Category Archives for "Production"
- in Production by Bobby Owsinski
Your Studio Lifestyle May Be Killing You – Here’s How To Stop It From Happening Fast
It’s probably fair to say that the studio lifestyle isn’t exactly healthy. We start in the business working long hours, then feel that we’re not working hard enough later in our career if we’re still not working like a maniac. That can lead to all sorts of health problems, as there’s so little time left […]
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Ken Scott’s Inside Look At Recording The Beatles White Album
The post last week from the Ken Scott bio Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust was so popular that I thought I’d do it again. Since we’re now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles White Album, here’s an excerpt from the book describing those sessions. I must admit that I enjoyed reading […]
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The History Of Electric Guitar Distortion
Ah, guitar distortion. It seems like we can’t get enough of it. From the very first time it appeared on records in the 50s, we’ve been hooked. I’ve posed a little about the history of guitar distortion in the past, but the video below takes the history back even further to Bob Willis and his […]
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Producer Mark Ronson On How Sampling Changed Music
I never had an opinion about mega-producer Mark Ronson either way. Sure, I’d admired his work with Adele, Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars (just to name a few), but I had never seen him speak much until this TED talk below about how sampling changed music. I must admit that he opened my eyes to […]
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Producer Ken Scott On Working With Early David Bowie
Recently I went back and began to read some of the Ken Scott biography Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust that I was lucky enough to co-write. It’s a great book (if I do say so myself) with some wonderful stories about Ken working with some of the legends of music business. One of my favorites […]
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Here’s How Michael Jackson Constructed His First Solo Hit
When Michael Jackson left his brothers and went solo, it didn’t take long for him to establish himself as a solo hitmaker. His first release “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” was an instant worldwide hit and continues to be popular almost 40 years later. Most listeners just take a song for granted but not […]
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Want Your Band To Play Tight? Concentrate On These 10 Things
A lot of bands are naturally good because of the caliber of the musicians. Their innate talent causes them to automatically do some things that are important to band tightness, but many of the rest of us sometimes wonder why our band doesn’t seem as tight as it should be, either across all songs or […]
Continue reading- in Acoustics , Production by Bobby Owsinski
440Hz Vs. 432Hz Tuning Standard Comparison – Again
Every few years musical conspiracy theorists push forth a new iteration of how our A = 440Hz tuning standard was actually meant to be 432Hz instead. I’ve written about this in the past, but every so often a new video comparison shows up that makes it worth at least looking at and listening to. Just […]
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Eric Clapton “Layla” Isolated Guitar And Vocal Tracks
We haven’t done an isolated track for a long time, but I thought that this one would be good to get us back in the swing of things. It’s the isolated lead vocal and lead guitar tracks from Derek And The Domino’s (Eric Clapton) classic hit “Layla.” On it you’ll hear snippets of the 6 […]
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How To Avoid “Big Mono” During Recording
We all love big wide stereo soundfields, especially the ones that come from the stereo output of an electronic keyboard. If you pan too many elements hard left and hard right however, you end up with “Big Mono,” which is a term that my friend Ed Seay likes to use. That means that you actually […]
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Is Today’s Pop Music That Bad? This Video Thinks So
We hear it all the time. “Why is music so bad today?” I’m not so sure it is actually. If you’re past 30, your musical tastes are pretty much set in stone, so it gets more difficult to accept new music with each passing year. That doesn’t mean what’s new is better or worse than […]
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Another Roland Sound Is Big In Hip Hop, But It’s Not From An 808
You just never know what will be hot someday. Artists and labels have been dealing with this for years as a song that’s a throwaway at the time of recording becomes a big unexpected hit later. You can just never tell. No one could have predicted the influence that the Roland TR-808 would have in […]
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The Genius Of One-Chord Hits
I’m a big fan of one chord songs. You might think that I’m crazy but hear me out. Having a hit with a song revolving around a single chord means that the arrangement and production are so good that the listener overlooks the fact that there’s not much chordal movement in the song. That’s not […]
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Here’s What Makes A Song A Hit
Every artist, band, songwriter, producer and label has the same question. What makes a song a hit? People who can predict hits have been handsomely paid by the industry for decades, but that quality is elusive and fleeting even for the best of them. Now 2 college researchers have analyzed 60 years of #1 hits […]
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The Fix It Before You Mix It Checklist
Preparing for the mix can be as critical as the mix itself, since it allows for a more comfortable and efficient mixing session that minimizes mistakes and hassles. This prep occurs before the first fader is raised but sets the stage for an easier and mistake-free mix by having the files properly labeled and all […]
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