Category Archives for "Book Excerpt"
- in Book Excerpt , Engineering , Production by Bobby Owsinski
5 Basic Tips For Mixing Hip-Hop
It’s fair to say that most people reading my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook are mixing songs recorded with live musicians, but it’s a brave new world out there, and sooner or later you’re going to get some hip-hop in to mix. Needless to say, what works with most other genres won’t necessarily work here, especially when […]
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How To EQ For Size
There are many methods of adding EQ to a mix. EQing for clarity, resonant frequency EQing, and frequency juggling immediately come to mind. That said, one of the most overlooked technique is using the EQ to add size to an element, which is particularly important in sparse mixes. Here’s an excerpt from the 4th edition […]
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Troubleshoot Your Drum Sound With This Checklist
Like the foundation of a house, the drums are the foundation of a recording. When it’s strong, you can build almost anything on it that you or your clients can imagine. That said, sometimes you just can’t find the right drum sound and can’t figure out why. Here’s an excerpt from the 4th edition of my […]
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The Difference Between The Groove And The Pocket
Thanks to the world of DAWs, loops and samples, many producers, engineers, musicians and bands don’t know what the “groove” and the “pocket” of a song is. Because most every recording is placed exactly on the grid, it’s easy to come up with a beat or song that’s perfectly in time, but lacks a groove […]
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So You Want To Record In Jamaica
Although known more recently as a music publisher with his Artist First Music as well as being the former president of the American Independent Music Publishers association, Richard Feldman has an equally rich history in reggae music production. With credits of amazing reggae music stars like Andrew Tosh, Joe Higgs, Junior Reid, The Congos, I Threes and Wailing Souls, he also won […]
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Make Your Session Run More Efficiently With This Overdub Checklist
An overdub session, especially one involving multiple players and parts, can deteriorate quickly into chaos without a plan. It’s easy to spend hours looking for the right performance or sound, but you can spend even more time experimenting if the producer didn’t expect that to happen and allot time for it. That’s why it pays to […]
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Ken Scott’s Inside Look At Recording The Beatles White Album
The post last week from the Ken Scott bio Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust was so popular that I thought I’d do it again. Since we’re now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles White Album, here’s an excerpt from the book describing those sessions. I must admit that I enjoyed reading […]
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Producer Ken Scott On Working With Early David Bowie
Recently I went back and began to read some of the Ken Scott biography Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust that I was lucky enough to co-write. It’s a great book (if I do say so myself) with some wonderful stories about Ken working with some of the legends of music business. One of my favorites […]
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Want Your Band To Play Tight? Concentrate On These 10 Things
A lot of bands are naturally good because of the caliber of the musicians. Their innate talent causes them to automatically do some things that are important to band tightness, but many of the rest of us sometimes wonder why our band doesn’t seem as tight as it should be, either across all songs or […]
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6 Things To Think About Before Miking A Grand Piano
Many engineers believe that miking a grand piano is the most difficult thing they’re called on to do. Getting it to sound natural can drive an engineer a little crazy sometimes, although that’s not always the sound we’re going for. That said, there are 4 main techniques and multiple variations of each outlined in the […]
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Chuck Ainlay And The Nashville Recording Approach
Chuck Ainlay is one of the new breed of Nashville engineers that brings a rock approach to a country music sensibility. With credits like George Strait, Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Waylon Jennings, Wynonna and even such rock icons like Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler, Chuck’s work is heard world-wide. Here’s an […]
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How To Avoid “Big Mono” During Recording
We all love big wide stereo soundfields, especially the ones that come from the stereo output of an electronic keyboard. If you pan too many elements hard left and hard right however, you end up with “Big Mono,” which is a term that my friend Ed Seay likes to use. That means that you actually […]
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Old School/New School Mixing With Bassy Bob Brockman
“Bassy” Bob Brockman has a wide range of awards and credits, including more than 30 Grammy nominations with two wins, and an Oscar nomination. His many credits include Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, the Notorious B.I.G., Babyface, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, The O’Jays, Brian McKnight, Jodeci, Faith Hill, Korn, Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Williams, Christina Aguilera, […]
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The Fix It Before You Mix It Checklist
Preparing for the mix can be as critical as the mix itself, since it allows for a more comfortable and efficient mixing session that minimizes mistakes and hassles. This prep occurs before the first fader is raised but sets the stage for an easier and mistake-free mix by having the files properly labeled and all […]
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The Difference Between Your Stage Presentation And The Big Concert You Just Went To
Many artists at varying levels of success put little thought into their stage presentation, and it shows. It’s a rare performer that can captivate an audience by his or her performance alone, and most audiences, even on a club level, expect to be entertained on multiple levels these days. In the following excerpt from my How […]
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