Al Schmitt Talks Recording

After 23 Grammy’s for Best Engineering (more than any other engineer) and work on over 150 gold and platinum records, a #1 book on Amazon, and even his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Al Schmitt needs no introduction to anyone even remotely familiar with the recording industry. Indeed, his credit list is […]

Continue reading

Trevor Horn Talks Production

Trevor Horn is one of the most successful and innovative producers ever, with credits that include Yes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, Seal, and many more. What’s not often known about him is how cutting edge and quietly groundbreaking his production techniques have been. In the following video you’ll hear how Trevor made his […]

Continue reading

New Music Gear Monday: Audient Nero Desktop Monitor Controller

Let’s face it, if you have a home studio then you probably need some sort of monitor controller. There are plenty out there to choose from, but very few emulate the features or layout that a big analog or digital desk provides. Audient makes some of those large consoles and the company knows what needs […]

Continue reading

Microphone Builder Dave Pearlman On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Dave Pearlman, who after years as a touring pedal steel guitarist with everyone from Dan Fogelberg and Phil Everly to Pat Boone and Bobby Womack, opened his Rotund Rascal Studio in North Hollywood in 1979.  To save money on outside techs, Dave began to do repairs and modifications on classic […]

Continue reading

Here’s Where Your Vocal Tone Comes From

It’s amazing how different each person’s voice can be from another, but also equally amazing how similar two people’s voices can be to each other. When recording a singer, it helps to know how his or her vocal tone is actually being produced in order to capture it more accurately. This great article by Jamie […]

Continue reading

Studio Etiquette Tips For When The Session Ends

I’ve covered studio etiquette rules here in the past, but they were primarily for when a session was in progress. When the session, or your part in it, is completed, the etiquette doesn’t stop though, as this excerpt from The Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with ace studio bass player Paul ILL) illustrates. It’s perfectly natural […]

Continue reading

Avid Finances Looking Strong

A lot of people have been pretty down on Avid from time to time (myself included), but the company is still strong, and it’s growing. In its most recent earnings call, Avid announced a first quarter 2019 revenue of $103.3 million which is a second consecutive quarter of 5 percent year-over-year growth. The company also […]

Continue reading

New Music Gear Monday: Gamechanger Audio Motor Synth

I don’t usually post about musical instruments unless there’s something that I consider groundbreaking or very unusual, and I think that this week’s featured gear piece qualifies for at least one of these (not sure which). It’s something called the Motor Synth, which its manufacturer, Gamechanger Audio, claims is the world’s first electro-mechanical synthesizer. Electro-mechanical, […]

Continue reading

The Most Musical Cities, Netflix Audio Upgrade, And Music Technologist David Frangioni On The Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is David Frangioni, who started his music career as a drummer, but soon became a pioneer in MIDI technology. This led him into the studio as an engineer and producer for dozens of top artists including The Stones, Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Elton John, Sting, Carl Palmer, Journey, Styx, KISS, […]

Continue reading

A Look Inside “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” With Trevor Horn

Trevor Horn is one of the most successful and respected producers ever, and he has a long list of big credits to prove it like Yes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Seal, and many more. That said, Horn rates “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” from Yes’s 1983 release 90215 as technically his best work. In the […]

Continue reading

The Theremin Before Sci-Fi

We all know what a theremin sounds like, and we’ve heard it on dozens of sci-fi movie and TV show soundtracks, but not many of us are aware of the history of the instrument. The theremin was actually enjoyed by audiences well before it was used in scary movies. RCA Victor produced the first commercial […]

Continue reading

New Music Gear Monday: PreSonus StudioLive 64S Digital Mixer And Interface

PreSonus has been making some great digital mixers for a long time now (I have one in a rehearsal studio), and they keep on finding ways to make the StudioLive series better – not just in small steps but in leaps and bounds. The company’s latest StudioLive 64S takes the product series to the next […]

Continue reading

Grammy Audio Co-Ordinator Michael Abbott On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Michael Abbott, who started in television audio doing front-of-house sound for projects like the Olympics ceremonies and the Academy Awards, to working for the major television networks as a staff mixer on a variety of shows. Michael now heads the sound design, engineering and consulting company All Ears, where he […]

Continue reading

Steve Albini Shows Us His Junk

Engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, The Pixies, Bush and tons more credits) is often asked for his opinions on the music business and his honest straight-talk approach can sometimes come off as a little jaded and some say even a tad grumpy. Get him around his Electrical Audio studio talking gear however, and he becomes as […]

Continue reading

The 2 Arrangement Rules That Every Producer And Mixer Should Know

One of the first things a producer does during preproduction is to dig deep into the songs to check out the arrangements and the song structure. Even if a song is written well and has catchy hooks, the arrangement is what really makes it cook. How you arrange the song is the key to how […]

Continue reading