There’s no shortage of console emulations available to us these days. Neve, API, SSL and Trident have all been modeled to death, and most of us have a favorite we reach for when a track needs some attitude. But one desk responsible for a load of records you know by heart almost never comes up, […]
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On this week’s episode, Mixing Business Coach Michael Morgan explores why building a sustainable mixing career requires a clear business system, not just great technical skills or the latest marketing tactic. Michael has a background in product development, research, and audio-industry brand work, as he explains why mixers often struggle when they stop doing the […]
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Most desktop interfaces are designed to disappear into the background of your desk. Most sit nicely under your monitor, but make you open a control panel app whenever you want to change a setting. That works fine until the moment you actually want to control a parameter in real time. The new Flex-10 from Harrison […]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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