These 3 day sessions offer a crash course in how successful studio producers “do what they do.” Led by Grammy-winning producer Steve Fishell, the sessions allow ten participants to follow the entire record-making process, from pre-production and tracking, to overdubbing, mixing and mastering.

The Jerry Douglas session is set for February 9-11 at Oceanway Studios in Nashville. Jerry and his band, along with acoustic producer par excellence Bil VornDick, will be in the studio with Fishell. Students at the session will not only be able to watch the whole thing go down, but also ask questions during the process.

Fishell has worked as a producer for the past 20 years, including work with Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, The Dixie Chicks, The Duhks, and The Mavericks. He has worked in A&R for Sugar Hill and Vanguard Records, and was involved in signing artists such as The Duhks, Casey Driessen, Albert Lee, Sam Bush and Rebecca Lynn Howard.

We asked Steve what a participant could expect at an MPI session…

“We cover many important areas of record production, including song arranging, tracking, artist psychology in the studio, overdubbing, mic selection and placement, mixing and mastering. No experience is necessary and novices will feel right at home during the sessions; however a background in audio engineering and/or studio production is suggested. Those with home studios will greatly benefit from this program.”

Tuition for the three days is $1,199, and registration is first come, first served.

Jim Lauderdale’s session is scheduled for March 2-4 in Nashville. Dates for the Bush session will be announced soon.

Each month, Mix magazine prints articles about recording and post production techniques, gear, studios, interviews with engineers and producers, etc. It seems they end up with extra material that just didn’t make it into the print edition each month. These extras are often published online in the form of Mix Online Extras.

This month being bluegrass month (I wonder if the publishers knew that?), it seems highly appropriate that their online extra is an article covering the topic of Recording Bluegrass Instruments.

The format of the article couldn’t get much better. The author tracked down four of bluegrass music’s top engineer/producers and asked them how they go about recording the various bluegrass instruments. Those interviewed were: Gary Paczosa, Bil VornDick, Randy Kohrs (and by extension, Michael Latterer), and Steve Chandler.

After introducing each of these engineers, they offer a brief introductory section where each is allowed to talk about their general philosophy of recording bluegrass tracks. Page two is where the specifics hit the page. The article tackles each instrument in turn: mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass, and dobro. Again, each engineer gives their specific choices for mic, mic placement, pre-amp, compression, etc.

If you have an interest in recording bluegrass, this is an article you should take the time to read.