AES Student Blog

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where and what do you study? What audio field are you in? What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?

My name is Fei Yu, from China, graduated from McGill University, sound recording department. Before I went to Canada in 2013. I worked in China Film Group as a music editor for almost three years. 

When I was 16, I had to submit a recording of my performing as part of a piano competition-entrance application. My teacher took me to the studio of the Central Conservatory of Music , where I discovered the work of an recording engineer was so cool. The engineer covered up my mistakes and I founded that how he placed the microphone totally changed the sound. The process was like a reproduction of music, which I was really interested to learn. Thus, when I graduated from high school, I applied to attend the Department of Music Recording and Film Scoring of Beijing Film Academy in 2006.  That’s how I started my career.

Are you a musician yourself? What instruments do you play and in what musical context?

Yes! I started learning the piano when I was about 8 and won several top awards at piano competitions. 

Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What was it inspired by? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry? 

The project that I submitted is called The End, I see it as a gift for myself to celebrate my graduation. That’s why it’s called the end.  The music itself is adapted by a Chinese traditional love story, and my biggest challenge is how to blend Chinese traditional instrument into big orchestra. 

Before this big session, I started to read the score, get the basic idea that where I want to put the musicians, where I want to put the microphone to make it sounds more balanced. I produced a chart with all of the details of the session like how much time I will spend on each piece, which piece to record first to allow the musicians to warm up. The details for the orchestration, which piece need to overdub, etc.

Regarding the recording technology, Blumlein is still my first choice since I want the precise image. For the final mix, the big orchestra part, I used mostly the main pair, outriggers, room microphone with tiny bit of spot mics and adding Lexicon medium random hall as artificial reverb.

What was your most significant/funny/inspiring experience as an audio engineer? 

Quit my job, go to McGill University totally change my world. Spending all of my times in studio with my amazing classmate and our professor is definitely unforgettable experience.

What’s your advice for engineers who are just starting out?

Stay hungry, stay foolish

Tech talk: What are your favourite pieces of equipment (microphones, outboard, plugins), and why?

MDWEQ5 Parametric EQ , it’s my professor George Massenburg who invented this   amazing tools. It’s accurate, clean with no distortion. Mixing is like cooking, we choose our ingredients, use our tools to mix it and cook it.  

Can you name one or multiple of your favourite recordings or productions and tell us why you like them/what you like about them?

I am super lucky that could be involved with an amazing project with my professor Richard King who won several Grammy awards. We recorded two albums in Beijing in 2014 summer with a traditional Inner Mongolia band called “ Anda Union”. That’s definitely one of my favourite recordings.  It’s always amazing experience that spending times with a group of musicians and throat singers, see how they approach the music with all of cool ideas. The recording sounds super natural and with all of the details. The album will be released this year. Hope everybody could buy it and love our traditional music.

What do you like about the AES? How does it help you to become a better and more successful audio engineer? 

AES is definitely a good platform for all of the audio engineer sharing our ideas , getting more updated tech news, meeting with people in our field. 

Tell us about your favourite experiences at the 138^th AES Convention in Warsaw!

I really enjoyed all of the moment in Warsaw.  Meeting and talking with all of the talented audio people really make me learned a lot. 

What is your favourite frequency?

Really don’t have something specific, I guess I like the full spectrum of frequency.

What do you do when you’re not in the studio or doing anything music related?

Spending time with my friends and my family, go to the concert hall , movie theatre . Shopping, cooking, etc.  You know, girls. HAHA

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 

Somewhere over the rainbow, haha .  Hopefully still in audio field, and still eager to learn everything and do what I really like to do. 

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

Do what you really like, stay hungry, stay foolish.