Bobby Owsinski's Music Production Blog - Bobby Owsinski's inside look at the art of music engineering and production as well as the latest music industry news and views

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Why Your Voice Memo Proves Nothing in a Copyright Dispute ft. Nadim Rahman On My Latest Podcast

Nadim Rahman of Songproof - Episode 634

Song copyright protection for musicians who record ideas with a voice memo at 3am proves nothing in a dispute. That original moment completely unverifiable. On this week’s podcast episode, I speak with Nadim Rahman about Songproof, a dual-blockchain platform that recognizes that musicians needed an irrefutable timestamp at the exact moment inspiration strikes, not after […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

New Music Gear Monday: Baby Audio SubCulture Plugin

Baby Audio SubCulture plugin

Getting a bass to sit right in a mix is one of those jobs that looks simple until you’re actually doing it. Boost the low end and it turns muddy. Add a sub layer and it fights the pitch of the note that’s playing. Most bass enhancers are stuck using a fixed frequency or a […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Native Instruments, iZotope, And Plugin Alliance All Have New Homes

iZotope and Boris FX

You’ve seen and heard me rail against the evils of private equity over the years, but I’ve been especially focused on Francisco Partners acquisition of Native Instruments. After that happened in 2019, Native then acquired iZotope and Plugin Alliance during Covid when everyone was at home buying and creating to fill up the time. Predictably, […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Labels, Streaming, YouTube, And Gear News And Views On My Latest Podcast

Latest music production and business news - Episode 633

Music industry professionals still betting on major labels to develop artists should know the system has structurally exited that business. On this week’s podcast episode, I break down the data showing UMG and WMG now redirect spending toward catalog acquisitions rather than new careers. . . . . . have made AI licensing deals explicitly […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

New Music Gear Monday: Heritage Audio Mix Buddy Instrument Mixer

Heritage Audio Mix Buddy

If you’ve ever tried to run a rig full of synths, samplers, and drum machines into a standard mixer, you already know the problem. Regular mixers are built around mic and line inputs, and while they’re fine for those sources, they usually do a mediocre job with instrument level signals. That means DI boxes, adapters […]

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in Book Excerpt , Engineering , Production by Bobby Owsinski

These 8 Indicators Tell You Your Mix Is Finished

Finished mix 8 things

One of the hardest things for many mixers to determine is when a mix is finished. In fact, engineers new to mixing may think a mix is ready in an hour, but a pro will usually take considerably longer in most cases. How much longer? Well, some big hit maker mixers that I know may spend up […]

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#book excerpt #mix #Mixing Engineer's Handbook

in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Jeff Graves Talks LUFS Mastering On My Latest Podcast

Jeff Graves - Episode 632

On this week’s podcast episode, mastering engineer Jeff Graves talks about what happens when independent musicians upload masters that are so hot that they lose transient detail the moment streaming platforms apply loudness normalization. Jeff spent two and a half years measuring 214 audio fingerprints across 15 samples per genre to build a 24-stage AI […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

New Music Gear Monday: Softube Console 1 Compact Controller

Softube Console 1 Controller

Anyone who’s ever mixed on a real console and then gone back to mixing with a mouse knows it can be a letdown. Your hands miss the knobs, and your ears miss the instant feedback of turning something and hearing it change right now, not after a click and a drag. Softube built a following […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Reference Tracks And How To Use Them

Using reference tracks with Audio Metric AB image

The use of reference tracks is a topic that has been popping up a great deal lately and there seems to lots of confusion as to how to select and use them. Here’s a quick guide that will tell you all you need to know on the subject. Why Use A Reference Track? The reason […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Session Vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven Tells How She Charted Without A Manager Or Label On My Latest Podcast

Darlene Koldenhoven - Episode 631

On this week’s podcast episode, session vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven tells us how her music hit #4 on the Billboard classical crossover chart with no manager or label. The common assumption that a major-label infrastructure is required to chart is exactly what her story dismantles, and she walks through the specific decisions that produced number-one worldwide […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

New Music Gear Monday: Waves StudioVerse Mix Unlock

Waves StudioVerse Mix Unlock

Most musicians have faced a scenario at some point where you have a finished stereo master but you there are things you’d like to change, only to find that the multitrack session is long gone. Maybe the vocal needs to come up a touch, or the drums need more punch, but there’s no way back […]

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in Book Excerpt , Production by Bobby Owsinski

What To Do When A Song’s Arrangement Doesn’t Sound Right

Troubleshoot a song

You may have been here before. You’re working on a song but it just isn’t coming together. If you’re experienced you probably know exactly where to start, but even after a couple of steps you might hit a dead end. This excerpt from my Music Producer’s Handbook provides 10 questions to ask in order to troubleshoot a […]

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#Music Producer's Handbook #song troubleshooting

in Production by Bobby Owsinski

Why Chasing Algorithms Is Killing Your Music Career With Keith Jopling On My Latest Podcast

Keith Jopling - Episode 630

On this week’s podcast episode, I speak with Keith Jopling about what separates artists who last from those who burn out chasing the wrong metrics. Keith spent 25 years inside the business, including time at Spotify, before interviewing 80 artists and bands to write Riding the Rollercoaster. The creative director model he extracted from that […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

New Music Gear Monday: PSP Audioware Levelizer Auto-Fader Plugin

PSP Levelizer

Riding a fader by hand is one of those skills that separates an experienced mixer from someone just starting out, but even the best of us get tired of doing it on every vocal pass or dialogue track. Compressors can smooth things out, but they often change the character of the performance along with the […]

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in Production by Bobby Owsinski

The Difference Between Stems And Tracks

The difference between stems and tracks post on Bobby Owsinski's Music Production Blog

I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated whenever I hear a young artist, producer or engineer say something like, “I imported all the stems then started to mix” and you see a picture of 40+ tracks, but no stems. I don’t know where it started, but many people today think that the terms […]

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