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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The Class D Amplifier Module That Literally Changed The World

Over the past 15 years or so, power amplifiers have gotten increasingly more powerful and lighter thanks to the now widespread use of what’s known as Class D design. What most people don’t know is that it was all due to a single engineer at Philips who created the first inexpensive class D amplifier module […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Slate Digital Submerge Auto Sidechain Compression Plugin

Whenever someone asks me about sidechaining I usually describe it as a bandaid for when you need track separation but nothing else works, the idea that good mixing fundamentals will overcome the need to use it. That may be true for some types of music, but in genres like hip-hop and EDM, the sidechain is […]

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Make The 3 P’s Part Of Your Next Vocal Recording

My good buddy and fantastic engineer/producer Ed Seay has a saying that I’ve used in a number of books about the 3 P’s or “Pitch, Passion and Pocket.” That refers to the 3 things that every great vocal must have, although you can apply it to other musical performances as well. Ed is not only one of […]

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New Music Gear Monday: Roland Space Echo RE-201 Plugin

Those of us who grew up with the original tape echo machines know how deeply their sound is imprinted on your brain. It’s a sound that you always tried to duplicate with modern hardware and plugin delays but could never quite get there. One of the reasons is that most try to improve on the […]

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The Legendary Record Plant Hollywood To Close

We live in pretty sad times when there’s not enough work to sustain the major recording studios that helped supply the sound of hits for generations, but that’s where we are. Last year it was the famed United Studios in Hollywood and before that it was Capitol Studios (although some say it may be reopened […]

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11 Things To Think About When Recording Background Vocals

Recording background vocals is a distinctly different process from recording solo vocals because of how they will eventually fit in the mix. That requires a different technique for both recording and production in order to get the best result. Here are 11 background vocal-related points lifted from the 5th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook […]

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New Music Gear Monday: HoRNet HarmoniQ Inharmonic Equalizer Plugin

We all have tons of equalizer plugins, most of which never get much use. That’s because most EQs work using an analog model, which isn’t bad since it’s worked well for engineers for about 70 years now, but in essence they’re all pretty much the same thing. Now we’re finally seeing a new generation of […]

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