Category Archives for "New Music Gear Monday"
March 25, 2019
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday , Production by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: SSL SiX Desktop Mixer
When Greg Mackie started the desktop mixer trend in 1991 with his ground-breaking CR-1604, it became quickly apparent that there was a real need for a high-quality, yet inexpensive small mixer. Unfortunately, the 1604 might have been the high-water mark for fidelity in the category way back then, as subsequent products have grown smaller, cheaper […]
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March 18, 2019
New Music Gear Monday: 10 Road Dog Travel Accessories
Even though I’m not on the road playing every day like I did early in career, I still travel a lot. About once every 4 or 5 weeks I’m on a plane traveling to some location in the world – 22 countries in the last year alone. Since I spend so much time on a […]
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March 4, 2019
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Audified ToneSpot Bass Pro Plugin
The bass synth or guitar element of a mix can sometimes be the hardest to fit for engineers to work with. A weak sound here will cause the mix to be weak, something that every mixer is afraid of. While there are plenty of tools to process the bass, there may not be one that’s […]
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February 25, 2019
- in Gear , Hardware , Microphones , Microphones , New Music Gear Monday , Recording by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Royer Labs dBooster
Anyone who’s ever used a ribbon mic is aware of a surprising limitation – the output is low. Likewise for good sounding dynamic mics like the Shure SM7B or RE-20, and even the SM57. This isn’t a problem when the program material has a moderately high SPL level, but if that’s not the case you […]
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February 18, 2019
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Synclavier Digital iOS App
If you weren’t around in the early days of digital audio, then you might not be aware that the field was originally dominated by two major players – New England Digital’s Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI. Although the Synclavier developed into a digital audio workstation that dominated the charts for a period of the 80’s, […]
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February 11, 2019
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: AcoustiTools Live Sound AR Analysis App
Live sound engineers have struggled with the variance in venues ever since the beginning of the discipline. Whether a sports arena, a roadhouse stage, or a house of worship, every space presents its own unique challenges when it comes to sound engineering and speaker placement. And while there are some great analysis tools available, none have […]
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January 21, 2019
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: iZotope Spire Studio Wireless Interface
Have you ever had a great music idea but either didn’t have your gear available, or it took too long to get it set up before the idea disappeared? Yeah, me too. That’s a big part of modern recording technology in that there’s a lot involved with actually getting to the point where you’re recording. […]
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January 14, 2019
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: McDSP EC-300 Echo Collection Plugin
I know many hitmaker mixers who refrain from using reverb on a mix, preferring delay instead to provide all the ambience they need for the track. As a result, they’re always using a wide variety of delay plugins to achieve different effects. That all may be possible now with just a single plugin – the […]
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January 7, 2019
- in Gear , Microphones , Microphones , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Warm Audio WA-251 Tube Condenser Microphone
If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that the last thing the audio world needs is another vintage mic clone. There are already so many good ones available at some great prices. That said, Warm Audio has a way with vintage gear copies that seems to capture the essence of the product that many boutique […]
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December 10, 2018
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Daking Mic Pre II Microphone Preamp
Really good standalone microphone preamps are expensive, as well they should be. There’s a lot more that goes into a great design than meets the eye, and for quite some time the price on most premium models has hovered between $800 and $1,200 or so per channel. That’s why the Daking Mic Pre II is […]
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December 3, 2018
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Production , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Steinberg Cubase 10
Cubase is a DAW that seems like it’s been around forever and has perhaps the largest paid user base of any platform. One of the reasons for its popularity is that Steinberg developers continue to update it on a regular basis with features that are usually a step ahead of the competition. True to form, […]
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November 19, 2018
- in Gear , New Music Gear Monday , Plugin , Software by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Softube Harmonics Saturation Processor Plugin
I must admit I’m an old school engineer in that I was brought up trying to avoid distortion at all costs, but that’s not the world we live in today. It’s now pretty common to add texture to a sound by adding distortion and saturation, something that I’ve generally stayed away from in the past. […]
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November 12, 2018
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Rupert Neve Designs 5211 Two Channel Preamp
Whenever the name “Neve” comes up, an audio person immediately envisions a high quality signal path that’s big and colored in a most pleasing way. The problem is that Neve vintage modules and even many of its clones carry a heavy price tag and tend to provide that one sound, which as great as it […]
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November 5, 2018
- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday , Video by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: SSL Fusion Stereo Buss Processor
Ever since mixing went inside the box there’s been a debate over whether outboard hardware processing provides enough of a useful upgrade to the sound of the mix to make it worth the trouble. Outboard gear used for sweeting can include everything from a custom built summing box to individual signal chains for each main […]
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October 29, 2018
- in Gear , Microphones , Microphones , New Music Gear Monday by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: AEA KU5A Directional Ribbon Microphone
Most engineers love ribbon microphones for their natural sound and the ability to take EQ. Many wouldn’t use anything else in many recording situations like miking brass, percussion or electric guitar amps. Since modern ribbon mics are no longer as fragile as they once were, they’ve found their way into even more applications than ever, […]
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