Category Archives for "Production"
- in Engineering , Production , Video by Bobby Owsinski
Record Making With Duke Ellington
Here’s a priceless film from 1937 that shows Duke Ellington in the studio recording, and the process of making a vinyl record release afterwards. There’s a lot to notice in the video that will make you appreciate the recording process from back then. First of all, notice that the band is recorded on a single microphone. […]
Continue reading- in Music , Production by Bobby Owsinski
The Most And Least Metal Words
If you ever wondered if a word was “Metal enough” for a song lyric, there’s a study that evaluated the lyrics from 222,623 metal songs that can tell you. The data set included songs from 7,364 bands spread over 22,314 albums. The research was amazingly comprehensive, but it was done privately by a single data scientist for […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Production by Bobby Owsinski
The Producer/Engineer/Musician Checklist For Getting Paid
Your not a music professional if you haven’t been screwed out of money at least once. That’s par for the course and part of the learning process, but it obviously becomes a real problem if it continues to happen. Regardless of what end of the music business you work in, as an independent contractor it’s your […]
Continue readingEngineer Ed Cherney On Episode #120 Of My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Ed Cherney has become one of the legends of the audio end of the music business, having won 3 Grammys, an Emmy award, 5 TEC awards and been inducted into the TEC hall of fame. His client list is a who’s who of great artists that include Bonnie Riatt, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bob […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Hardware , New Music Gear Monday , Production by Bobby Owsinski
New Music Gear Monday: Dangerous Music 2-BUS+ Summing Mixer
When it comes to outboard summing mixers, there are two distinct camps. There are the mixers who claim that a summing mixer is essential to giving their in-the-box mix that analog console sound, and there are those that claim they can do just as well without one. That said, more mixers that fall into the later camp would find a […]
Continue reading4 Ways Music Production Has Changed
Although it may not be entirely obvious if you’re not listening carefully, music production has changed immensely from the early days of 16 and 24 track recording until now (hits made before multitrack recording were even more different by virtue of the limited tracks available). Here are some observations on how the production of today […]
Continue reading- in Engineering , Microphones , Production , Recording by Bobby Owsinski
4 Surround Sound Miking Techniques Perfect For Virtual Reality
With virtual reality becoming more and more popular, surround sound is making a comeback. While most of the concentration on the audio side of things is on mixing, the fact of the matter is that there’s a lot of interesting information that can be captured during recording. Here’s an excerpt from my Recording Engineer’s Handbook […]
Continue reading4 Ways Classic Songs Are Different From Today
Usually you’ll find an isolated post or song analysis here on a Friday, but after a number of years of doing that and really taking a close look at many of the classic songs that we all grew up hearing, I thought that an overall analysis would be worthwhile. The 60s and 70s were a […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Production by Bobby Owsinski
Resolving A Conflict In The Studio
It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen during some point in the project. There’s going to be a strong disagreement between two of the parties involved, and the producer is going to have to diplomatically sort it out. Even worse, the conflict can come between the artist and the producer, which requires a deft hand […]
Continue reading- in Isolated Track , Production , Video by Bobby Owsinski
David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust” Isolated Vocal
Here’s a real treat. It’s the isolated vocal track from the title track of David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardust album and it features not only David’s excellent vocal skills, but producer/engineer’s Ken Scott’s impeccable production as well. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, I co-wrote Ken’s autobiography Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust […]
Continue reading- in Isolated Track , Production , Video by Bobby Owsinski
Lorde “Royals” Isolated Vocals
When Lorde broke on the scene in 2013 with “Royals” the song was met with positive critical acclaim and the singer immediately built a huge fan base that embraced her minimalist sound. That sound is somewhat deceiving though, because even though the backing track doesn’t contain many elements, Lorde’s vocals are far more complex than […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Production by Bobby Owsinski
The Costs Of Hiring A Mixer
An ever-important aspect of production is mixing, which can make or break a song. A brilliant mix can put an otherwise average production over the top, while a mediocre mix can bring down a brilliant production (although sometimes the song itself is so brilliant that nothing can detract from it). If you’re not an engineer yourself, […]
Continue readingChicago “25 Or 6 To 4” Production Analysis
The band Chicago has become one of the most long-lived American bands after starting in 1967, and still going strong almost 50 years later. Over the course of its history, the band has sold more than 100 million records, with 21 Top 10 singles, 11 number one singles, and 25 platinum albums. In fact, Chicago […]
Continue readingAnother Iconic New York City Studio To Close
Big studio facilities in large cities are very difficult to maintain, considering that real estate prices have skyrocketed and studio prices have plateaued in recent years. That’s why it’s no surprise that another of iconic New York City studio is about to close its doors. Manhattan Sound Recording (or MSR as it’s known) is shutting […]
Continue reading- in Gear , Production , Software by Bobby Owsinski
My 10 Go-To Plugins
I often get asked what plugins I regularly use, and even though I like to think that I’m pretty open minded about it, there are some that I keep coming back to. Here are my 10 go-to plugins, with a number of honorable mentions, in no particular order (even though they’re numbered). 1. Universal Audio 1176 […]
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