Audio Engineering Tropes

The “what’s on the radio?” gambit.

Phil Spector brought this recording to life, with DeeDee Ramone being held at gunpoint.

In today’s dollars, this album cost ~$900k to record. That’s Taylor Swift level album budget, on a Ramones record!

It sounds amazing, though.

#Ramones
#PhilSpector
#Radio

03.05.2025 15:14 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

“Where It’s At” kicks off with a needle on a record, which became a really common gimmick in the digital era.

I’ve never owned this on vinyl, does the record also include the needle on a record sound?

#Beck
#DigitalNeedleDrop

02.05.2025 00:41 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

You have to love a band self aware enough to tell you in the song title which audio trope they’re utilizing.

The Cars “Moving in Stereo” lives up to the promise, and hard pans on instruments while featuring a vocal frequently switching channels.

Stereo panning, FTW!

#TheCars
#Stereo
#Panning

30.04.2025 14:32 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

One can debate who invented it all day long, but Sam Phillips is the engineer who brought tape delay/slapback into the mainstream.

Today’s selection celebrates Sam deploying slapback to perfection on an early Elvis track, “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

Keep on shining!

#Elvis
#SlapBack
#SunRecords

29.04.2025 16:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Frida’s 1982 hit has a couple of great audio tropes, but the highlight is definitely the gated reverb on the drums. It sounds like a Phil Collins ripoff, except it *is* Phil Collins backing one of the A’s from ABBA.

This may have been peak gated reverb!

#GatedReverb.
#AudioTropes
#PhilCollins

28.04.2025 15:07 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0