On slow days when I get stuck in a slump I sometimes have a hard time figuring out what to write about. I mean, there are hundreds of articles and books on eq, compression and mixing.

But I like talking about it and sharing stuff with you so I constantly try to find an interesting perspective on all these books I’ve read, stuff I’ve learned and tricks I’ve experimented with.

Take reverb for instance, I’ve written a fair amount about reverb(link over here) and I’ve read and experimented with loads of digital reverb processors. But sometimes you get lost in all the digitalness(not a word I think) and you never become aware of your surroundings.

Do you guys live in a weird sounding loft in Manhattan? Do you have a really echo-y(and unsafe) elevator shaft you think could sound cool on a recording?

USE IT!

The old echo chambers of yesteryear were just that. Natural reverb chambers. Sure, they were calibrated and built to reverberated perfection, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stumble upon a cool sounding room somewhere.

I read an article about this producer/engineer in TapeOp #69(Check out the magazine). Christina Files told us in this article that she used the elevator shaft in their loft as an echo chamber. That prompted me to wonder how many of our day to day surroundings we can use to our audio advantage.

A friend of mine recorded a band in a house that had a long stairwell so he decided after listening to how cool the stairwell sounded to use it as an echo chamber as well. So there are definitely possibilities when it comes to using your surroundings.

• Buy some long cables.

• Position your microphone where your preferred room sounds the best.

• Position your monitors in the corners or wherever you think they sound best.

• Do you want weird phasing? Put the monitors in weird positions.

• Put one closer than the other.

• Put another in an adjacent room.

• Experiment.

It’s not only to get great sounding or weird sounding echo-y tracks, it’s also for fun and experimentation. Maybe you can’t use it the way you want to, but maybe it adds to the production.

If I didn’t live in an apartment building where I can’t even grill a steak on a barbecue without people complaining I’d definitely go nuts with my outdoor weird sounding elevator patio. I’m sure, when you think hard you could put some of your rooms, hallways or stairwells to good use.