The Top 10 Mixing and Mastering Engineers According To Jaxsta

I don’t know if I ever thought who the top 10 mixing and mastering engineers were. You usually get an idea of who’s hot by watching the charts to see if the same names come up over and over, but that’s pretty unscientific. We do live in an age of data though, so finding out […]

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New Music Gear Monday: FireSonic FireMaximizer Plugin

We have a lot of tools that do a great job of increasing the mix level, giving it some extra harmonics, and controlling clipping, but that usually means that your mix buss can be filled with plugins. Software developer FireSonic has now put four popular buss plugins into a single plugin called FireMaximizer to provide […]

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Physicists Have Unraveled The Secret To Swing

“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” as the song goes, and that can certainly apply to a lot of music made by real players and not computers. Although musicians know it when they hear or feel it, it’s been really hard to explain swing scientifically. But never underestimate science, especially […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Yamaha AG08 Live Streaming Mixer

Most people use their home studios for far more than just creating music these days. Whether its hosting a podcast, giving lessons, gaming, ASMR, or collaborating with other players or songwriters, we expect our gear to extremely versatile anymore. That usually means there’s a lot of extra single function gear around your studio that you […]

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A Deep Look Inside Abbey Road’s Reverb Chamber

A while back we took a glance around Abbey Road’s reverb chamber when the excellent Waves plugin version was announced. Here’s a much more intimate look. This time it’s an actual tour inside the chamber itself provided by Mirek Styles, the head of audio products at Abbey Road. While many of the good sounding live […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Freqport FT-1 Freqtube True Analog Processing Plugin

Almost everyone loves the sound of analog (especially tubes), but getting that sound in your DAW has always been somewhat problematic, leading most to us to believe that it’s not worth the extra effort for setup and recall. That’s no longer a problem thanks to the FT-1 Freqtube by Freqport, a hardware device that provides […]

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Apple’s M2-Powered Computers Are Here, And What That Means For Music

Apple released it’s newly updated M2-powered laptops and Mac Mini’s yesterday, and while that excites a small portion of the music community, it’s more or less ho-hum for the rest. More power with no new features doesn’t exactly peak that much interest these days. What Is This M2 You Speak Of? Apple’s M2 is a […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Wavesfactory Trackspacer Plugin

Probably the most difficult operation for an beginning engineer is to carve out space in the mix for each mix element. For 50 years this was based on the experience and the ears of the mixer, and it took some time to learn the skill. Today there are many tools that can make this process […]

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The Producer’s Guide To Project Management

Project management is the one element that usually slips beneath the radar of most budding producers, but it can easily break you if you don’t pay attention to it. Project management consists of the planning, organizing, and managing of the resources necessary to the complete the project, be it just one song, a cue or […]

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The Ultimate Drum Recording Checklist

Like the foundation of a house, the drums are the foundation of a recording. With a strong foundation, you can build almost anything on it that you or your clients can imagine. A little effort and time spent miking the drums and getting the sound just right can result in a recording that sounds better […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Newfangled Audio Invigorate Buss Compressor And Enhancer

Buss compression has gone from never used, to lightly used, to a basic ingredient of modern mixes, so every mixer is looking for a way to do it better. Where once a mix buss used several processors to get the required sound, now we’re seeing all-in-one processors that can do it all. Such is the […]

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A Look Back At 2022 In The Music Industry On My Latest Podcast

On my latest podcast episode, I take a look back at the events in the music business and music production during 2022, including: And more! Listen to it the at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Mixcloud, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, TunIn Radio, and RadioPublic. Enjoy the show!

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Plugin Developer Sonnox Acquired By Focusrite In Another Pro Audio Rollup

In yet another pro audio industry rollup, plugin developer Sonnox has announced that it’s been acquired by the Focusrite Group. This is on the heals of the recent Audiotonix acquisition of Slate Digital, which continues a trend of many of the industry’s stalwart companies being rolled into larger holding companies. The Focusrite Group now trades […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Crazy Tube Circuits Unobtainium Amp Simulator Pedal

Even though I’m a guitar player, I try not to be too guitar-centric in this blog, especially on New Music Gear Mondays. But every now and then something special catches my eye and I want the rest of the world to know about it. The new Unobtainium amp simulator pedal from Crazy Tube Circuits is […]

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How Low End Works In Your Mix

Virtually every mixing engineer has the same problem – how to get the low end of a mix to work. Get it wrong and your mix can seem either weak or too boomy when played on another playback system. Get it wrong and it won’t translate to small speakers or earbuds. Finally figuring this out […]

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