The biggest thing that every musician and engineer lives in fear of is losing one’s hearing. To make matters worse, it happens naturally to all of us as we grow older, although its gradually enough that we can unconsciously compensate. That said, all it takes is a loud concert, or a sudden loud feedback, or cymbals in […]
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One of the hardest things for many mixers to determine is when a mix is finished. In fact, engineers new to mixing may think a mix is ready in an hour, but a pro will usually take considerably longer. How much longer? Well, some big hit maker mixers that I know may spend up to 16 hours […]
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Michael Carey started his career as a guitar player, but soon found his way into writing music for commercials. His credits there include Toyota, Ford, Sonic, Coke, Papa Johns, NASCAR, Exxon, and Outback Steakhouse among others, as well as on-air promo packages for CBS, NBC and TBS. Michael missed album work though, as has since […]
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So much of today’s music was influenced one way or another by Funk music of the 60s and 70s. Of course, James Brown could be credited as the inventor of Funk, but the man behind the feel was drummer Clyde Stubblefield, who passed away last week at age 73. He was the backbeat behind such […]
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A guitar amp load box lowers the volume to, or even eliminates, the speaker cabinet so you can crank up your favorite amp without tearing the walls down with SPL. I go way back when it comes to guitar amp load boxes, even building my own before there was one on the market. I then […]
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Usually less is more, and that’s what you’ll find in today’s isolated track. Greg Rollie is a great Hammond player and his performance on Journey’s big hit “Any Way You Want It” shows why. There’s feel, tone and dynamics – all the things that lifts the level a performance. Here’s what to listen for. 1. The organ […]
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About 3 years ago I posted about my top 10 compressors, but things have changed a lot since then, so I thought it was time to post an updated list. Many of the entries haven’t changed, but a few have (especially on the software side). This list is a combination of hardware and software, since most […]
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When it comes to EQing, there are certain frequencies that seem predominant for every instrument. Many call them the magic frequencies, because they do tend to work most of the time. Here’s a chart of those frequencies from the latest edition of my Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. Remember that using the magic frequencies might make an […]
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David Bock is the founder of Soundelux Microphones and Bock Audio and there are few people as obsessed or knowledgeable about microphones as he is. His mics exude quality, not only in the way they sound but in the build quality. Put one up against a cheap Chinese clone and it becomes obvious very quickly. […]
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We’ve been hearing about vinyl record manufacturing coming into the future for some time, and here’s another example. Some Canadian design engineers who usually put their R&D talents into things like MRI machines went to work on the vinyl record press. They made some huge improvements and came up with the Warm Tone vinyl record […]
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How many times has it happened where you have a great mix going, but it just needs something a little extra to bring it all together? Of course, there are now a lot of plugins available to add some “glue” to your mix, but they usually bring just one sound to the party. The Black Box […]
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Toto is a band of musician’s musicians, with a precision about their work that’s almost unrivaled. Of course that comes from years of top studio work before the band formed, something that can clearly be heard in Steve Lukather’s isolated guitar part on their hit “Rosanna.” Here’s what to listen for. 1. The precision of […]
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European private equity group Astorg announced the purchase of Audiotonix, the parent company of Allen & Heath, Calrec, Digico and Digigrid, from investor group Epris. The purchase price was reportedly $254 million. Epris (formerly known as Electra Partners) acquired Allen & Heath in 2013, then acquired Calrec in 2014 and merged the companies with DiGiCo to create […]
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Perhaps the greatest detriment to a session running smoothly is the inability for players to hear themselves comfortably in the headphones. This is one reason why veteran engineers spend so much time and attention on the cue mix and the phones themselves. In fact, a sure sign of an inexperienced engineer is treating the headphone […]
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Richard Gibbs has composed the music for over 60 films as well as some great television shows like The Simpsons and Battlestar Galactica. He’s a good friend and a great story teller, so it was time to have him back on the podcast (he was on Episode #38 a couple of years ago). In Part […]
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