Ask a music scene micro celebrity

[Joe Fitzgerald]

Mr. Albini,
Thank you for your insights in this post, it is enlightening to hear the opinions of a more experienced engineer.

Anyway, a couple of questions, first two regarding "in Utero", I listened to the album a few weeks ago and picked up on a couple things.

I noticed in "rape me" the first verse that the drums play on, it seems that the snare was overdubbed, but the old snare line remained in what I am assuming are the overheads.
Was this an intentional thing? an afterthought? or something you just lived with? It seems intentional, because it sounds pretty cool.
Did dave grohl overdub hits a lot?
I use drum replacement software sometimes, but don't like to, it kills the dynamics of a song. better to just have a good drummer.

Whatever you did to get the KICK drum sound for that album, in my opinion, set the tone for the whole record. It almost has a "woody" sound (haha everyone laugh.... ok done.)
that, got me thinking of an clip I saw of the lord of the rings in post prod, where they built a wooden box with baffles, and reamped the dialogue, to get the tree dudes sound.
Was is something like that you did? if not, have you ever?

Final question,
I'm a Full Sail Grad, Certified Pro Tools operator, and currently freelance engineering... Do you have any advice for someone in my "newborn" position?
At the moment, I am just trying to do as much work as possible, meet as many people / bands as I can, and generally do good by everyone I come in contact with.


Thank you again for your posts, I've gained some insight and a few laughs. =)
Take it light.
-Joe Fitzgerald