在传奇工程师和音频混音师Bob Clearmountain在Full Sail的Live 2场地登台之前, 课程主任达伦·施耐德请几位有抱负的工程师到教室前面来做演示. Earlier, 他打印出了鲍勃的演职人员名单，并把这些纸粘在一起形成了一个卷轴, which he invited the student volunteers to unroll. It stretched over 22 feet.

Over the next two hours, 鲍勃和达伦谈到了音频制作的工艺，并回忆了鲍勃职业生涯中的关键点. Here are some highlights from that conversation.

On Breaking Into the Industry

Bob began his career by accident. 他的高中乐队当时正在纽约的Media Sound Studio录制一张小样, but they broke up halfway through recording. Bob, however, stayed on at the studio as a runner. 在他工作的第一天，他被拉去顶替助理工程师的工作.

“The session was for Duke Ellington,” said Bob. “The Duke was yelling at the trumpet player. I was so naïve; I didn’t know famous people swore.”

从第一次会议开始，鲍勃能够以助理的身份参与更多的项目. 他负责在引进人才之前为工程师们安排会议. 这次演出也为他提供了无与伦比的设备和实验环境.

“我和工作室里的其他一些人组成了一个工作室，我们会在周末去那里，在每种乐器上尝试每一个麦克风,” he recalled. “我在参观Full Sail校园时就在想这个问题. 我看到了《十大菠菜台子》的动手能力，这是你刚开始时最重要的事情.”

On Settling on a Specialty

When Bob first began his career, the recording process was completely analog, 这意味着在混音过程中，你需要多人来修改控制台的设置. 由于混音工作非常依赖于其他人，鲍勃转而把跟踪作为他的主要关注点.

他说:“我喜欢和音乐家一起工作，听到一张唱片的制作是令人兴奋的。. 但随着技术的进步和自动化成为标准，追踪失去了一些吸引力. 人声、鼓声——如果你是制作人，这些都很有趣. So I became a producer. And after about 25 records I realized I hated it. 我不喜欢强迫别人表演. 我一直是那个在会议结束时分发粗略混音的人. 我觉得我当混音师会更有创意.”

On Building Trust with Artists

Over the course of 40 years in the industry, Bob has had a ton of repeat customers (for instance, he’s worked on every Bryan Adams album since 1984). 与获奖艺术家建立持久关系的秘诀是什么? 首先，不要把自己太多地掺和进来.

“这是我不是一个好制片人的原因之一，”他开玩笑说. “因为我一进来就会立刻问艺术家们他们想做什么.”

On Drawing Focus in a Mix

谈话在达伦播放布莱恩·亚当斯的热门歌曲“69年夏天”的片段时达到高潮,” which Bob mixed. 这首歌开始时相当稀疏，然后逐渐形成一个完整的、赞美诗般的声音.

“这是一个例子，所有的乐器都从第一节开始, and they went all the way through. 但有时候，如果你拿出一个键盘或一把吉他来吸引注意力. 突然间，你明白了这首歌，你更专注于歌词. You can create a focus by leaving something out. So now that the listener is familiar with the melody, 在第二节中，你可以把这些元素带回来,” explained Bob.

On Process

鲍勃说，他在谈论自己的工作时经常会遇到一个误解.

这些年来，我接受过很多采访，问题总是这样，‘你如何建立一个组合?“当我想到建筑的时候，我想到的是建造一座房子. 你从一个基础开始，然后从那里开始建设。. “I don’t do that. I start with everything a make a rough mix. I might make the vocals louder to focus on that, 或者工作在EQing的声音只是为了指导它的其余部分. Pop and rock records are mostly based around vocals. 一个更好的类比是把一首歌的各个组成部分想象成戏剧中的演员. Where does this one come out? It’s more a visual thing to me. And ultimately, I don’t build the mix, I just mix.”