Doctor Mike in Richmond, Victoria | Producer

Doctor Mike

Locality: Richmond, Victoria

Address: 1/49 Bridge Road 3121 Richmond, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.eolstudios.com/

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25.01.2022 Rock and Metal Recording Philosophy. Each note requires undivided attention. Heavy Music is as complex as it gets. In many cases, the technicality gets close to Classical Music. And this means that our performing technique in the studio is at highest stakes to get the record sounding the very top level. Many of us look to conquer the new heights each time we record, and maybe even bow to the altar of Metal Gods. ... What separates those who succeed from those who just get by? Immense, deepest attention to each and every single note performed and recorded. This means, playing that riff over and over again until it sparkles with each finger that you put on your freatboard. Punching in half a second of guitar lick with even slightest doubt of its power. Destroying your legs on drum recording session just to get these double kicks solid, powerful and dynamic. And coming in to vocal recording sessions for twice as long as planned to find that best vocal delivery suitable for the album. Metal Gods will listen - once you put in the true and sincerest work in your recording, dissolve in it, forget the surrounding world and bow to their altar \m/

25.01.2022 Production Values II. Developing a full vision for the project. In these series of posts, I talk about my production approaches for Heavy Rock and Metal music. As much as it's widespread in metal to come into the studio and "just record" with not much of a preparation work going, I truly think that a good plan may help your record break through the roof.... When I receive a recording inquiry, my first impulse is to get a good listen of band's demos and analyse them thoroughly. What is the strongest feature of these tracks? Is it melody? Or groove? Or riffs? Or atmosphere? Once I get some understanding of the material on my end, I schedule a meeting with the band where we talk about their vision. In most cases, it matches to what I've been able to hear in the demo tracks myself. However sometimes, the band wants something specific to be their unique feature which would identify their own sound. Maybe that is incredible clean vocals with unique technique, or maybe certain guitar effects or a combination of samples and groovy riffs? We also discuss how can their music sound like, and how can it NOT sound like. This simple exercise immediately puts our thoughts in good context, and creates polarity where needed. This has to be taken into consideration from the very beginning of the project, and I actually formalise and outline the desired sonic vision in a special document to refer to throughout the whole production process. As certain elements need space, it is critical to discover these most important features early on in the process to build tracks around them during pre-production, recording, and mixing. How do you discover sonic vision for your heavy projects? Keen to learn different approaches.

24.01.2022 Recently I've completely reassessed my plugin toolkit , narrowing it down to the ones that give massive results quickly I am big on using SAND by Acustica Audio (SSL console) on almost every channel - which provides huge SSL sound for drums and other tracks! I've also added a few pieces by Kush Audio and I'm enjoying these heaps ... As a result, I now mix 2x faster, I compress and EQ with incredibly bald moves, I am as efficient as I've ever been, and the sounds just spank so hard!! Super keen to share recent works with you and apply some of my new approaches to your sounds

23.01.2022 CUSTOM AUDIO AMPLIFIERS OD 100 Let's talk about guitar amps! First here we have a Custom Audio Amplifiers OD 100. This amp is developed by legendary Bob Bradshaw (touring and developing rigs for Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammet, Marty Friedman, and many more) who then handed the rights to John Suhr. ... Incredibly versatile head with unique heavy characters. Channel one allows to dial in some Fender Blackface style sparkling cleans. Whereas the second channel kicks in with crushing high gain distortion. The flexibility of its characters give an amazingly open top end, very bright and detailed, yet airy and not piercing at all. The overall distortion character is mid-forward, which allows the chugs to cut through the mix. The low end is fat and massive, and may require some tightening by using Tube Screamers or such. I am using Misha Mansoor's Horizon pedal for that. I love this amp for truly huge and upfront sound with incredible dynamics. It really gives fantastic response to player's right hand, providing immediate attack and transience, and holding that a little bit with tube compression. The power amp is running on these huge 5881 tubes. Outstanding guitar head that doesn't sound like any other ones, yet combines the best characters in the industry, bringing something unique to the table. Best succinct sound description - Marshall on steroids.

22.01.2022 My Music Journey Part III. USA/Aussie Challenge I always considered myself as a citizen of the world, not of a specific country. Unfortunately, having Russian passport doesn't quite work with this idea, hence I had to study abroad to fix that. In late 2013, I went to Philadelphia, USA to do some studies as a visiting student for 4 months. I was lucky to see Huntress, Lamb of God, Testament and Killswitch Engage on one bill in Philly! ... That period was intense as I quickly found myself playing guitar with Gift Of Madness on an opening slot for Killswitch Engage themselves in Feb 2014 back in Russia, and just a few months later I landed in Australia to pursue my PhD degree in biochemistry. Being separated from my band and missing music heaps, I decided to learn the remote side of music production. And so it went: doing PhD 9-5, and then learning the basics of home recording and mixing 6-10. Quite quickly I felt confident enough to start looking for my first clients, and charging the minimum amount for mixes. I started developing my word of mouth, and got a few first projects in 2014. My PhD was running typically: slave labor, high expectations yet low rewards, and extreme stress levels. The only thing that was consistently keeping me sane was my growing studio and my happy clients that kept coming back. It all solidified in 2015, when I produced, recorded and mixed a song "Depuration" for my ex-band Gift Of Madness. I played and recorded guitars, worked on arrangement, edited drums and vocals, and mixed the track completely remotely. And the track turned out quite well to our surprise! That's when my humble beginnings came to reality, and I officially started "EOL Studios" in November 2015. Since then, I successfully finished my PhD degree through enormous hurdles; dealt with major challenges regarding my immigration to Australia; kept consistently improving my studio facilities, environment and most importantly my skills; and gradually worked with some killer local and international rock and metal bands. Times are tough for all of us right now, but it won't be forever. We need to persevere and constantly move forward, and that will pay off immensely.

20.01.2022 Analog Gear - III. Rupert Neve 542 Tape Emulators. I've been always fascinated by the sound of magnetic tape. First, by listening to all my favourite albums recorded the old-school way . Next, by using rather high quality tape emulation plugins from Universal Audio (still using these today) . To me, the sound of tape gives a more natural thickening as opposed to regular compression. When pushed very hard, tape becomes uncontrollably brutal, and provides extreme grit and ra...wness often desired in heavy productions . That's when selecting outboard gear for my chain, I've committed to getting Rupert Neve tape emulators. These two are the last step on each and every mix that I do. And while 542's don't sound exactly like tape (from my rather limited understanding of it), they add something that is truly unachievable elsewhere . You may call it magnetic fairy dust as these devices have a real magnetic head that saturates once you push the mix through it. However, put it simply, tape emulators add depth and thickness. Make things louder without changing their dynamics much. Inject that top end magnetic sparkle you can't find elsewhere. And simply finish any mix in the nicest form ever . All hail to the tape!

19.01.2022 Had an honour to be Ben Wallick's guest on Secret Sonics podcast where we discussed approaches to recording and producing metal, as well as current highlights of my career. Check it out, interesting listen! https://www.benwallick.com//secret-sonics-062-mike-trubets

18.01.2022 Analog Gear - I. Rupert Neve 5043. I'm keen to dive deep into my mixing process and show you what I use to achieve unique characters for my mixes. My mix bus goes through an outboard analog chain, starting with a compressor by a legend Rupert Neve.... 5043 is a dual channel VCA compressor. Don't let the accurate and tidy design fool you, this thing adds incredible weight and glue to the mixes one runs through it! Being one of the more recent bus compressor designs, 5043 builds upon decades of Rupert Neve's experience and adds unmistakable transparent cohesiveness to the mix bus. The flexibility of the design combines the best of both worlds, yielding in modern, tight compression character and yet adding the silky old-school glue that we all love so much. By experimenting with attack and release times, one can find an approach to any modern or old school production and add unmistakable staple to the sound, making it larger and tighter.

17.01.2022 Alright. Thanks to Rona crisis, many of us have lost motivation to write new music or record it. It seems pointless, gigs are far away, our goals have been shattered, and generally we've lost our way. Here are some thoughts on restoring that strong motivation back! Musician, never forget who you are! Our tribe is different from "normal" people. Because we have an insane, mysterious ability to experience the form of higher energy and translate it into sounds and music. You ma...y call it a hippie-bullshit, but I would truly call it a Gift, regardless of its nature. We've been able to hear things that others don't hear since we were born. We are able to fine-tune into the sounds of music and nature the way "ordinary" people just never find interest to do. We have so much more depth in experiencing emotions, events around us, and the world. Now, with this Gift, we have two ways. Either we do nothing and procrastinate with it, and ultimately lose this ability. Or we work damn hard, and fail and fail every time yet again and again, striving to develop this gift to perfection, and finally build a technique. And we then make songs that connect listeners to this higher experience and make them better human beings. If we are the ones to transmit this energy to other people, then it's our true responsibility to share it in our best ever way possible, regardless of how high this price would be. How's that for motivation? Let's do it! \m/

16.01.2022 Our tribute to one of our favourites by the mighty Fear Factory Liam Frost-Camilleri (Fall and Resist) - Bass, Vocals Dr. Mike Trubetskov (EOL Studios, The Overcoming Project) - Guitars, Synths, Production, Mixing and Mastering... Recording during the lockdown in 2020

14.01.2022 OUTBOARD GEAR VS PLUGINS? HYBRID APPROACH! Let's get this stigma out of the way. Some industry professionals are only loyal to plugins due to their flexibility, instant results and ease of recall. While others prefer to mostly work with hardware, swear by it and the high quality of their results. Here, we implement a hybrid approach, which is a combination of plugins and outboard gear. Why so?... I've been working with Universal Audio plugins for many years, and was blown away by the sonic characters and flavours that they provide. I, however, started to notice something lately. If one stacks a number of console, EQ, compressor and tape emulation plugins to get more character in the mix, results may sound a little brittle (possibly, due to anti-aliasing or oversampling in digital world). In short, I was craving for more character, and couldn't achieve enough of it with plugins. Similarly, I was keen to get more unique sonic flavours, which are not represented in digital world at all. For this reason, I expanded my setup into hybrid territory. Digital mix now travels into Louder Than Liftoff Silver Bullet Rupert Neve 5043 compressor Rupert Neve 542 tapes, and back into the DAW. This setup gives me best of both worlds. I can surgically and very precisely process individual tracks and channels in the box, and get some character in there, too. Then, I inject all the unique flavours into my mix bus with the mojo boxes that I have. As a result, my latest mixes sound thick, strong and vibrant, with a unique combination of sonic colours. Clients seem to like it too, as they approve mixes much faster now. I will discuss each piece of my outboard gear in next posts, but this gives a general outline of hybrid approach that we implement here.

11.01.2022 I am Doctor Mike Trubetskov, PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, now making Heavy Rock and Metal records full-time. In this video, I'll walk you through my path of becoming a Metal Producer, Recording and Mixing Engineer, how I got started in music, and how I never gave up through extreme challenges that went my way. #PhD #research #rock #metal #producer #audio #studio

11.01.2022 Analog Gear - Do You Care?! I was going to write a series of posts about all the outboard gear that I use for production and mixing, and what each piece brings in terms of sonic flavour. However, as much as I want to be 100% transparent and open about my workflow, does this really matter to you?!... Yes, since I started going out of the box, my mixes became much more cohesive, glued together, more coloured, flavourful, and simply come together faster and better. I am heaps more excited to fiddle with all these knobs, and this excitement translates to my process. My clients like my work more and approve mixes and productions faster, after these come through my analog chain. The only thing that should matter to you as a musician though is - results. If you can get killer sounding heavy records, it won't matter what particular piece of gear I used. I do pride to get unique console-like flavours with these boxes that are definitely not available as plugins. However, how would it look if a chief in a restaurant brags about his knives more than his ability to cook? Or a car mechanic only talking about screwdrivers and wrenches? Hence, we are only talking about one rule here - if it sounds good, it is good. For this reason, I am not going to continue the gear talk, and I'd rather focus on my production approaches to music, and share some excitement with you. Let me know what you think, and keep rockin' \m/

11.01.2022 What It Takes To Make Great Heavy Records: Skill vs Gear. I shot this video a few months ago, and while slightly reluctant to share as it’s a little rough on edges, I still find this message as relevant as ever, and I am keen to discuss this with you in depth! \m/

10.01.2022 Check out our recent HEAVY 80s style Metal work with modern twist with Edan H. Killer track, killer guitar playing by Edan, killer solos by Enzo, and killer singing by Carlos Zema Mastered by Joseph Carra at Crystal Mastering - you can really tell that ;) Awesome tune for your Fri night joy.

09.01.2022 I wrote a large blog post on how to prepare for a successful studio recording for Rock and Metal music. This summarises my past experience working with bands, and describes few really valuable approaches (budgeting, studio choice, etc). Check out the article and let me know what you think! Link in comments.

07.01.2022 TOP Rock and Metal songwriting mistakes that I’ve seen consistently while working on music for my clients. Want your heavy band to stand out? DON’T make these mistakes, and work on these areas to improve your songs! Individual consultation with me: ... https://eolstudios.as.me/free-consultation See more

05.01.2022 Heavy Metal Musicians often struggle performing fast 16th note parts. This has nothing to do with their technique as it’s already up to the level. Contrarily, I show in this video that understanding the positioning of each note in the bar is the crucial step of performing it cleanly. This may help you immediately improve your recording and performing results by developing missing listening skills.

05.01.2022 What are YOUR favourite sounding albums in Metal? I am super keen to compare and discuss your preferences for heavy sounds. I am expecting quite a broad range of productions that we all could break down and get to the bones of thick and heavy sounds So comment with your absolute sounding heavy bangers and let's discover what in particular sounds so good for YOU and why!

05.01.2022 Rodrigo Abelha is killing it once again for another project of ours!

05.01.2022 REMOTE RECORDING SESSIONS Thanks to the modern technology, we were able to record all the guitars with Christopher Willem for The Archanan upcoming prog-metal EP completely remotely! We used TeamViewer for remote control of Chris' computer, Audiomovers to transfer his signal across, and Zoom for video communications.... It would have been slightly easier to attend these sessions in person, but nothing can stop our hard work - Covid included! Excited to perform more of such sessions, and possibly across the globe, too!

05.01.2022 Stoked to see the new video of Katana Cartel album that we've produced being released! Killer work, and honoured to help make music for the lads. Drums masterfully recorded at ColourSound Recording Studio with incredible Mathew Robins Guitars, Bass, Synths, Vocals recorded and produced by Dr. Mike Trubetskov at EOL Studios Mastered by the true Master Tony Jack Mantz at Deluxe Mastering... Enjoy!!

04.01.2022 Guitarists and metalheads! Show us your guitars! \m/ I'll start with mine. First we have a rare Edwards from the early 90s. Quite a mysterious guitar. Most likely, this was a prototype of ESP M-II, however this knowledge is lost due to the fire on ESP factory taking away most of their documents and records about this guitar.... One thing I have to say about it - it's a shred machine! Alder body is my favourite for heavy chugs, it gives this present bite and still solid low end. The neck is super easy to play, and it sounds very aggressive and clean. Sharktooth fret markers help this, too! Despite the long scratch on the body, the guitar still looks very classy in solid black. And most importantly, it sounds very heavy! I scored it rather cheap on Japanese auction - good place to hunt for used guitars while we can't visit Japan in person.

03.01.2022 The second guitar that I owned for the longest period of time is this fiery Ibanez S9870 J-Custom. I bought this guitar in a remote neighbourhood on the outskirts of Moscow in the middle of nowhere after successfully passing my first 3 exams at the University. It turned out that they only made a total of 36 of these models, quite a rarity! ... With the body made of Honduran mahogany with quilted maple top, this Ibanez shines at sustain. A thin S-series design inspired by Satriani's models somehow doesn't compromise the weight in its sound. Open and large sound varying from incredible sparkling cleans to thick overdrives and distortion, this guitar has it all. Although the looks won't fit to play thrash metal, it's more than capable of delivering! However, it truly shines in solo territory with this super thin wizard neck allowing one to shred insanely fast, and then hold these extra long notes without worrying for them to decay.

01.01.2022 Our tribute to one of our favourites by the mighty Fear Factory. Liam Frost-Camilleri (Fall and Resist) - Bass, Vocals Dr. Mike Trubetskov (EOL Studios, The Overcoming Project) - Guitars, Synths, Production, Mixing and Mastering... Recording during the lockdown in 2020

01.01.2022 This is "Victory". Probably best song that I've ever written and would ever write. Difficult to record, has very subtle details in riffs that have to be done in one go. Plus I'm extremely critical to my playing, got to be perfect! So I'll spend some time until I get it where it needs to be, 10 or 100 hours - won't matter. Expect some bangers from The Overcoming Project soon!!