Archive
Monthly Archives: May 2018
- in Acoustics , Gear by Bobby Owsinski
Beware: Alexa And Siri Can Hear Inaudible Commands
Just about everyone has a smart phone these days, and more and more households are purchasing smart speakers. While some love the convenience of voice commands that these smart devices respond to, it does open up a security hole that only now the general public is becoming aware of. It turns out that both Alexa […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Engineering , Recording by Bobby Owsinski
Get The Most Out Of Your Condenser Microphone
A condenser microphone can sometimes require some extra attention that other types of mics don’t need. Here are a number of tips from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook that can not only prolong the life of your mic, but also keep its performance as high as the day it left the factory. […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Live Sound , Production , Software by Bobby Owsinski
Will Live Looping Become The New Rage In Performing?
For the longest time musicians, artists, engineers and producers were used to slaving over songs for long periods of time in the studio. Creation took time, and it went from the more or less 3 hour sessions of the 50s and 60s to the months and even years of the 1990s and 2000s. Thankfully, the […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Guitar , Guitars , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
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New Music Gear Monday: Roadie Automatic Guitar Tuner
Whether you’re a guitar or bass player or someone that records them, the one thing that you must deal with almost on a minute by minute basis is tuning. With the proliferation of inexpensive clip-on tuners like the Snark, tuning is less of a problem than ever, but there’s still the manual factor involved where […]
Continue readingPost Mixer Mike Rodriguez On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest this week is award-winning sound designer and mixer Mike Rodriguez, who was another of my first guests when I started my Inner Circle Podcast 4 years ago. He was originally on episode #14. Mike is a senior audio mixer at Trailer Park in Los Angeles where he mixes everything from commercials to television […]
Continue reading- in Acoustics , Gear by Bobby Owsinski
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The Reason Why Stradivarius Violins Are Worth Millions
I think most of us that play a stringed instrument love instruments of all types, but given a choice, will always pick a vintage instrument over a new one. While it’s true that new instruments are generally better in build quality than old ones in terms of consistency thanks to new computer controlled routing machines, […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Engineering , Production by Bobby Owsinski
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When It Comes To Panning, Respect The Big 3
One of the most overlooked or taken for granted elements in mixing is panorama, or the act of placing a sound element in the soundfield. To understand panorama we must first understand that the stereo sound system (which is two separate audio channels, each with its own speaker) represents sound spatially. Panning lets us select […]
Continue reading- in Music by Bobby Owsinski
Do You Know About Gospel Chops?
Gospel music has had a huge influence on American popular music, although the average consumer might not be aware of it. The music of such music giants as B.B. King, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston, just to name a few, have been anchored by their roots in the church. For musicians not directly connected to that rich history, […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Guitar , Guitars , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: TC Electronic Aeon Guitar String Sustainer
Since the mid-1970’s, if you wanted an electric guitar string to sustain forever you turned to an Ebow, the ingenious handheld device that virtually every major artist has used on a recording at some point (case in point, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia bought the very first one). If you wanted that sound, the Ebow […]
Continue readingMixer Gary Lux, What’s Fueling Music Growth, And Audio Interfaces On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Gary Lux is one of Hollywood’s premier music mixers with literally thousands of projects to his credit with major artists like Usher, Keith Urban, Sting, Ben Harper, Janet Jackson and Rob Thomas. Before going independent in 1988, Gary was the head music mixer for Universal Studios, where he garnered two Emmy Award nominations for his […]
Continue reading- in Acoustics , Live Sound by Bobby Owsinski
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There’s Never Been Anything Like It – The Grateful Dead’s Wall Of Sound PA
Concert sound systems have grown in scope over the years and are truly marvels in analog and digital electronics and acoustics. They’ve never been more powerful and more controllable, and our understanding of their use has never been better. That said, even the most sophisticated sound system of today still has a ways to go […]
Continue reading- in Engineering , Production , Recording by Bobby Owsinski
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8 Tips For Getting A Singer’s Best Vocal Performance
One of the hardest things to record can be a vocalist who is not comfortable with the studio conditions. Even a seasoned pro sometimes can’t do his or her best unless the conditions are just right. Consider some of these suggestions culled from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook before and during a […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Music , Music by Bobby Owsinski
When American Guitars Were Outlawed In England
Considering the giant influence that British music had on America in the 1960s and 70s, it’s hard to believe that there was a time when American instruments were banned by the British government. This forced English musicians to use a wide range of other Euro-based guitars and somewhat explains why many of our guitar heros […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Radial Engineering Backtrack Audio Switcher
When you need a box to do something that no one has thought of yet, you can be sure it will be soon available from the clever boffins at Radial Engineering. In this case, with backing tracks becoming such a big part of many artist’s live performances, adding a separate mixer onstage just for that […]
Continue readingDisney Audio Director Nick Peck On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest this week is composer, sound designer, musician and technologist Nick Peck. For the last 20 years Nick has been a sound designer and audio director for interactive projects and games at Skywalker Sound, Activision, Lucasarts, and now at Disney Publishing Worldwide. Nick runs the audio department at Disney that handles sound design, music […]
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