Engineer Steve Albini On Recording Drums

One of the most respected of the new breed of engineers, Steve Albini gained his considerable experience and reputation working primarily with underground and alternative bands. While his most famous credit remains Nirvana’s “In Utero”, Steve has worked with a diverse lineup of artists such as PJ Harvey, The Pixies, The Stooges, Cheap Trick, Silkworm, […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Radial Engineering HDI High-Definition Direct Box

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I’m a big fan of all products from Radial Engineering, but their direct boxes in particular. The JDI has been a long-time a standard for both studio and live and with good reason. It’s built like a tank and will last forever, and […]

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New Grammy Rule Book, Orchestra Social Distancing, And Producer Kyle Hunter On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Kyle Hunter, who started producing music for artists, but soon learned about the world of sync licensing and custom music.  He also co-founded RhythmCouture, which now counts Forever 21, Vans, Calvin Klein, The NY Times and many more major brands among their clients. The company also has a large music […]

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A Look At The History Of Console Automation

Automation is the process of recording parameter adjustments so that your DAW software can automatically execute them during playback. Before automation, any mixing moves during a complex song had to be made by a combination of the engineer, the assistant, the producer, the band members, and anyone else who had their hands near the console. […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Apogee Clearmountain’s Spaces

Engineer Bob Clearmountain has always been one of the most clever mixers in the business, so much so that other mixers have tried to dissect exactly what he does on mixes for years. Bob pulled back the curtain on his techniques when he released the Clearmountain’s Domain plugin earlier this year. Now just the reverb […]

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TikTok And Kids, Mic Custom Shop, Gibson Sells Stanton, And Mixer/Producer David Cole On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is David Cole, who started his career as a staff engineer at the famous Capitol Studios in Hollywood, learned the lost art of vinyl disk mastering there, and worked his way up to staff producer at Capitol and MCA Records before going freelance. David’s had a lot of great studio experiences […]

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Trident Studios Stories From Ken Scott

I was interviewing Dewey Bunnell from the band America yesterday and in doing research, it dawned on me that my buddy Ken Scott had worked with them during his time at Trident Studios and we had documented it in his Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust autobiography. As I reread the chapter that contained info on […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Avantone Kick Sub-Frequency Bass Drum Microphone

One of the things that engineers have always struggled with was getting enough girth frequencies on the kick drum. This was eventually solved by Nashville engineer Russ Long, who mounted a common (at the time) Yamaha NS-10 woofer on a snare stand and used it as a microphone exclusively on the bass drum. The sound […]

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Charts Vs. Listeners, Studios Reopening, And CD Baby’s Kevin Breuner On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Kevin Breuner, who’s the SVP of Marketing for CD Baby, the host of their DIY Musician Podcast, and author of a host of helpful articles on the company’s DIY Musician blog. Kevin has spent over 20 years working in the music business, both as an artist and an industry professional. […]

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5 Techniques For Miking The Accordion

Accordion is a central instrument in zydeco, Cajun, and polka music, although it’s also found in indigenous music around the world. There are many different types and sizes of accordion, but the following techniques culled from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook cover them all. Just to show that all roads sometimes lead […]

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New Music Gear Monday: LiquidSonics Cinematic Rooms Atmos Reverb Plugin

When I first started to mix in 5.1 back in the early 90s, there were no tools available. We had to jury rig a multichannel monitor controller and panners, and linking outboard gear together was a real pain. Reverb was especially tough because even with identical units, we never could get the feeling of a […]

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Gaming Spotify, Touch-Sensitive Laptop, And Bassist Stu Hamm On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Stu Hamm, who’s one of the world’s premier bass players and clinicians. His unique and innovative two-handed tapping technique proves that even the bass can be a solo instrument in the hands of a virtuoso player. Stu has recorded and toured with a who’s who of guitar heros, including Steve […]

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A Guide To Disinfecting Your Microphones

We’re gradually all getting back to work, and while it’s great to be busy again, it also means that increased precautions against virus infection are necessary. A new level of studio cleansing is required and that especially includes microphones. DPA has some guidelines for disinfecting your microphones and accessories that I’ve paraphrased and excerpted here. […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Blue Cat Audio Re-Head Headphone Response Plugin

Once upon a time any thought of doing serious mixing on headphones would have been laughable, but we live in a different world now. With artists, engineers and producers constantly on the go and under deadline, having the luxury of mixing in the studio is now a luxury, and headphone mixing is a very real […]

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The First Socially-Distanced Concert, Slick Quarantine Band Videos, And Zack O’Malley Greenburg On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is My guest today is Zack O’Malley Greenburg, who’s a senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and author of four excellent music oriented business books.  His latest, A-List Angels, is how a band of actors, artists and athletes cashed in on the latest tech boom and changed the face […]

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