The Experience
What to expect
During our 4-day Song Production Masterclass, you’ll have unparalleled access to the skills and expertise of our team in two of the most iconic recording studios in the world. You’ll follow Ben Baptie as he leads you through the different stages of producing and recording a song (Artist TBC) in two world-class recording studios. The first two days will be spent in the legendary Studio Two at Abbey Road. On day three you move to Angel One at Angel Studios, where Sam Smith, Harry Styles, Little Simz, Nile Rodgers, Florence and the Machine, Paolo Nutini, and The Cure have all recorded. Here you’ll spend two days mixing and mastering in the control room.
Then we’ll wrap up with a debrief to review and digest what you’ve learnt throughout the masterclass.
The four days will cover:
Day 1 – Recording
- Introductions & meet the team
- Recording session set up – studio signal flow and patching, the recording path, console considerations.
- Microphone selection, positioning, and the recording path.
- Session management – Pro Tools templates
- Production considerations (tempo / use of click track / song mood, arrangement & dynamics)
- The recording path – console settings, EQ, dynamics, outboard, plug-ins
- Recording technique – drums, bass, guitar (acoustic and electric), piano / synths / keyboard
Day 2 – Recording
- Recording technique – lead vocals, backing vocals, strings (violin, cello), percussion.
- Session review
- The importance of the monitor mix
- Mix preparation
Day 3 – Mixing
- Session management / workstation (DAW) & desk configuration / project settings.
- Artistic considerations
- Monitoring
- Panning
- EQ (desk, plug-ins & outboard)
- Dynamics (compressors, gates, expanders, limiters, desk, plug-ins & outboard)
- Time-based effects (delay, reverb, chorus, phase, flange)
- Grouping/bussing
- Session automation
- Bus / mix-bus compression
- Mastering preparation
Day 4 – Mixing (continued), Mastering & Review
- Mixing
- Session preparation
- Expectation management
- Artistic considerations
- Technical considerations
- Mastering workflows
- Tools (monitors, eq, dynamics, limiting, converters)
- Technique
- Software v Hardware
- Vinyl mastering
- Deliverables
- Session review
- Q&A
Note: As this is a live session this is a loose schedule and subject to change at any time.
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An inspiring and incredibly well designed course that gave me the best musical education I could have dreamt of. Life-altering.
David Dargahi, Alumni
The curriculum is fantastic, extremely comprehensive, contemporary and relevant to today’s industry.
Andrea Mastroiacovo, Alumni
It's impossible to graduate from Abbey Road Institute without growing as an engineer, musician, creative professional and most importantly... as a human being.
Ryan Zweng, Alumni
The course taught me what it means to be a producer and engineer in the industry, I learned things I couldn’t have learned anywhere else.
Marta Di Nozzi, Alumni
The Abbey Road Institute helped me to unlock my musical potential.
Cory Lawrence, Alumni
There is some real visionary foresight in Abbey Road Institute being established to preserve the cultural legacy of Abbey Road.