New Music Gear Monday: Universal Audio LUNA Recording System

Perhaps the biggest buzz around the Winter NAMM show in years was the launch of Universal Audio’s LUNA, the company’s new recording environment. There’s been speculation for years that UA could give Avid a run for its money should it ever release it’s own DAW, and while LUNA may not be the Pro Tools killer […]

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Streaming Slows, 13 Musical Emotions, And Engineer Dennis Moody On The 300th Episode Of My Inner Circle Podcast

Yes, it’s podcast #300! I never dreamed that it would go this long yet here we are, and it’s all thanks to listeners like you. I’ve said this many times and I really mean it – THANK YOU KINDLY for your support! My guest on the 300th podcast this week is Dennis Moody who’s the engineer of choice for […]

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A Guide To Alternate Mixes

Until most engineers joined the DAW revolution, alternate mixes were a way of life for the mixer to cover himself in case a change in the mix was deemed necessary at a later time. Renting the studio and then setting up an analog console and all of the outboard gear just to raise the vocal […]

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The Revolutionary Audio Chip Inside All Your Pedals

Something that I wasn’t aware of until recently is that most spatial effects guitar pedals are built around the same DSP chip. That’s not unusual in itself since so many audio devices are built around basically the same chip sets, but the source of this particular one, called the FV-1, is a surprise. The FV-1 […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Tonelux JC37 Microphone

One of the most revered vintage microphones that you hardly ever see cloned is the Sony C37a. It’s a tube mic that sounds distinctly different from those offered by Neumann and AKG at the time, especially in the midrange, but because of the unique construction of its mechanical assembly behind the capsule, not many current […]

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Music And Audio Companies Recently Acquired And Radial’s Jay Porter On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Jay Porter, who worked as both a live and studio engineer before entering the world of audio manufacturing.  Over the past 10 years while working with Primacoustic, Jay has assisted with acoustic treatment layouts for every type of venue from the home recording studio to the mega church to rooms […]

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Your Car As A Musical Instrument? Harmon Thinks So

We spend so much time in our cars and most of it is in a passive state – aware of the road yet in an entertainment consumption mode that’s forced upon us. What would happen if you could get more creative with that time? Harmon (parent company to JBL, among other audio companies) thinks that’s […]

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15 Steps To A Better Mix

Mixing is a nebulous art in that most musicians and engineers learn more by feel and listening than by being taught. As a result, a number of important items in a mix can be easily overlooked, and these can mean the difference between a mix that sounds polished and professional and one that sounds amateurish.  […]

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Inside The Abbey Road Echo Chambers

Abbey Road Studios is noted for a lot of things but one that stands out is the sound of their dedicated echo chambers. Real-life live chambers are really rare these days thanks to sky-high real estate prices and inexpensive digital alternatives, but back in the day every large studio had its own. Abbey Road had […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Korneff Pawn Shop Comp Plugin

There are so many compressor plugins available that I almost feel hesitant to feature another one. The Korneff Pawn Shop comp is different in both look and features though, and that makes it a unique new entry in that category. The Pawn Shop Comp is made to be a color machine, as it emulates what […]

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The Sharpsichord – It’s Bizarre But It Works

I love extreme or little-known instruments, as you’ve seen from many past posts, and one that fits into both categories is the Sharpsichord. It’s an automatic acoustic harp created by instrument creator Henry Dagg on a grant from the English Folk Dance and Song Society. It was originally designed as an interactive sound-sculpture for the […]

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2020 Audio Production And Music Business Predictions On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

No guest on the podcast this week as I take a look at what might be in store for us 2020. It’s short and sweet and will get you thinking. Some of the things I’ll look at include: The plugin evolution that’s coming USB 4 Artificial intelligence-based products Immersive audio Digital patchbays Pro Tools’ dominance Gear getting […]

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Amazon’s DeepComposer Marks The Beginning Of The Robots Taking Over Music

Nothing like starting the new year on a positive note : ) Amazon recently announced a new initiative to bring machine learning to a wider audience of users, and one way is with something that it’s calling AWS DeepComposer, “the world’s first machine learning-enabled musical keyboard for developers.” DeepComposer basically consists of a keyboard that […]

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Have A Great 2020!

We go into every new year with so much hope that it will be better than the last. Even more so at the beginning of a decade like today. Here’s to a great 2020 and many more like it. I truly appreciate your support of my blogs, podcast, books, courses, and general ramblings. You give […]

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My 5 Favorite Pieces Of Audio Hardware From 2019

I looked back over the products featured on New Music Gear Monday’s for the last year and discovered that, not surprisingly, most of them were software apps. We all love new plugins and I looked at some of my favorites last week. That said, there were a number of very cool pieces of audio hardware […]

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