Engineer/Producer Bruce Sugar On Working With Ringo, Joe Walsh, And Ozzy On My latest Podcast

On this week’s episode, veteran producer, engineer, and Grammy nominee Bruce Sugar explains why staying relevant means embracing new tools without sacrificing the feel and emotion that make music connect. Bruce shares how a short engineering gig with Ringo Starr became a working relationship spanning more than two decades, how artists like Ringo and Joe […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Sonible smart:chain Intelligent Channel Strip Plugin

If you’ve ever mixed a session with a dozen or more instruments, you know what happens. Every channel gets its own EQ, its own compressor, maybe a gate on some of the drums and a de-esser for the vocal, and none of those plugins have any idea what the others are doing. You end up […]

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The Latest On What’s Changing In Music On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s episode, I break down how shifting ownership, AI adoption, and changing platform policies are reshaping the music business and professional audio landscape. I’ll examine major industry moves involving iZotope, Plugin Alliance, Native Instruments, Dynaudio, and DistroKid, alongside the Hollywood Bowl’s immersive sound upgrade and D’Addario’s controversy over undisclosed AI use. I’ll also […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Black Lion Audio Auteur 8DAT

Tracking a full band or a drum kit always seems to expose the same problem, which is that you never quite have enough good preamps to go around. You end up borrowing channels from your interface, patching in whatever outboard you can find, and hoping the whole rig stays in sync while you do it. […]

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Tour Management And FOH Mixing With Ryan Goldbacher On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s episode, Tour managers and artist teams: see why logistics without leadership burns an artist’s budget, with FOH engineer Ryan Goldbacher. Ryan traces his path from Blackbird and Dark Horse Recording, including setting up microphones for a young Taylor Swift in 2006, to Shooter Jennings, where he admits he struggled on his first […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Solid State Logic SSL 1 USB-C Audio Interface

If you’ve spent any time around consoles, you know the SSL name carries enormous weight. The company built its reputation on the 4000 and 9000 series desks that shaped decades of hit records. The SSL 1 takes that same design philosophy and shrinks it down into a compact 2-in/2-out box that anyone can afford and […]

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Why New Platforms Can No Longer Access Spotify’s Artist Data ft. Oskar Eichler On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s episode, reliable music data is getting harder to access, and Oskar Eichler explains why the artists and companies that know how to interpret it now have a serious advantage. As CEO of Songstats, Oskar has helped build a real-time music analytics platform that tracks streaming, playlist, chart, radio, and social media performance […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Waves Atlas Reverb Plugin

Like many mixers, I tend to reach for reverb as a way to place things so that it feels like it belongs to the song and not like something bolted on afterward. That’s what to expect from the new Atlas Reverb from Waves, a flagship algorithmic reverb built around a brand new engine and tuned […]

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If You’re Using AI For Music Generation, You Might Be Violating The EU AI Act

There are so many ways that AI is now being used almost every day in music production and creation. From reducing noise to separating stems to fixing dialog to even creating whole songs, chances are you’re using it more often then you think. That said, it’s now time to be aware that some of the […]

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Meet Anukari, The Totally Unique 3D Physics Synthesizer ft. Evan Mezeske On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s episode, indie plugin developers who want to launch a genuinely new synthesis tool will recognize their own blind spots in Evan Mezeske’s story. Evan left Google after 11 years building large-scale fraud systems to create Anukari, the first commercially available 3D physics modeling synthesizer that runs in real time. He discovered that […]

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New Music Gear Monday: PSP BBDelay Analog Ambience Processor Plugin

There’s a reason so many mixers still reach for an old bucket brigade delay pedal instead of a pristine digital one. The repeats drift a little, the top end softens, and every echo feels slightly different from the one before. Like with many early effects, that imperfection is exactly what makes a track feel alive. […]

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Into Space Music? Then You’ll Want The Extraterrestrial Guitar Thing

Yeah, I scratched my head too . . . but you can’t take your eyes off it. The Extraterrestrial Guitar Thing came from the mind of Swedish designer and experimental instrument builder Love Hultén, and it’s really more of synthesizer rather than guitar. There are no strings, but you have a touch sensitive neck, and […]

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Oeksound’s Hannes Andersson Talks Soothe 3 and More On My Latest Podcast Episode

On this week’s episode, you’ll hear how audio plugin developers who assume machine learning is the right tool find the process used by Hannes Andersson and the team at Oeksound genuinely surprising. Hannes is CEO of Oeksound, the creator of Soothe, the dynamic resonance suppressor that became so dominant on Spotify’s Top 50, yet it’s […]

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New Music Gear Monday: KIT Plugins BB Chamber D Reverb Plugin

Every producer chasing a great reverb sound eventually runs into the same problem. Algorithmic reverbs can get close, but nothing quite matches the sound of a real chamber. The trouble is that almost none of us have access to one. That’s part of why Nashville’s Blackbird Studio has become such a destination for engineers, and […]

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Studio Etiquette When Your Session Ends That Will Be Appreciated

I’ve covered studio etiquette rules here in the past, but they were primarily for when a session was in progress. When the session, or your part in it, is completed, the etiquette doesn’t stop though, as this excerpt from The Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with ace studio bass player Paul ILL) illustrates. It’s perfectly natural […]

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