRACT
In session, the recording engineer is responsible for keeping the session running smoothly, including understanding how all the gear works, setting up the control room, choosing the microphones, organizing the signal flow, choosing the track layout, getting the sounds, and pressing record. Good sounds or bad, the buck stops with the recording engineer. Music plays a key role in a vast majority of recordings, so most clients prefer ‘musical’ engineers. Discretion for an engineer means knowing when to crank the volume for a playback, when to be quiet and twiddle the knobs, and when to move on. Different genres lend themselves to different styles. Metal songs would be heavy with loud snare. Reggae would use fat bass and delays. A country love song might have steel guitars. An instrument in solo sounds a lot different when the rest of the tracks are in the monitor mix.
