Nick Raskulinecz (standing, in gray jacket) with Blackbird Academy students
Producer/engineer Nick Raskulinecz visited The Blackbird Academy in Nashville this past week, mentoring the school’s Studio Engineering students. His credits include working at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and producing the Foo Fighters, Evanescence, Marilyn Manson, Velvet Revolver, Rush, Coheed and Cambria, and many others.
Raskulinecz worked with the students all week in studio “A” at Blackbird Studio, teaching them his unique method of how to mic a drum kit to get specific sounds. He ran the students through all the different types of microphones he would use for each type of drum, and conducted exercises in which students would mic a snare drum six different ways several times. He taught them about the using the three-finger rule and the drumstick rule to calculate how far the microphone should be from the drum, and why the distance is important.
“Teaching the students at The Blackbird Academy everything I’ve learned about recording drums over the last 20 years was an amazing experience! I can’t wait to come back and do it again,” Raskulinecz says.
John McBride, Institutional Director of The Blackbird Academy and Owner of Blackbird Studio, says, “Nick Raskulinecz did an incredible job teaching our students how to get real rock drum sounds! They learned about phase, proper microphone placement, miking with a few mics to many many mics, and making SM57s sound as good as C12s and U67s. We can’t wait to have Nick back. The sharing of his knowledge and talent is a huge benefit to our students. We love you, Nick!”
The Blackbird Academy is a post-secondary professional school for audio in Nashville, offering a Studio Engineering program and a Live Sound Engineering program. Applications are currently being accepted for 2014 start dates and there are limited spaces available for the January 6 start.
For more information, visit www.theblackbirdacademy.com.
