It’s very easy to get great piano sounds from either an electronic keyboard or virtual instrument these days, but I think everyone will agree that there’s nothing like playing, feeling, and hearing the real thing. The problem is weight and size, which keeps most players from putting one in their home studio. But what if […]
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I recently came across a post on Octiive regarding the top 5 Digital Audio Workstations for music producers in 2025 that got me thinking about how we evaluate what may be the most critical tool in our music creation toolbox. It’s critical because its central to our music, regardless of the genre we’re in, so […]
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In this week’s podcast episode, I speak with country music author and historian, and a member of the Western Music Hall Of Fame Don Cusic. Don is the author of over 30 books, including biographies of Roger Miller, Eddy Arnold, Gene Autry and Chet Atkins. He’s also written album liner notes for Dolly Parton, Willie […]
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Every major gear manufacturer makes an analog mixer these days and they come in all shapes and sizes. That said, most of them are created to fulfill multiple applications and most all contain microphone preamps. For a home studio with lots of hardware keyboards, these mixers have a lot of extraneous functions, like the mic […]
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In this week’s podcast episode, I speak with my good friend for many years, Engineer Dennis Moody. Dennis was my first guest way back on Episode #1, and he’s been on the podcast almost every year since. Dennis is unique in that he does live sound as well as studio recording, as he’s he’s engineered […]
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I come from the days when a keyboard player carried around an electric piano, a couple of synthesizers and maybe even an Hammond organ for gigs. Obviously the bigger the setup, the more time it took to set up and tear down, not to mention have the muscle needed to carry it all. Today’s keyboard […]
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We all remember the Spinal Tap movie and how much we all laughed, and almost cried, from some of the all-too-real scenes. One of the most famous is the “It goes to 11” scene (you can see it below) that actually ended up influencing certain guitar amp models by a number of manufacturers. In fact, […]
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In this week’s podcast episode, I speak with composer, orchestrator, and CEO of Budapest Scoring, Balint Sapszon. Trained at the prestigious Bartók Conservatory and Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary, Bálint holds a Master’s Degree in Composition, Jazz Arrangement, and Music Theory. In 2007 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study film scoring at the University of California Los Angeles, where […]
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One of the things that young producers sometimes overlook is vocals that aren’t tight enough. Unless vocalists sing together all time, they’re just not used to singing as closely as needed, and that even applies to a vocalist doing all the vocals themselves. As a result you have tracks that are slightly out of sync […]
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When I moved into my neighborhood 25 years ago, if I went for a walk in any direction I would eventually run into the sound of a band practicing away in a basement or garage. I always liked to stop and listen to the songs they were playing to hear if they’re were doing their […]
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In this week’s podcast episode, My guest today is is one of my oldest and dearest friends – Los Angeles studio bass player Paul ILL. I’ve known Paul for such a long time that I sometimes forget what a heavyweight musician he is, as he’s played with a wide variety of great artists both in the studio […]
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Every engineer and bass player knows how important a high quality direct box is, as a good one captures the low end of the instrument that a cheap unit simply can’t. There have been some great ones over the years, starting with the custom Dean Jensen models to the Radial JDI to a variety of […]
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Last year we were saddened to hear that the Sam Ash music store chain closed its doors after 99 years of operation. Brick and mortar retail is tough and getting tougher by the day as so many of us choose to buy our gear online, so the closing wasn’t entirely surprising. Still, those of us […]
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In this week’s podcast episode, my guest is musician, book and magazine publisher, and artist Mike Lawson, who also happens to be my book publishing champion. Mike was the person who took a chance on me to publish my first book, and then most of my subsequent 20+ books after that. He’s since gone on to […]
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For the longest time the headphone outs on most interfaces were weak and would usually distort as you got close the volume level that you needed. Most manufacturers are hip to this these days so you’ll generally find enough level if you need it, but that doesn’t mean they sound good. This is super important […]
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