New Music Gear Monday: Brainworx bx_glue Buss Compressor Plugin

I can remember a time when we never even considered putting a compressor on the mix buss except for a quick check of how a mix might sound on the radio, but those days passed as soon as SSL introduced its famed mix buss compressor on its consoles. Today it’s a given that you’ll use […]

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The End Of An Era As Finale Notation Software Is Discontinued

When I first came to Los Angeles I worked for an audio dealer who represented a computer notation device call the McClayvier. Music copying was all done manually in those days, and there were 3 and 4 story buildings on the film studio lots just filled with people copying music all day. Being able to […]

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Neural DSP Founders Doug Castro And Francisco Cresp On My Latest Podcast

In this week’s podcast episode, I sit down with the co-founders of Neural DSP, Doug Castro and Francisco Cresp.  For those who aren’t aware, Neural DSP manufactures the highly regarded Quad Cortex amplifier modeler as well as a line of modeling plugins. Even though Neural DSP is located in Finland, both Doug and Francisco are […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Shure SM4 Home Studio Microphone

It’s not uncommon for musicians with home studios to record everything with a single cardioid microphone. That can lead to a frequency buildup that must be tamed in order to keep the mix from sounding muddy. It appears that Shure has recognized this and has designed its new SM4 microphone to help counter that problem. […]

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Will Other Manufacturer’s Follow Fender’s Certified Pre-Owned Gear?

You’re probably not a musician if you don’t know the joys and sorrows of buying second-hand gear. We’ve all come across some favorite instruments, amps and audio gear as well as our fair share of dogs on the used market. Of course, buying used gear happens a lot more when you’re younger, don’t have much […]

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Remastering David Bowie’s Most Iconic Albums in Dolby Atmos | Ken Scott & Emre Ramazanoglu

In this week’s podcast episode, I sit down with two guests who have done the most amazing work on some of David Bowie’s most beloved albums, Ken Scott and Emre Ramazanoglu. Ken is a legendary producer and audio engineer (who also appeared on Episodes 461 and 462), who aside from being one of the five […]

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New Music Gear Monday: KIT Plugins BB F66/67 Fairchild Compressor Emulation

There are plenty of software emulations of some of the most widely-used hardware compressors, like the 1176, LA-2A and dbx 160. It seems like a new version of one of these comes out every week. What we don’t see many of are emulations of the Fairchild 660/670, mostly because the hardware is so rare, and […]

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Surprise! The Most Popular DAW Is. . .

Almost every DAW available these days is a good one so it’s difficult to make a bad choice. They now all pretty much have the same features, but the big difference is in the price and user interface. Sometimes because of the forums or groups that we hang out in we might get a perception […]

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Alexandra Fierra And Her Demon Box On My Latest Podcast

The world of music is constantly evolving with new inventions and instruments thanks to the innovative minds of people like my guest on my latest podcast episode, Alexandra Fierra. Her creation, the Demon Box, is almost indescribable. The device utilizes electromagnetic fields (EMF) to create and manipulate sounds from everyday electronic devices. She found inspiration […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Zoom HR1 XLR Portable 2 Track Recorder

Every musician needs a portable digital recorder for recording gigs, rehearsals, and capturing ideas, but in most cases the ones available have more features than than are needed most of the time. Let’s face it, having the ability to record more than stereo and having microphones leads to a large device, when all you might […]

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The Producer’s Guide To A Great Vocal Performance

The voice is just as much of an instrument as any other in the band. That means that it must be looked after the same way before and during a session to ensure that the singer provides their best vocal performance. While vocalists that have lots of studio experience know this already, they often concentrate […]

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Session Drummer Ray LeVier On My Latest Podcast

My guest on my latest podcast episode is drummer Ray LeVier, who’s extensive career spans live performances, teaching, and composing for top TV networks like TLC, Discovery, FOX Sports and others. In addition to his performance career, Ray is a dedicated teacher and clinician for manufacturers like Yamaha, Paiste, and Evans. Despite a devastating fire […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Softube Flow Mastering Suite Plugin

Over the last couple of years we’ve seen the introduction of a wide range of mastering plugins that, for the most part, take one of three approaches. Some have emulated famous mastering engineer setups, some have duplicated noted mastering hardware, and some have featured completely outside the box thinking. Softube’s Flow mastering plugin falls in […]

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What Is The Most Difficult Piece Of Music To Play?

What is difficult? Is a piece of music difficult because it’s hard to play or because of its conceptual virtuosity? Bassist Adam Neely took on the challenge to try to define what is “the most difficult piece of music,” and tries to explain what it means, and provide some examples. It turns out it all […]

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New Music Gear Monday: FireSonics FireSpacer De-Masking Plugin

One of the main engineering tasks during mixing is making sure that you can hear every track element clearly. There are mixing techniques to overcome when one track masks another, but they can be tedious and take up a lot of time. What if there was a plugin that could do the de-masking for you? […]

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