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Andreas Fabianek is one of the most important Austrian producers, musicians and composers working today. As a sound and live technician, he was for many years the partner of such musical greats as Opus, Rainhard Fendrich and Austria 3.
Fabianek can look back on many different stages of his thirty-year career in the music business. At the age of 19, he was already working as a live technician at a concert of the then completely unknown “Die Ärzte”. In his mid-20s he became a pop star himself with the band KGB and the song “Motorboat” – catapulting himself into the 80’s charts and the league of Styrian superstars.
“Never before have we been able to realize our ideas as precisely as now – I love that.”
After alternating between sound engineering and music production, his artistic side was awakened again when he turned in 2008 from live engineering to composing music for film. Now he combines everything he has learned to date: working as a composer, artist, sound engineer and producer – all in one.
Though this master of old school music production appreciates the dynamics and sound quality of analogue mixes, perhaps even with a certain nostalgia, Fabianek notes that: “Never before have we been able to eq and mix so accurately, never before have we been able to realize our ideas as precisely as now.”
Andreas Fabianek: “frei:raum is the Swiss Army Knife of audio production.”
sonible’s frei:raum especially allows the particularly detailed processing of sound material. Andreas Fabianek likes to use it when it comes to improving poorly produced soundtracks. He calls it the Swiss Army knife of audio plug-ins. The three different levels of frei:raum – smart:EQ, proximity:EQ and entropy:EQ – allow direct editing of frequency, spatial information and transients; thus enabling a quick and uncomplicated rescue of the original recording.
It doesn’t matter that fast rescue is not his main area. Andreas Fabianek is familiar in many areas. And he passes on this knowledge in lectures at the FH Joanneum Graz. What is difficult to convey in class, however, is the enthusiasm for all genres of music and areas of this profession. Some things remain just difficult to teach: It doesn’t matter whether you deal analytically with a particular music genre, whether you sleep in a nightliner for four weeks on tour, whether you work together with the artists for many years to form a unit – all this can’t be taught in class really.
In addition to the fast rescue of problematic recordings, Andreas Fabianek is familiar with many other areas of audio production. He passes on this knowledge in lectures at the college of applied sciences joanneum Graz. What is difficult to convey in class, however, is his enthusiasm for all genres of music and aspects of music production. Whether it’s analysing a particular music genre, sharing what it’s like to sleep in a nightliner for a four week tour, or the challenges of working together with artists over years forming a musical group – these things remain hard to be taught in a classroom.
That’s why Andreas Fabianek recommends trying out different fields of music making and production in practice. His motto “Don’t consider yourself too good for anything” has proven itself. His advice is: Try anything! You will then learn how the music business runs and have the chance to expand your network of many great personalities. By getting to know the different fields of audio and music production, your craft will automatically improve.