Full Sail students were treated to a rare and intimate guest lecture from legendary audio engineer Steve Albini. Having recorded close to 2000 records with artists like Nirvana, the Pixies, PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails, and Low over the course of his 25-year career, Albini recently spoke before a standing-room-only audience in the Entertainment Business Auditorium, touching upon his unique business practices, technical recording techniques, and his beliefs about the engineer’s role in the studio.

Albini first ventured into the world of audio recording in his Chicago home during the early ’80s, primarily so that his own band Big Black could make their demo. After gaining enough experience and confidence, he began to record full-time, quitting his day job and opening his own Electrical Audio studio in the heart of the Windy City. His fiercely independent ethos (he doesn’t sign contracts) and hands-off approach to working with bands in the studio (Albini rejects the title of “producer,“ preferring to be credited as “recorder” or “engineer”) has earned him a unique reputation in the music business.

“I’m a firm believer in the idea that the band or artist understands their music better than I do,” Albini frankly informed students when asked about the role he plays in the recording process. “I’m definitely not a producer. In every record I’ve ever done, the band has taken on the role of the producer. I don’t feel like I’m qualified to make decisions about another person’s music.”

“A lot of times, the people who get labeled as ‘difficult to work with’ are the people who can’t be pigeonholed into one category. These are usually very creative and unique individuals who don’t really fit into one pattern,” says Recording Arts Course Director Michael Reaves, who initially approached Albini about doing the lecture. “He has hired several of our grads at Electrical Audio, so he knew about Full Sail, but he had never been here. I can’t think of anybody who’s quite like him.”

Another one of Albini’s distinctive traits is his strong loyalty to analog recording. He has never worked in the digital realm on any of the albums he’s contributed to, despite the industry’s shift towards software and computers.

“My reluctance to use digital methods stems from the fragility of digital files and also because I feel like I’ve never been limited by using analog tape. As a working engineer, my clients are bands whose legacy is being entrusted to me,” he explained. “I feel like the very least I can give them is a master tape that will outlive them and will be able to be played to represent what they’ve spent their life working on.”

“His points are so incredibly concise and simple that you couldn’t argue with them,” says Recording Arts Assistant Course Director Matt Gorney, who conducted a private afternoon Q&A session prior to the evening lecture. “There’s no punk-house frenzy in his business acumen and ideas. He’s obviously put an enormous amount of thought into the front-end process of recording.”


After lecturing for 30 minutes, Albini opened the floor to a Q&A session lasting an additional hour and a half, enriching the audience with the experience and hindsight that can only come after years of experience in the industry. “Don’t be concerned that you don’t have good monitors or microphones,” he said in one of the evening’s most direct pieces of advice. “Get started now, using whatever you have available. It’s more important that you start work than that you try to do it perfectly.”